Little Caesars, Buffalo Wild Wings and Jack in the Box are the top three most popular restaurant brands among Pokémon Go players, according to the location analytics firm Placed.
The Pokémon Go game debuted on July 7 in the United States, and has since rolled out around the world. McDonald’s Corp. officially sponsors Pokémon Go in Japan, where its restaurants debuted as “gyms” for training the game’s “pocket monsters” when it launched there in late July.
Nation’s Restaurant News asked analytics company Placed, which measures locations via an opt-in audience, to rank the most popular and least popular restaurant brands among consumers for playing Pokémon Go.
The least popular restaurant brands among Pokémon Go players, according to Placed, were Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Cracker Barrel and LongHorn Steakhouse.
Restaurant operators have been looking at ways to capitalize on the Pokémon Go craze.
Austin, Texas-based Verts Mediterranean Grill grew traffic 114 percent on a day in mid-July by throwing a Pokémon Go Lure Party.
A survey released this month by MGH, a Baltimore-based marketing communications agency, found that 60 percent of smartphone users who had downloaded the free Pokémon Go game were likely to be lured by businesses that offered player discounts.
MGH also found that 38 percent of those surveyed were also likely to purchase a Pokémon-themed product offering.
Restaurants and bars topped the list of the types of businesses those surveyed noted as offering Pokémon Go-themed products or discounts, while Facebook (72 percent of respondents) and store signage (52 percent) were the platforms from which the majority of players saw Pokémon-related promotions.
The MGH survey found that 56 percent of the respondents who had downloaded Pokémon Go were between the ages of 18 and 29 years old, and female respondents were slightly more likely to have seen Pokémon Go promotions, and were slightly more likely to buy a Pokémon-themed product.
“The best part of Pokémon Go is that it’s getting people of all ages out and about; businesses just have to find a way to lure customers in,” Ryan Goff, MGH senior vice president and director of social-marketing, said in a statement.
“With estimated daily users of Pokémon Go still teetering around 20 million, this survey shows there’s still a great opportunity for business owners to tap into this unique and active audience to not only drive foot traffic into their venues, but get them to potentially purchase a product,” Goff said.
MGH conducted its survey of 1,000 U.S. smartphone users in July. Respondents ranged in age from 18 to 55 years old.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
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