foursquare executive guide for brands

THE WATCONSULT GUIDE TO FOURSQUARE FOR

BUSINESS & BRANDS

Who is checking in?

The President

Astronauts are checking in too

You can be an explorer too

Brands on Foursquare

What is

Foursquare is a mobile social networking tool/game founded in March 2009. It is an app that uses the GPS in a mobile device

to help users identify their Foursquare “friends” where they are.

Community: Over 15 million people worldwide

Over 1.5 billion check-ins, with millions more every day

Over 750,000 Businesses are using the Merchant Platform

Foursquare Glossary Check In: Telling Foursquare where you are via GPS or physical address

Mayor: A person who visits a place more than anyone else

Badges: Think of them as little trophies or rewards for visiting interesting places

Points: Getting more rewards/ another way to compete against your friends

There are three core user components to Foursquare

1. Check-in: each time a user enters a location, they can use their mobile devices’ GPS and the Foursquare app to announce their presence at this location. Users who check into any given location more than anyone else become the “mayor”

2. Badges: users can earn various badges for check-ins and tasks completed (see the next page for some examples)

3. Points: Foursquare users can earn a variety of points for their check-ins. They play against their friends and geographic destinations each week to see who can earn the most points

Some of the initial marketing efforts on Foursquare involved small local and mom/pop restaurants and bars that would offer free drinks, appetizers or discounted food to the “mayor” of their location. It wasn’t long before bigger brands started to notice the potential of creating marketing and loyalty programs on Foursquare.

OVER 800 MILLION MOBILE USERS IN INDIA

80 MILLION SMARTPHONE USERS

SOURCE: THE HINDU & MSNBC.COM

DECODING THE INDIAN YOUTH &

HOW THEY USE THEIR PHONES!

According to a Nielsen-Informate Mobile Intelligence survey, Indian smartphone user

spends 72% of the time on activities such as gaming, entertainment, applications (apps) and internet related content.

Those in the age group of 15-24 years spend

about 3 hours a day on their smartphones, those in the over 31 year category spent about two hours.

The younger smartphone users (15-25 years)

spend 2 hours on browsing and entertainment compared to one hour in the other category (over 31 years)

Source: AC Neilson

MARKET GROWTH IN LOCATION BASED SERVICES

$98 Million in 2009

$512 Million in 2012

Why is Foursquare relevant?

MOBILE WEB STATISTICS

MOBILE WEB WILL OUTGROW THE WEB IN 5 YEARS

FOURSQUARE ADDS 15K USERS EVERYDAY

FACEBOOK & TWITTER THE TOP 2 SOCIAL NETWORKS ARE INTEGRATED WITH FOURSQUARE

Advantage for a User

How does it work?

Friend Finder

The premise of Foursquare is simple:

"Tell Foursquare where you are and it

will tell you who and what is nearby.“

Social City Guide

• The process of telling Foursquare where you are is called "checking-in"

• When asked to locate themselves, users are shown a list of nearby venues (based on GPS)

Users “Check-In” to Places

• To broadcast their location to their friends

• To update their Twitter + Facebook status

• To bookmark or remember where they've been

Check-Ins Earn Pointsfor discovering a new placefor going out two nights in a rowfor four stops in a nightfor bringing six friends

+5 pts+2 pts+4 pts+6 pts

Users compete on a Leaderboard that

resets weekly

• "Mayors" are those who check-in most often at a given place

• Mayor ship is triggered when a user visits more than 2x within 60 days

Special Mayor Offers

• These "Mayors" titles are used by local merchants to reward locals and regulars

• Offers need to be unique and interesting to engage Foursquare users

• A 10% discount is not compelling enough

Foursquare Online

Tips

• Get tips from other users that have been to the venue

• Users create Twitter-style recommendations: "Go here, try this"

Venue

Tips

• As users check-in at places around the city, Foursquare throws these recommendations back to the users

Find out what’s hot, right now!

Nearby

Tips

• Find out what’s hot around the neighbourhood

• Users share short, quick tips that are not like Yelp reviews

Search Nearby

To-Dos

• Add places to go and things to do to your list

• Handy for remembering new restaurants that a friend told you about

• Earn points when you cross to-dos off your list

Badges

• The more you explore, the more you unlock

• Badges are tied to time, distance and location

• You may unlock one for staying out past 2am on a school night or for checking-in with 3 members of the opposite sex.

Integration

• Foursquare integrates with Twitter and Facebook platforms

• Add friends from Gmail, Twitter, Facebook (using Facebook Connect)

Platforms

• New version of iPhone App 1.4 released in Sept. 2009

• Android compatibility launched in Sept. 2009

• First Blackberry App to be released early Oct. 2009

Etiquette

• your workplace,• your home

• restaurants, cafes, hair salons

• pubs, bars, nightclubs• parks, libraries, airports

NO, do not check-in at:

YES, check-in at:

• 21+ American cities • + Amsterdam • + Vancouver

Envision 100m users in:

Who’s Playing Foursquare?

Most popular in NYC where Foursquare is

based.

THE BADGES

• Click here to learn more about these badges and many more.

Unlock your brand potential with Foursquare

84%Of Americans say online reviews influence their purchasing decisions ,

according to a survey by Opinion Research Corporation

FOURSQUARE CAN HELP YOU

BRIDGE THE ONLINE OFFLINE CONNECT

https://foursquare.com/business/

Retailers can claim their venue and

What type of special

do you want to

run?

