By now, it’s common knowledge that small businesses, particularly retailers near so-called “PokéStops,” can use mobile game phenomenon Pokémon Go to increase foot traffic – but now Slant Marketing has the numbers to prove it.
The Chicago-based promotional agency, which prides itself on incorporating the latest technology into its work, recently surveyed 500 Pokémon Go players to identify how the game changed their interactions with local businesses.
The results, while less than surprising for the Pokémon Go experts who write for ITBusiness.ca, serve as excellent news for the many business owners purchasing Lures for their establishments. For example:
- 71 per cent of players reported visiting a business simply because there were PokéStops or Gyms nearby;
- Among the players who admitted to being directly “lured” to a business, almost half stayed for at least 30 minutes;
- 51 per cent of players reported visiting a business for the first time because of Pokémon Go;
- 56 per cent of players preferred visiting local businesses while playing over national chains.
Best of all, as Slant staff pointed out in an Aug. 9 blog post, Pokémon Go’s largest demographic is millennials, with the average player surveyed 29 years old.
“Flush with disposable income, millennials are a notoriously hard target for advertisers due to their jaded views of typical marketing techniques,” Slant’s staff wrote. “Pokémon Go gets around this by attracting potential customers without them even knowing they’re being marketed to.”
Indeed, the survey found that only 36 per cent of players believed they were being intentionally lured by businesses (though only 17 per cent believed they weren’t being intentionally lured, and 47 per cent weren’t sure).
So while developer Niantic has yet to officially implement Pokémon Go’s much-requested (and promised) “sponsored locations” feature, it’s good to know the audience will be ready for it when it arrives.
Check out the infographic summarizing the rest of Slant’s research below (click for a larger version).
