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Geocaching for marketing purposes - how to ?

LeifStrom

By LeifStrom
in General geocaching topics

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LeifStrom

LeifStrom

Posted
Posted

Hi.

I'm pretty new to Geocaching myself, but people in my family have given me a short tour.

 

Now, I'm on assignment from one of my customers.

The Geocaching idea seems to be right for marketing purposes for this company.

 

I'm aware of GroundSpeaks "no commercial cache" requirement, and have no problem understanding that.

 

How would a company go along to create/publish their own caches?

 

Is there geocaching sites/software available for this?

 

Any pointers at all? :P

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Xaa

+Xaa

Posted
Posted

The Geocaching idea seems to be right for marketing purposes for this company.

 

I'm aware of GroundSpeaks "no commercial cache" requirement, and have no problem understanding that.

 

Don't these 2 lines already answer your question?

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Chokecherry

+Chokecherry

Posted
Posted

I stumbled upon a commercial cache this last summer. I totally didn't give the business any of my business after that and lost just a smidge of respect for them as they have also been encouraging geocachers to put coupons for free product in other various local caches (which I discovered after stumbling across those coupons repeatedly after that one cache).

 

I just got a free Expedia travel bug. In lieu of a cache maybe you can work with Groundspeak to market via travel bugs?

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buttaskotch

+buttaskotch

Posted
Posted
Hi.

I'm pretty new to Geocaching myself, but people in my family have given me a short tour.

 

Now, I'm on assignment from one of my customers.

The Geocaching idea seems to be right for marketing purposes for this company.

 

I'm aware of GroundSpeaks "no commercial cache" requirement, and have no problem understanding that.

 

How would a company go along to create/publish their own caches?

 

Is there geocaching sites/software available for this?

 

Any pointers at all? :P

I see where you are going with this, since I am a marketer myself.

The idea is clever for a business (Don't think I haven't thought of it, in my 4 years of caching), however you will NEVER be able to list any type of commercial cache on this site.

 

And as a new cacher, I will suggest that you may want to figure on listing your own caches before hyping the game as a marketing tool, so you know what you are actually doing.

Good luck in your endeavors.

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AZcachemeister

AZcachemeister

Posted
Posted (edited)

Or your company could offer free 'prizes' for dropping advertising materials in random caches placed by others.

 

EatStayPlay

 

EDITED to add:

 

Apparently they have discontinued their 'fill caches with our advertising tokens and get a Geocoin' program.

 

EatStayPlay

 

Not sure if they decided it was a bad idea, or if they just ran out of tokens to hand out.

Edited by AZcachemeister
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Touchstone

+Touchstone

Posted
Posted

I would suggest contacting Groundspeak prior to submitting any Listings with potential commercial overtones.

 

Another option, which could potentially reach a much wider audience, is to produce a Trackable of some sort (Geocoin or Travelbugs). The Groundspeak business office could offer many options available through this route, and would probably be more effective than a Listing to get your message out.

 

In general, Trackables are not subject to the same restrictions that Listings are (provided the TOU is followed of course).

 

Best of luck with your idea!

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dakboy

+dakboy

Posted
Posted

Hi, I'm new to geocaching and I would like to know how best to exploit all of you for my own financial gain! Any hints?

 

Disgusting.

It reads like a stereotypical marketer. "I know it's not allowed, but I'm special and new and unique and this is a perfect fit for my business unlike all those other schlubs so please tell me how I can do it."

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knowschad

knowschad

Posted
Posted

You didn't really give enough information to give you an informed answer, but I will say that there are resorts that have made geocaching a part of their experience by hiding caches and handing out the coordinates with a GPS to guests. Of course, those caches are not listed on this site. I think by now you have had a fair sampling of how most of us feel about commercial caches, so I won't dwell on that aspect.

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narcissa

+narcissa

Posted
Posted

Hi, I'm new to geocaching and I would like to know how best to exploit all of you for my own financial gain! Any hints?

 

Disgusting.

It reads like a stereotypical marketer. "I know it's not allowed, but I'm special and new and unique and this is a perfect fit for my business unlike all those other schlubs so please tell me how I can do it."

 

Yep, and it's the same nonsense people pull when they want to post a cache with an agenda. "I know I'm not supposed to, but it's a really worthy cause!" Get lost. :P

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GeoGeeBee

+GeoGeeBee

Posted
Posted

As a general rule, marketing a product by irritating and angering your prospective customers rarely works.

 

If you want to list a commercial cache on this site, you're going to have to work with Groundspeak. And in order to make it work, it's going to have to have a pretty high "Awesomeness" factor, comparable to the Ape series. Otherwise, it's just going to tick people off.

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dakboy

+dakboy

Posted
Posted (edited)

...fair sampling of how most of us feel about commercial caches...

 

Like the APE caches?

Those are beloved because of their history, not because they were commercial caches.

I just wish there was a Dinosaur Train cache near me, my son loves that show.

 

I think the APE caches are only coming up because they're a special icon, so they're more visible (plus they go back so far in GC history). There definitely are promotional caches & cache series out there, they're just not as blatantly commercial and they are OK'd by Groundspeak.

Edited by dakboy
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Wallydraigle

Wallydraigle

Posted
Posted

Hi, I'm new to geocaching and I would like to know how best to exploit all of you for my own financial gain! Any hints?

 

Disgusting.

It reads like a stereotypical marketer. "I know it's not allowed, but I'm special and new and unique and this is a perfect fit for my business unlike all those other schlubs so please tell me how I can do it."

 

He specifically asked for other sites or software to list his cache. Just because it's not allowed here doesn't mean it's off limits on the whole internet.

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GeoGeeBee

+GeoGeeBee

Posted
Posted

 

He specifically asked for other sites or software to list his cache. Just because it's not allowed here doesn't mean it's off limits on the whole internet.

 

As far as I can tell, there's nothing that would stop him from listing advertisements disguised as geocaches on the opencaching.com website.

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Ecylram

+Ecylram

Posted
Posted

 

He specifically asked for other sites or software to list his cache. Just because it's not allowed here doesn't mean it's off limits on the whole internet.

 

As far as I can tell, there's nothing that would stop him from listing advertisements disguised as geocaches on the opencaching.com website.

And he could place it at the White House for maximum publicity. :huh:

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hzoi

+hzoi

Posted
Posted

...fair sampling of how most of us feel about commercial caches...

 

Like the APE caches?

 

For a more recent example, see Galaxy's Splinterheads caches, placed to coincide with film festivals featuring the Splinterheads movie. Most of the caches were transferred to local cachers after a while. We were asked to hide "her" Charlottesville cache, but we were moving so we let someone else adopt it.

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Keystone

Keystone

Posted
Posted

Are you asking how a business would list a cache on Geocaching.com, or how a business would set up its own separate listing site?

Since I never received a clarifying answer to this question, I'm treating this thread as a driveby and closing it. (Since the topic starter is new, this means "don't open another thread about this, and write to Groundspeak by email if you have any questions.")

 

There are ways for a business to list a neutral, non-promotional cache on Geocaching.com. There is no way to list a promotional cache here unless you first contact Groundspeak and obtain special permission. Such exceptions are relatively rare.

 

If the thread is about how to list caches elsewhere, then this is not an appropriate use of this forum. Even Garmin knew enough not to ask here what they ought to do to launch a listing service. :huh:

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