Friday, February 4, 2011

Foursquare’s Super Bowl Campaign to Test Badge Redemption Codes

From Mashable:

This year, startups and brands are hungrier than ever to capitalize on the Super Bowl and the anticipated volume of conversations that will spill over on social sites by association. In doing just that, Foursquare will be testing out two new ideas: A global promoted venue and redemption codes attached to badges.

The location-based mobile game is trading in the local appeal of its service for a day and working with the NFL on something more global in nature. On Sunday, all Foursquare users will see the same promoted trending venue — “Super Bowl Sunday” — for the duration of the game.

Foursquare will be doling out team-themed Super Bowl badges to Steelers and Packers fans who check in to the promoted venue and include the name of a team in their shouts. Foursquare users at the game can unlock a special Super Bowl XLV badge if they check in to the stadium.

More importantly, every unlocked badge comes with a unique redemption code that badge holders can use for a 20% discount on select merchandise at NFLShop.com.

Foursquare fans will appreciate the badges and the merchandise discount, but there’s much more to this promotion than ephemeral trophies and sporting memorabilia.

The “Super Bowl Sunday” manually promoted venue is a notable tangent from the startup’s everyday fare of venues promoted by popularity. For starters, Foursquare will likely see its most venue checkins to date. Then, of course, is the potential for the startup to open up promoted venues to paid advertisers.

Badge holder redemption codes are also something we’d anticipate the startup will proffer to future partners to better tie Foursquare activity to actual sales.

A Foursquare representative stressed that this particular promotion is merely an experiment and that no money is changing hands. But, in testing badge redemption codes and Foursquare-promoted venues, the startup seems to be laying the foundation for products with advertiser appeal.

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