For this month’s local business spotlight, we sat down with Mike Pace of Cornerstone Coffee Roasters to talk about how he leveraged Pokemon Go to boost foot traffic and profits.
Q: How did the idea come around to use Pokemon Go for Cornerstone?
A: “I heard about it through Facebook. I’m friends with that community. I was going to ignore it and let it go away. But, you can’t ignore something like this. Nathan Knottingham put out an article about how to use Pokemon Go for your business. Thought I’d give it a try.”
Q: What did you expect to get out of it?
A: “Honestly, I really didn’t expect anything to come of it. But I was pleasantly surprised. We spent $20 over three days on Facebook ads and spent $10 on Lures (these attract Pokemon to a specific area). The response was amazing. In two hours, we tripled our investment. We had 30 people who had never been in the store before and got 50 Facebook likes. The cool thing for me was that the Pokemon community rallied around us, saying that nobody was doing this kind of thing, and that they really appreciated it. They started paying for lures because they liked to catch Pokemon at our shop.”
Q: Do you think you’ll continue to use Pokemon Go in the future?
A: “It would be silly to ignore any cultural phenomenon. So yes, we’re definitely going to continue using Pokemon Go.”
Q: How does this play into Cornerstone’s Culture?
A: “We want this to be your third place. You have work, home, and Cornerstone. If we can reach out to people who don’t come here and say, “Hey you can reach three Pokestops from our front porch, might as well have a drink while you’re here.” It’s a market that you cannot miss.”
Q: Any other Pokemon related sales or items to look for at Cornerstone?
A: “We’re going to have the Pokemon coffee cozies coming here pretty soon. And we love the cookies (Pokeball cookies we sell) so gotta keep those around.”
Q: Any deals for Pokemon Trainers?
A: “We’re dropping lures from 3-5pm on Sundays and Thursdays. Plus, Pokemon Trainers get a 20% discount from 3-5pm everyday.”
Q: Any advice for business owners who’ve been on the fence about Pokemon Go?
A: “If your business relies on foot traffic, you should absolutely do it. 100%. It’s worth the investment.”