Timing is everything. Brands and businesses worldwide were quick to cash in on the Pokemon Go launch mania. Businesses jumped in with all kinds of promotions and offers as millions of people took to the streets hunting Pokemon on their mobile phones (I did too). For the most part, the promotional tactics for customer engagement by businesses can be categorized as:

1. The lucky ones – some businesses were just plain lucky that their locations became part of the predefined Pokestops (where players come to collect virtual goodies) or Gyms (where players pit their Pokemons in battle). If you could handle the additional but distracted foot traffic, then you have the games inherent features working to your advantage. You can set up Lures for a few dollars and can make your location a hot bed of Pokemons to catch, or you could create specific promotions around the Pokemon battles if you are a gym. The possibilities for creating awesome customer engagement are endless and all that’s left is to tie these events to products and services.
2. The not-so-lucky ones – Then we have the unlucky ones who got left out from the initial list of locations for Pokestops and Gyms. (these locations were pulled from another game and imported into Pokemon Go). These businesses who did not fall in a designated Pokestop or Gym area are relegated to running promotions the old way and hoping to catch some of the glitter associated with the hot new game. For example, Uber launched a promotion where you get free Uber rides if you catch a certain number of Pokemons in a given time. Other retailers launched similar promotions and invested in Lures at Pokestops nearby to try to get foot traffic in, and to get some brand recognition going. Still others launched offers where gamers can post pictures of Pokemon captured in their locations, while others launched Pokecrawls with series of stops to enjoy discounted drinks, catch Pokemons and meet other people. However, all said and done these customer engagement efforts didn’t really need to leverage Pokemon Go specifically. The only reason to do so was the novelty of it all. And that’s going to fade after a while.

As the novelty of the game wears off, what can the second category of businesses do to tap into this and other such developments sure to come up in the future? While its important for these brands to find a way to drive customer engagement, it’s also effort probably well spent. Thinking about this problem will help them become readier to tap into the next such launch, and perhaps create recurring events to celebrate what gamers – their customers – love. Moreover, the issues of the predetermined locations were specific to Pokemon Go so they will not always be hurdles. In the mobile and social world, its probably good to come up the hard way.

Image courtesy: https://pixabay.com/en/pokemon-pokemon-go-pikachu-pokeball-1555036/