British Destinations

Using Pokemon Go as a marketing tool

Posted on August 11, 2016 Updated on August 11, 2016

Over the last month there has been a number of press report some of them on the negative impacts of the augmented reality game Pokemon Go.  Today one of these prompted us to highlight to the UK Beach Management Forum some useful UK Marine Management Organisation guidance of seal watching, itself prompted by Pokemon Go players disturbing seals on St Mary’s Island in their efforts to capture “Seels” in the virtual world of Pokemon Go.  That update may also be of some interest to coastal destination managers (available here) but  far more interesting is the potential to use Pokemon Go as a marketing tool to help drive people to come to,  rather than stay away from a particular destination or a specific location within it.

Over the last month or so Pokemon Go has increasingly been discussed as an individual local business promotional tool. That’s prompt us to investigation its potential for destination event, destination day trip and conceivable destination staying promotional activities. If you google “Pokemon Go marketing tool” there are several really interesting and informative (mainly US based) articles on the game itself and individual business promotional usage, some of which you may wish to pass to your local business partners.  But we can’t find (doesn’t mean its no there) anything significant yet on a more holistic destination marketing approaches.

Consequently we are now working with one destination to trial a few ideas, but if there is anyone else out there doing anything on these lines then please let us know so we can pool experiences.  Equally let us not forget the down side, if you have had experience of problems, dangerous practices etc. then please also let us know about these too.

Yes it’s a “craze” but it’s also a massive one that at the very least has some months to run and, given who’s behind, it real potential to grow and continue for some considerable while yet.  Yes it also attracts a lot younger children and teenagers, but accompanied by adults or not they are still a potential valuable customer base.  Critically it is also surprisingly popular with young and older adults and it has very strong international as well as a domestic following, so there may well be some real mileage in this from a destination prospective.

We will let you know what more we find out in due course.