Sprint has entered an agreement with Niantic, the creators of the summer hysteria that was Pokemon Go, and its stores will soon function as Pokestops and Pokemon Gyms for the game’s users.
This includes Sprint affiliate stores like Boost Mobile, and Sprint mini-stores in Radioshack.
It was only mere months ago that Pokemon Go dominated every corner of the media. While the game’s popularity has certainly tapered off, it remains one of the year’s most explosive mobile trends, but its ultimate viability as a marketing channel has gone unexplored, although, after the game’s release, many local businesses employed guerilla marketing tactics to attract users to their stores. Still, there has been little in the way of a concentrated strategy to leverage the game’s potential.
Sprint’s deal, as well as the rumored Starbucks deal, could help bring legitimacy to Pokemon Go as an experimental form of mobile advertising, and may be the first step in realizing the game’s pseudo-social network potential.
