Promoting Local Establishments with Go

A few days ago, I raided a Gym (needless to say, in Pokémon Go) that was close to another Gym that was unique: the Gym is for a mom-and-pop library that offered picture books, comics, and so on for checking out and reading. The Gym description itself, accessible through its Photo Disc, even had the complete address of the library, which allowed me to pinpoint its actual location. However, when I was able to do so, I found that the library no longer existed, being replaced by a motorcycle rental establishment. Even so, this left a bit of an impression on me and got me to think about how other establishments (businesses, shops, and so on) could be promoted with the help of the game.

I've mentioned how this could be done in an older post about hard-to-reach PokéStops and Gyms, where establishments could simply promote existing PokéStops and Gyms around them. It's something that has been done in the past by several establishments, and it's something that's still doable today. While a PokéStop is attractive, a Gym is even more so today thanks to raids, and an establishment could take advantage of this by manning someone to watch a Gym for raids, in particular of higher levels, to inform other people that a raid is occurring and invite them to come. Once they come, they can be given promotions and other similar things to allow them to stay during the raid and to come back later on. This is simple and effective for those who play.

An establishment could also perhaps take things to the next level. It has often been conjectured that it may (soon) be possible to request for new PokéStops and Gyms, perhaps by providing enough evidence. And yet, the case is that new PokéStops and Gyms can and do appear every so often - a new PokéStop appeared recently in my area, while another got "upgraded" to a Gym, becoming a new hot spot for my raid group. Should this process come to be, it may just be possible to leverage this to help local establishments as well, no matter how things eventually turn out.

But what if an establishment decides to move out, or even close altogether, as in the case of that library? It would certainly be fine to report that the PokéStop or Gym be removed, but perhaps the effort would be just as great as having them appear in the first place. Instead, it would be trivial to just leave them be and consider them "digital memorials". Establishments that cease to exist in one place may still provide info on what happened, though ideally it would help also to inform players that things are no longer what they are. At least the players may still sense the connection.

Go is all about real places in a virtual setting, and those real places will inevitably involve establishments that people pass and stop by on a daily basis. So there seems to be nothing wrong about promoting them to those that still play the game, and in fact it may make them more attractive in their eyes. That's certainly what that Gym did the other day, even if it no longer exists. I would think the same would be true for other establishments that can further integrate the fantasy of Go with the reality of life.

One year ago: Four Notions