How Stonyfield is riding the PokemonGo wave and paying nothing

Given the phenomenal popularity of PokemonGo, most of you have at least heard of it, if not more intimately involved with the game. The augmented reality game is more addictive than Tinder and Snapchat and enjoys a growth rate several times that of Twitter. It has higher daily usage time than Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat and Messenger. This was literally an overnight success after launch. I am mesmerized as much by the game as it’s potential to make insane amounts of money for Nintendo and Niantic.

Nintendo and Niantic are making money hand over fist from Pokeman Go. Niantic and Nintendo have being monetizing the game primarily through traditional methods like power up your character by buying some Pokeballs which means that brands who want to ride the PokemanGo wave are left with no option but be creative and think out of the box.

One such brand is Stonyfield who realised quickly that PokemanGo wasn't going to become an ad-supported application, so Stonyfield decided to build something to take advantage of PokemanGo momentum, by reaching out to people when they were out in the world playing Pokemon.

They partnered with Aki whose technology would help Stonyfield detect which apps people have downloaded and matched up location data from 10,000 Pokestops across the U.S. with data on which ad-supported apps consumers open frequently and spend the most time with. Stonyfield wanted to target the customer when they are near the Pokestop by serving the game-themed ads within five minutes of visiting a Pokestop.

The campaign would work as follows. When you are near a Pokestop with the Pokemon Go app open. While at the Pokestop, if you open a messenger app to text a friend or check the weather with an app before continuing to play. When you open those apps, you could be served the game-themed Stonyfield ad. In addition to targeting Stonyfield would collect data about when and where people play the game most that can be used to run future campaigns.

For Stonyfield, the campaign will also give the brand insight into who plays Pokemon Go and which products they're interested in. The brand is running two different products in its creative: One advertises a whole-milk Greek yogurt aimed at adults, and the other promotes the brand's on-the-go products including yogurt pouches and smoothies that are targeted toward children.

Whether you love, hate or are apathetic to PokemanGo, and whether this craze will stay or is a passing fad, there is a great business opportunity in augmented reality games like PokemonGo. You just need to be creative about how you can monetize the craze.