Pokémon GO
A Theme Park Proposal
Proposed to the park Public Relations Manager, Marketing Manager, and Director of Sales & Marketing.
Situation - Low Sales, Low Attendance
The park as a whole is experiencing a decrease in attendance and Season Pass sales versus numbers in previous years. In an effort to combat both, the park has extended a Season Pass sale and advertised the discounted price at every opportunity (kiosk, turnstiles, admissions, park maps). New park events have also been introduced, encouraging guests to splurge and buy a Season Pass while inviting current Season Passholders to come out to the park.
These efforts are tried and true, but losing excitement. We need something new to drive guests interest.
Proposed Solution - Capitalize On a New Trend
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, there’s a new phone app called, “Pokémon GO,” and it’s taking social media by storm.
Pokémon GO is an augmented reality mobile game developed by Niantic and Nintendo for smartphones. It uses GPS location rather than distance to encourage (i.e., force) a person to get out of their house and actually walk/drive/run to a specific location rather than hop on a treadmill or fake a jog by shaking their phone while sitting on the couch.
But how is this game actually getting people to take those real steps outside?
By going outside, a player will not only begin their “Pokémon journey” and start interacting with wild Pokémon to catch and train, but encounter PokeStops to gather items needed to continue all that catching and training. Remarkably, the developers seemed to have taken businesses, landmarks, and overall high places of foot traffic into account, and marked spots like churches or post offices as PokeStops for their audience to stop and collect those free virtual items.
And theme parks are no exception:
Benefits
• Nintendo generally targets elementary and middle school children for its Pokémon brand, many 20-40-year-olds can still remember when Pokémon 1995. Because of this, children and adults alike are answering Nintendo’s vintage battle cry of who wants to be the “very best, like no one ever was.” As a theme park, our target audience effortlessly overlaps with Pokémon Go’s.
• A city – especially in a rural area -- might only have three or four PokéStops total, as they are based on businesses or landmarks. As if to counteract this lack of PokéStops, Nintendo has made it a point to fill pay-to-enter locations full to bursting with PokéStops. For theme parks, almost every ride, entrance and merch location is a stop, offering almost limitless free virtual items and new Pokémon every time the server refreshes at the ten-minute mark. Plain and simple, this PokéStop advantage could draw new and old guests out to the park for hours.
• A city – especially in a rural area -- might only have three or four PokéStops total, as they are based on businesses or landmarks. As if to counteract this lack of PokéStops, Nintendo has made it a point to fill pay-to-enter locations full to bursting with PokéStops. For theme parks, almost every ride, entrance and merch location is a stop, offering almost limitless free virtual items and new Pokémon every time the server refreshes at the ten-minute mark. Plain and simple, this PokéStop advantage could draw new and old guests out to the park for hours.
Potential Obstacles
• Constant focus on their phone will undoubtedly lead to distracted guests. Locations may require additional training or larger teams to operate safely.
• Guests’ enthusiasm to catch ‘em all may lead them to climb over fences and land themselves in unsafe situations. Security and front-line team members may need to be scheduled more heavily in the park.
• Pokémon GO is only a few days old, and word hasn’t spread that theme parks are the place to play just yet. Social posts, online call-to-action advertising, and in-park signage will help communicate.
• Guests’ enthusiasm to catch ‘em all may lead them to climb over fences and land themselves in unsafe situations. Security and front-line team members may need to be scheduled more heavily in the park.
• Pokémon GO is only a few days old, and word hasn’t spread that theme parks are the place to play just yet. Social posts, online call-to-action advertising, and in-park signage will help communicate.
With attendance rates down, Pokémon GO is really the best thing we could have hoped for.
Here we have an app pushing gamers out of their living room through the ultimate gamification of a walk, and they could all be headed to our theme park as it is the biggest PokéStop per feet for miles around. It might sound silly, but now there is a new reason for Season Passholders to not only come play in our waterpark or ride a favorite attraction, but stay for the whole day. That means they’re buying a meal instead of a snack, and multiple drinks instead of one – not to mention portable cell phone power banks or waterproof cases we sell in merch shops!
If we can promote this and get our guests to share these Pokémon perks with one another, it might just be the final boom we need to finish up our summer season.
