As if discreetly tricking millions of teens to finally exercise wasn’t enough, the creators of the biggest app craze since Flappy Bird have figured out how to turn their golden Articuno into a cash Miltank.
Pokemon Go hasn’t given any specifics about how the advertising platform will work, but Niantic CEO John Hanke gave a few hints in a recent interview. All signs are pointing to “cost-per-visit” advertising and it might be the most technologically advanced form of advertising ever created.
Let’s say you own a nifty little five and dime shop on the corner and you want to drum up some business with the youngsters in town. Soon you’ll be able to pay for little creatures to appear in augmented reality in your shop. Once word gets out, smartphone wielding gamers will be flocking to your shop.
The best part is that you’ll only pay for your ads if a user sees the ad and enters in defined geo-targeted location (your physical store). So essentially, Niantic has adapted pay-per-click ads for brick and mortar stores. Saying that this could potentially revolutionize advertising is an understatement.
Imagine only paying for ads that directly lead to a customer walking through the doors of your store. That seems to be where we’re heading. We still don’t know when all of this will roll out, or if it will happen at all, so for now we can only hope and try to catch them all.
