Chelsea Allenby is a Digital Marketer of 9 years and Managing Director of Allenby Digital Ltd, an online marketing agency she set-up in 2015, specialising in social media and content marketing. www.chelseamarketing.co.uk
Geocaching is great fun for all ages and for many it’s the perfect way to spend a day out with the family. It’s essentially a treasure hunt, but the treasure is known as a ‘cache’ or a ‘geocache’ and there are thousands of them all over the world. To find the cache, participants typically use a mobile app with GPS, to guide them to various different locations. A cache is usually in the form of a waterproof container with a logbook and small trinket like items. The idea is to take a piece of treasure and leave one in return, then write it down in the log.
It’s such a popular pastime because it’s a way to enjoy the outdoors and do something a little different from the norm. So, how could a restaurant benefit from this outdoor activity? If you were to create a cache and hide it in the nearby surroundings outside your business, you could attract new customers who are actively geocaching and might want to pop in for a bite to eat.
To create a cache, you will need:
- A small waterproof container (Tupperware is a good idea)
- A small notebook and pen for visitors to write which items they have taken and contributed.
- Some small trinket like items, this could be things such as keyrings, badges, pens, small ornaments or figurines, a compass, mini torch etc,. Why not include some items that relate to or represent your restaurant?
Find a good spot to hide the box, somewhere well hidden, but not too hard to find with a few clues. Once you’ve completed all these steps, it’s time to get your cache listed on a popular app, like geocaching.com. Be aware there is set of guidelines which must be adhered to before your geocache can be published.
How Will Your Restaurant Benefit?
Geocaching is definitely more suitable for certain restaurants, compared to others. It stands to reason that if you own a restaurant in a secluded place, tucked or hidden away, then geocaching is going to work much better. You tend to find better geocache spots throughout the countryside, so if this fits your location, use it to your advantage. This certainly doesn’t rule out towns and cities, just look at all the treasure waiting to be discovered in Norwich, UK.
Although some explorers might print off a paper map to find items, the majority will use a mobile app. Mobile marketing is all about finding unique ways to connect with people on the go. Geocaching is ideal for this. Okay, so you might not be reaching millions or even thousands of people, but you’re definitely adding value and reaching a new crowd.
You could even take this a step further and create a map of a geocaching trail for customers that might interested. You can share all this information on your website and social media channels. It’s certainly something that could make your restaurant stand out from the rest and it also makes a great conversation starter with new customers.
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