It’s pretty obvious how Pokemon Go has taken over not only the virtual world, but the real one, too. At least for the time being.

But how to monetise – that’s the billion dollar question.

In the future, the developer of the popular AR game may be accepting sponsored partnerships to make certain locations seem more prominent.

Already, some business have been lucky enough to have PokéStops at their location, popping up when players need to get more goodies for their backpacks – and bagging even more customers when someone decides to add a Lure to attract more Pokemon.

In fact, for just R100, you can get people coming to your store for four hours.

Like these guys, according to Washington Post:

A pizzeria in Brooklyn used this tactic to draw in more customers and saw business jump by 75 percent, according to the New York Post. Washington’s own Politics and Prose bookshop put down lures to draw players Tuesday evening, said Jon Purves, the store’s director of marketing and publicity. The store itself is a gym — a place in the game where players can battle for dominance — and a mural on the store’s wall is also a dedicated PokéStop.

Catherine Kruta found out that her family’s bakery in Collinsville, Ill., was a PokéStop when she downloaded the game and started playing for herself.

Kruta Bakery started making Poké Ball cookies to cater to the extra customers coming to the shop. The bakery made four dozen on the first day and sold them all within three hours — very unusual, Kruta said, for decorated cookies. The next day, they made 10 dozen and sold out again. On Thursday, Kruta was just finishing up a batch of 30 dozen.

While Niantic, the Pokemon Go holding company, has yet to give any solid comment on how they will accept sponsors in the future, analysts are basing their prediction on Ingress, the game which the data for Pokemon Go’s PokeStops and Gyms is based on.

Ingress has also tried other tie-ins, which Niantic may use as a template for other promotions. For example, it worked with Vodafone in Germany to develop a special plan just for the data-heavy game. That’s a clear example of how a company can benefit from embracing the culture of the game audience it’s trying to reach. Businesses looking to capitalize on Pokémon Go have plenty to draw from to signal they’re in the know — they could hand out gym badges, cater to the in-game factions or host events for players to swap tips and go hunting together.

For example, Char Pizzeria in Peoria, Ariz., has a special promotion that gives uses a free pizza if they take over its gym using any of the Pokémon with “Char” at the start of their names: Charizard, Charmeleon or Charmander.

Sources, however, have reported that Mcdonald’s have entered into a partnership deal already, having each one of their locations either a Gym or Pokestop.

McDonald’s and gym – that’s a laugh.

But that’s still to be seen – this is still a business after all.

[source: washingtonpost]