Saffire Blog

Pokemon Go Proves to be a ‘Catch’ for Marketers

With more than 100 million downloads and 20 million daily active users, Pokémon Go became the biggest craze of the summer. Launching all over the world, Pokémon Go creates a whole new realm of advertising which, by now, should be in your back pocket. Pokémon Go is everywhere and is used by an overwhelming number … Continue reading “Pokemon Go Proves to be a ‘Catch’ for Marketers”

With more than 100 million downloads and 20 million daily active users, Pokémon Go became the biggest craze of the summer. Launching all over the world, Pokémon Go creates a whole new realm of advertising which, by now, should be in your back pocket. Pokémon Go is everywhere and is used by an overwhelming number of people; so initially you might be thinking, how can I use this trend to my benefit?

The gamer’s (typically 21 to 27-year-old men) goal is to catch all of the Pokémon, which are creatures of different sizes and types spread throughout your geographical location and will randomly pop up when the app is open. Users also take advantage of the “PokéStops”, which are points on the game map used to collect “PokéBalls”. You can think of “Pokéballs” as small, ball-shaped cages used to store each Pokémon you collect. Users also travel to Pokémon Gyms, used for battling other Pokémon and trainers. The “PokéStops” and Gyms, are normally located near landmarks, statues, parks, churches, etc. which are strategically place to attract many people. This is where the marketing comes in. PokéStops could also be used as a tool by businesses to turn their location into a huge, profitable ad in the virtual world of Pokémon.

One example of an organization using this app to its advantage is the Brown County Fair, located in Aberdeen, SD. Currently they have 8 PokéStops on their fairgrounds and have decided to put them into their marketing strategy. The stops are located anywhere from the Bunny Barn to the Grandstands, which are an easy way to get traffic to these fairground locations. The fairgoers have the opportunity to see parts of the fair they otherwise might have never experienced!

If your organization doesn’t have a PokéStop, and you want one at that location, you can request one. The request forms are here: http://support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com

Additionally, if your organization would like a Pokémon Gym on your location, a suggestion can be submitted at http://support.pokemongo.nianticlabs.com

Tips and Tricks

Make sure a few people in your organization have a Pokémon Go account, so they can purchase lures, which will help attract Pokémon to your location
Put up signs that warn people to stay out of restricted areas.
Get a Pokémon logo at each building or monument that has a PokéStop. Signage is important!
If a gym is on your property, give the leader of that particular free tickets or prizes if he or she is a leader at a certain time of the day (Advertise this on Social Media to attract more people to battle in the Gym).
This could provide incentive for other players to take over your particular gym. The prize for the winner of a PokéHunt or Gym leader could also be PokéCoins.

Staying up to date with the newest tech fads may seem overwhelming at first, but whether it’s giving an extra jump to a small business’s finances or helping double revenue in big corporations, Pokemon Go is a growing force not to be reckoned with.

Pokémon Go is free and available for download through the Apple App Store for iPhone users and the Google Play store for Android users.

We want to thank Michaela Liebl for being our Guest Blogger! Michaela is currently a student at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. She is looking forward to a career in the fair or festival industries and is currently seeking internship opportunities. To contact Michaela about this article or about potential internship opportunities, please email her at michaela.liebl@wolves.northern.edu

Using the Facebook Events Feature

As we all know, Facebook is the biggest social networking platform in the world with over a billion users. Since its launch, Facebook has evolved and brought new features for users as well as businesses. One of their most improved features are Events, which give an opportunity to individuals as well as organizations to promote … Continue reading “Using the Facebook Events Feature”

As we all know, Facebook is the biggest social networking platform in the world with over a billion users. Since its launch, Facebook has evolved and brought new features for users as well as businesses. One of their most improved features are Events, which give an opportunity to individuals as well as organizations to promote their events on Facebook. Before this change, the Events
feature didn’t work very well for organizations and was a much better tool to invite friends to events such as your backyard barbecue.

After years of research and design, Facebook has improved upon their Events feature and made it a great tool for marketers. Today, over 500 million people search Facebook Events each month to find local events to attend, making the Events feature an important marketing tool to increase attendees.

