LeifStrom Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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? Link to comment
Keystone Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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? Link to comment
+Xaa Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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? Link to comment
+Ecylram Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 We had somebody try to do that in our area and all their caches got archived in short order. They had put in a lot of time and effort into the project but that it was wasted. Link to comment
+SeekerOfTheWay Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 I will fast forward through any commercial caches! I hope commercial ones are never allowed. Not everything is this world needs to be a cash cow for someone. Link to comment
+Chokecherry Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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? Link to comment
+buttaskotch Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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? 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. Link to comment
+keehotee Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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...... ....without the cooperation and permission of Groundspeak! Link to comment
AZcachemeister Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 (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 December 9, 2010 by AZcachemeister Link to comment
+Touchstone Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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! Link to comment
Andronicus Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 Post your cache on opencaching.com. There appears to be no commercial cache rules over there... Link to comment
+narcissa Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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. Link to comment
+dakboy Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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." Link to comment
+tmwed4 Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 We vacationed this summer in Amelia Island, Florida and their chamber of commerce had created a "Geocaching List" of caches at local businesses. We tried a couple and the business owners couldn't even find them. Won't try any again!! Link to comment
knowschad Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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. Link to comment
+BBWolf+3Pigs Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 ...fair sampling of how most of us feel about commercial caches... Like the APE caches? Link to comment
+narcissa Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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. Link to comment
knowschad Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 ...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. Link to comment
+Castle Mischief Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 ...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. ...and the unique icon. ...and the fact that at the time the userbase was smaller and it was something new. Link to comment
knowschad Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 Not to mention the kool veener!! Link to comment
+bflentje Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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. You people are too funny. Tacky yes. But disgusting? Pulease. Link to comment
+BBWolf+3Pigs Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 ...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. Understand...but if commercials were never allowed, we would never of gotten these beloved caches. Link to comment
+GeoGeeBee Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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. Link to comment
+dakboy Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 (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 December 9, 2010 by dakboy Link to comment
Wallydraigle Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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. Link to comment
+GeoGeeBee Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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. Link to comment
+LukeTrocity Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 List the coordinates of the caches on your companies website. Link to comment
+Ecylram Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 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. Link to comment
+hzoi Posted December 9, 2010 Share Posted December 9, 2010 ...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. Link to comment
Keystone Posted December 10, 2010 Share Posted December 10, 2010 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. Link to comment
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