Location Based Marketing – Get a Blimp and use Foursquare

In the Moment
Geo targeting and location-based engagements offer a new way for consumers to engage with brands and products and for brands to connect with consumers—in the moment. We define location-based engagement as: Any action a consumer takes to connect or interact with a specific geographic place via their mobile device. The consumer and venue each shares three qualities: time, place, and action.
Since the consumer voluntarily engages with the place; e.g., a place of business, building, venue, etc., this action grants a measure of permission on the part of the consumer.

One of the most popular location marketing apps is Foursquare. Here are some tips and examples of Foursquare marketing campaigns.

  1. Be careful who you add on Foursquare. You are sharing location so keep it to close friends and family
  2. Take advantage of To-Dos and Shouts
    1. To-Dos are notations you can make to yourself to help you to remember something about a venue, like (“Awesome bartender – ask for Jacks famous Iced tea next time”).
    2. A shout is a quick way to tell your Foursquare friends what you are doing when you check in. You can type a quick 140 character message and have it directed to Twitter.
  3. Be a Mayor
    1. The mayor is based on the most days with check-ins in the past 60 days. It is possible to have more check-ins overall, but fewer check-ins over the past 60 days (Only one check-in per day counts!). 
    2. Only users who have legit check-ins can become mayor. Rapid-fire check-ins, drive-by check-ins, and fake check-ins will not count. 
    3. Please also be sure to upload a profile photo to your account in order to become mayor!

Check your status on foursquare for being a mayor http://bethemayor.com/

Some strange and interesting Badges


The Prom King badge is a secret badge created for a Foursquare teamster. “Co-Founder Naveen [Selvadurai] threw a giant prom-themed party for his birthday this past February in the auditorium of a children’s school in downtown Manhattan. Anyone who would check in to the location that night would unlock it. Unfortunately, it didn’t get put into the code in time, and it’s never been unlocked.” 


To celebrate the opening weekend of street artist Banksy’s first film “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” Foursquare created a special badge featuring a rat in star glasses, reminiscent of Banksy’s artwork.








The Gossip Girl badge was originally called “Socialite,” but was later changed to “Gossip Girl in NYC.” “It’s unique because it’s actually really hard for people to figure out how to unlock it. It’s not tag-based (which people often believe), and not necessarily related to the [TV] show.





Mr. Bill Badge was created by interaction designer Eris Stassi in celebration of her beau’s birthday. David Bill, the lucky birthday boy, and CTO at CoTweet, said that his friends nicknamed him Mr. Bill as a joke, with reference to the Mr. Bill character on Saturday Night Live from the ’70s and ’80s. To unlock this badge, you had to attend Bill’s birthday party at Dave’s on July 2, 2009.




The Tarantino Badge was among the long list of Foursquare badges offered at SXSW 2010 was the Tarantino badge. This badge had Foursquare groupies in a fit trying to figure out how to unlock it. Many badge lists, which chronicle all of the latest badges along with how to unlock them, presumed that the badge could be tapped by attending Quentin Tarantino film screenings at SXSW.


Last but not least, the best badge of all. And one of the best campaigns.




The Conan Blimp Badge

As Conan O’Brien prepares to make his big return to late night television on November 8, the comedian is also returning to his social media roots for a Foursquare promotion of giant proportions — blimp-sized, in fact.

Team Coco, in partnership with AT&T, has launched the The Conan Blimp into the skies above Philadelphia. The orange eye sore will travel all over the East Coast for the entire month of October; Conan fans who spot it can check in to the blimp to unlock a special Conan badge on Foursquare.


The Conan Blimp also had its own website complete with a live cam and an always-updating map. True Conan fans that don’t want to miss their chance at the badge can also follow Team Coco on Foursquare and Twitter for updates on the blimp’s whereabouts.

The campaign is as transparent as they come — those blimp checkins were distributed to all corners of the social web and spread the message that Conan is back. Still, it’s a massive undertaking that is both strange and fascinating. The month-long East Coast blimp trip is sure to be one giant spectacle, and it seems safe to assume that it will attract a fair amount of stares — and possibly even Foursquare checkins.


The blimp-badge partnership is also an interesting indicator of how location, checkins and entertainment marketing can go hand-in-hand. Foursquare tells us that the startup’s participation in the campaign was orchestrated by Jonathan Crowley, sibling to Co-founder Dennis Crowley and the man at the company handling media partnerships of late.

This was my favorite check-in and Foursqaure badge. I saw the blimp in NJ going over the Driscoll bridge but was not close enough to check in. Then I saw the blimp the next day on Rt 287 in Short Hills where I was able to pull over and check in.




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