During a recent presentation by the Facebook Events team, Facebook talked about the new success of the Events Feature with a case study on the event “Water Fight New York NYC.” In 2014, before Facebook started focusing on Events, the Water Fight NYC only had 1,400 attendees showing on their Facebook Event. Then, in 2015, after more features were put in place, the event skyrocketed to 64,000 attendees.

How to Market your Event

For a more guerrilla marketing approach, you can invite your friends list and ask your friends, relatives and event staff to invite their friends and share the event on their personal pages. You are also able to use the Facebook ads to target your desired audience. When someone says they’re “Going” to your event, it creates a story that may appear in other’s News Feed so that their friends and followers can see they’re going and then decide to attend too.

To grow your attendee list using ads, you’re able to specifically advertise your event. This has a different mission than normal facebook ads, which is to get more attendees and ticket sales.

Event promoters often get better results when they:

Set up a lookalike audience to show ads to people similar to your followers
Use a CPM bidding strategy to get more people to respond to your event and buy tickets
Create a conversion pixel to see which ads worked well and they can also measure performance
Create an ad with using the “Ticket Link” which will allow you to create ads that are optimized to drive ticket sales

What do I do after my event?

So you just finished your event and can finally relax, right? Not exactly. People have connected because they truly care about your event and what you share about it. Facebook’s research has shown that event attendees are wanting the following:

Professional pictures of the event action
Final scores for competitions
To be thanked for attending
To know about future events from your organization

We hope that this has inspired you to add Facebook Events into your marketing efforts. You can also explore some great Facebook resources by reading through Facebook’s Guide to Getting the Most Out of Facebook Events.

Events are about community, culture, experiences and fun and Facebook is the avenue most people choose to share this experience. One inspiring statistic is that within one week of the event, each event attendee, on average, befriends another event attendee on Facebook. Events bring people together!

Our favorite travel apps to make the going get easy!

With the start of Spring Break, Saffire wanted to share our tips and tricks of travel! There are many travel apps out there to help you plan your next business trip or dream vacation. Check out Saffire’s favorite travel apps to make the going get easy! 1. TripIt TripIt is a free travel app … Continue reading “Our favorite travel apps to make the going get easy!”

1. TripIt
TripIt is a free travel app that manages your travel through automatically generated (but still editable) itineraries. This app is perfect for keeping different confirmation numbers and departure/reservation times in one place! You can forward your emails to TripIt or even sync your email account with the app, which will then search your emails and automatically build an itinerary of your flight, event, dinner and hotel reservations. You can also access your itinerary from anywhere, on any device – even when you’re offline.

We consider this a must have when planning your own business or leisure trips. If you are planning trips for others, we would recommend TripIt Pro at the low cost of $4.09 per month.

2. Uber / Lyft
Both Uber and Lyft are a response to technological advances of geolocating and the frustrations of trying to hail a cab. With one click, a personal driver heads towards your exact location and takes you to your destination, in their personal vehicles. It may seem odd getting in a stranger’s car, but drivers are thoroughly screened and these companies conduct ongoing reviews of drivers’ motor vehicle records. These apps require each user to create a profile and enter their credit card information, creating a completely cashless system between drivers and riders.

With differing City regulations we couldn’t just recommend one app as many cities and airports only allow one app or the other to operate. For example, although the City of Austin, Texas allows and regulates Uber and Lyft, the Austin – Bergstom International Airport and the City of Austin have banned Uber from operating at the Airport, only allowing Lyft drivers to drop off and pick up riders. With differing regulations, it is essential to have both apps handy.

3. Airbnb / HomeAway
Airbnb and HomeAway are short-term rental search engines that let you book condos, homes, or even an Airstream trailer! Many times these listings are much less expensive than a hotel in a hotel district and are in areas that allow you to truly experience a destination like a local!

On all Airbnb and on many HomeAway properties, you pay through the website and the booking process is very similar to booking a hotel. You communicate with the home owner and they have to approve your reservation.

