Geocaching - Combining Adventure and social media for Brand Promotions Part 2/2

Geocaching promotions mentioned in first part of the post are not only limited to big brands, many small business owners have also decided to join in on the fun and create geocaches within their business. For instance while looking for Geocaches you may stumble across one in a local bar. You ask the bartender for the secret container and he will pull out the geocache for you to look at and exchange items. This gets you to their bar and once you are there food and drinks follow. 

Placing a Geocache in your business is a great way to attract new customers especially for businesses like restaurants, book stores and other retail locations since you generally have geocachers with special interests in the items or general vacationers tracing specific geocaches. It gets customers in the door and from there it’s up to you to convert them. It’s a great way to get people into your business with zero marketing costs.

Geocaching is a great opportunity for the tourism industry as many geocachers make geocaching part of their vacation plans; some may even design their own vacation around tracking and retrieving hidden treasures. Many travel agents and vacation resorts have started designing small geocaching campaigns or maintain special geocaches at their hotels. There is an excellent opportunity for developing local business around geocaching. Local cafes can maintain exclusive merchandise from a particular tourist destination and follow up with related services like tourist guides, sightseeing etc.

Indian state owned tourism development corporations can also take a cue from geocaching to promote local tourism. Geocaching program can be designed to promote heritage sites and eco conservation programs. It can also be used to educate the global community about the India’s natural and cultural heritage and promote conservation efforts globally. Such activities especially appeal to young travellers and can be used to develop adventure tourism.        

                                              

Geocaching is essentially a high involvement and challenging activity which coupled with digital media and technology creates a great opportunity for Co-Branding and marketing initiatives at minimal costs. With the ever growing community of geocachers and ease of setting up and tracking such promotions geocaching is an interesting proposition for marketers worldwide.  

Geocaching is still to establish itself in India, but there are quite a few geocaches available like the one at Sanjay Gandhi National park in Mumbai, Lavasa Hill City near Pune, Taj Mahal in Agra and at the Kumbhalgarh Fort. Do you want to be the first one to locate and retrieve these treasures? Join the community at http://www.geocaching.com/