Pokemon GO Could Be a Good Vehicle for Humanitarian Causes

gamerant.com:

Most mobile games rely on advertisements to make a profit, and Pokemon GO is no exception. Although Niantic generates plenty of revenue through microtransactions, its AR Pokemon game also features a variety of brand deals with convenience stores, Starbucks, and so on. Once in a while, Niantic even arranges a major Pokemon GO event build around an advertisement, like its recent collaboration with musician Ed Sheeran. Pokemon GO players in Japan just learned about another new promotion, but this one is far from ordinary. Rather than advertising products to Pokemon GO players, the game is going to advertise a humanitarian service: blood donation.

Niantic just announced that Pokemon GO is teaming up with the Red Cross to promote blood donation centers throughout the Kanto Koshinetsu region of Japan. Players in this region will notice specially designed PokeStops at each donation center in that region, and players will reportedly receive specialized items for visiting these PokeStops and presumably donating blood in the process. This team-up is an unusual move from Pokemon GO, but it's rather clever. Pokemon GO is particularly well-suited for advertising good causes like blood donation because of its massive audience, as well as its ability to encourage players to explore the real world.

Pokemon GO: Shiny Pokemon Could Inspire Future Events

Pokemon GO is a fantastic advertising platform, partially thanks to its sheer scale. Pokemon GO broke mobile game records when it first released, and even now, it continues to be a massive hit among mobile gamers. Tens of millions of players play Pokemon GO regularly, and Pokemon GO's growing revenue suggests that players are only getting more dedicated to the game. With such a huge audience,