4. Hipmunk
There are many flight and hotel search apps out there to choose from, but Hipmunk has become the office favorite for our many travels due to one amazing feature: the Agony feature. How many times has a normally 3-hour flight taken 7 hours due to multiple stops and layovers? With Hipmunk, you can “Sort by Agony” and pick the fastest and least complicated flights.

Another amazing feature is the HomeAway and Airbnb search integration with a normal hotel search. With Hipmunk, you can always find the cheapest accommodations, whether in a large hotel or a short term rental!

5. Pinterest
Pinterest’s Place Pins and Boards are great places to plan your trip! We recommend creating boards for your trip like:

Where to Eat in Austin
Live Music in Austin
Craft Breweries in Austin

The best way to find this travel suggestions is by searching simple terms like “Food Austin”, “Travel Austin”, etc. We also recommend following official Destination Marketing Organizations (i.e. Visit Austin Texas).

6. Tripadvisor
What travel app list is complete without Tripadvisor? Tripadvisor is the premier travel review site with over 200 million reviews and opinions covering more than 4.5 million accommodations, restaurants and attractions.

Planning and paying for a trip can be stressful and everyone wants to ensure they have an enjoyable trip. By using Tripadvisor, you can make informed travel decisions and then reserve your flight, hotel and dinner right there on the site.

Beyond the Lanyard: Chattanooga and San Diego!

Well friends, here I am for another fun episode of Beyond the Lanyard! What an amazing few months it has been for traveling on the Saffire circuit. I’ve had a blast “taking off my lanyard” on a few trips during conferences, and I wanted to share with you all the fun things we’ve been doing! … Continue reading “Beyond the Lanyard: Chattanooga and San Diego!”

First of all, we went to Chattanooga, TN for the SFEA Convention, but got to see a few sights along the way. What a fun town! It was a little cold (and snowing at times!) which is tough for a Texas girl, but nothing was going to stop me from exploring! Chattanooga has so much to offer—restaurants, museums and an AWESOME aquarium where we got to spend a fun-filled evening! We saw HUGE fish that live in the rivers near Tennessee, and got to learn a lot about the topography of Tennessee.

We also went to an AMAZING restaurant called Urban Stack that served fresh, locally-sourced hamburgers and classic southern sides. Delicious!

Shortly after my trip to Chattanooga, I headed to the west coast for a little fun in San Diego! One of my favorite parts about my hotel was the location: only about a quarter mile from the beach! I enjoyed running on the beach boardwalk in the mornings. Since there were several military bases nearby, I had the privilege of seeing our troops out for their morning workouts too. A truly beautiful sight! We’re so lucky to have them!

Finally, I capped off my trip to San Diego with one of the most fun things I’ve ever done on a Saffire trip – RIDING A ROLLER COASTER! This roller coaster sat between our hotel and the beach. It was a very old, historic ride, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t move fast! WHOA! It was even more fun because I got to ride with my friends from lots of fairs around the country. I was so excited to see that fair managers could still enjoy a good carnival ride! What a blast!

Until next time travel team!

Welcome Belton Convention and Visitors Bureau

We had the great privilege of designing the Bell County Exposition Center Website a few years ago and are so excited to welcome another client from Belton to the Saffire Family! We are also thrilled to welcome another destination client to the growing Saffire portfolio! The Belton Convention and Visitors Bureau is tasked with showcasing … Continue reading “Welcome Belton Convention and Visitors Bureau”

We had the great privilege of designing the Bell County Exposition Center Website a few years ago and are so excited to welcome another client from Belton to the Saffire Family!

We are also thrilled to welcome another destination client to the growing Saffire portfolio!

The Belton Convention and Visitors Bureau is tasked with showcasing Belton, Texas as a destination. Located deep in the heart of Texas, Belton is a unique city with friendly people and a rich history. Founded in 1850, Belton is located along the famous Chisholm Trail. Belton’s location also puts it squarely in the middle of natural wonders, shopping and entertainment. From beautiful lakes and interesting museums, to historic landmarks and shopping, Belton has an endless supply of places to experience.