Brands Use Location-Based Marketing to Drive Engagement

Currently, there are 1.2 million users on FourSquare and it is gaining momentum.  The number of check-ins has almost doubled to 600,000 per day in the last two months and is up 5x since it boasted a million check-ins per week in February.  http://bit.ly/cX6MkX I definitely wouldn’t call it mainstream yet but it’s moving in the right direction.

Now, Foursquare has done a deal with Starbucks.  Mayors of each location get $1 off of a Frappuccino.  For me, the interesting part is not the discount.  It is the ability to message people nearby that there is a deal or event in the area.  http://bit.ly/bB5vBK For example, when I check in at my kid’s school, I am notified that there is a deal nearby.  When I click on it, it tells me about the Starbucks deal across the street.  Thing is, I’m not a Mayor and not qualified to receive the discount – but I’ve been made aware.

The platform is new and there’s a lot of talk about Facebook acquiring Foursquare or Facebook creating competing services that put them out of business.  Then there’s Gowalla, a smaller competitor and a whole host of ways the business side of things could shake out.  Regardless, the platform offers fantastic opportunities that marketers should not ignore.

Diesel did an experiment and published the results:  http://bit.ly/bCERSl

Pepsi also seems to think it is cool: http://bit.ly/clbIDP

Want to talk about how your brand use location-based mobile services to drive engagement?