Brands can leverage Foursquare by

Foursquare brand pages

https://foursquare.com/create_page

Branded badges

Save to Foursquare

Business Benefits of Taking Your Brand on Foursquare

1. Customers offer you constant word of mouth exposure

2. Opens doors for new kind of promotions to reward loyal customers

3. Customer behavior is tracked, allowing habits to be identified and leveraged

4. It connects you to your digital evangelists , people who probably have a lot of clout in their social circle

Approach to Foursquare

1. EVALUATE 2. EXPLORE 3. EXPRESS 4. ENGAGE

Your options to Build an effective

Strategy

The platform toBuild your

Unique presence

Express your love For loyal customers

By incentivizing them

Keep your community Continually engaged with

Your brand

Evaluate

For users Foursquare is a game above anything else

Ask any Foursquare user and they’ll tell you about The stats , the places they are a mayor of and the Badges they have earned

As a brand make sure you evaluate your strategy andIts taps into the fun sprit of the game

Ensure you link your Foursquare to Facebook & Twitter

Explore

Claim your venue by searching your business nameAmong registered venues

If you see your venue listed, click claim to becomeThe owner

If you don’t see your venue, add it along with imagesAnd details

Foursquare provides a detailed analytical dashboardFor your track the activities at your venue

ExpressUse Foursquare to create special deals for your users

Mayor Specials

Frequency Based Specials

Check in specials

Wildcard specials

1.

Engage After you have nailed the basics it is Important to keep the communityEngaged on a long term basis

Considering featuring Foursquare on Your corporate website so your visitorsKnow that your brand is on Foursquare.

Some brands using Foursquare Successfully

#1 STARBUCKS

Starbucks was one of the first national brands to recognize the potential in Foursquare. It started in March when coffee addicts could earn a barista badge by checking into five separate Starbucks locations. Read more here.

In May Starbucks implemented a monthlong “mayor” offer for each location. The “mayor” of each Starbucks location is entitled to $1 off of any Frappuccino, one time for the month of June. Learn more here.

Sources: The New York Times and GPSBusinessnews.com

#2 DOMINO’S PIZZA

Domino’s UK is running a nationwide Foursquare promotion that rewards mayors with a small free pizza each Wednesday. Those who merely check in on Foursquare will receive a free side dish for their patronage should they spend more than £10 (or around $14.50). Learn more here.

Sources: Mashable.com and wirefresh.com (picture)

#3 JIMMY CHOOJimmy Choo has teamed up with Foursquare to create a treasure hunt around London (called Catch-a-Choo) which sees a pair of Jimmy Choo trainers checkin at locations across the fashionable city. Contestants in the online interactive competition will need to follow the check-ins and arrive at the location before the pair of trainers leaves. If they succeed they will win a pair of trainers in the size and style of their choice. Learn more here.

Source: misscooca.com

#4 ZAGAT

Foursquare and Zagat, the restaurant-guide publishers, recently announced a partnership. Foursquare plans to offer a “Foodie” badge that can be earned by checking into Zagat-rated restaurants in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and other major cities.

Source: The New York Times

In addition to offering a special badge for Foursquare users, Zagat will begin piping tips and recommendations into the Foursquare system. Zagat also plans to run a series of “Meet the Mayor” interviews on its website, featuring Foursquare users who have checked in enough times at a particular location to earn the “mayor” title. Learn more here.

#5 MARC JACOBS

For Fashion Week 2010, the Marc Jacobs brand decided to go beyond just digitally streaming their runway shows. It took the online interactions offline through Foursquare.

Marc Jacobs and Foursquare created the “Fashion Victim” badge, which allowed Fashion Week attendees (and others) to checkin at any Marc by Marc Jacobs stores in New York and around the country to unlock the badge. Four people who unlocked the badge in New York were randomly chosen to receive tickets to the Marc Jacobs show. Learn more here.

Source: Mashable.com

#6 PENNSYLVANIA TOURISM

The Pennsylvania Tourism Board has launched a summerlong campaign called “The Fantastic Roadtrip-a-Matic.” A centerpiece of the effort is a program with Foursquare that has sprinkled 100 tips at locations across the state. When Foursquare users check in at one of the locations, they will see the pieces of advice.

The tourism board is also offering users three virtual badges based on their activity. For instance, Foursquare users who visit three recommended historical sites earn a “PA 4 Score and 7” badge. The other two badges are the “PA Shooflyer” for visiting restaurants and the “PA Retail Polka” for shopping. Learn more here.

Source: Adweek.com

The India Story

Foursquare Grabs First Brand Partnership in India –

Cafe Coffee Day

On your third check-in at CCD (applicable only for Bangalore), you will get 15% discount. And if you are the Mayor, CCD will serve you a free coffee and a 20% discount on every 3rd check-in.Aside, Cafe Coffee Day is the first Indian brand on Foursquare to have their own Brand Page (http://foursquare.com/CafeCoffeeDay ).Given that CCD is probably the most visited ‘office space‘ by entrepreneurs (and Investors), expect a lot of tweeting in the coming days.

To get your brand Talking

Contact

Rajiv Dingra Rajiv@watconsult.com

9820 761 167

Nipun Kapur nipun@watconsult.com

9820 700 122

www.watconsult.com

Building No:111-A, Currimjee Building,Office No-202, 2nd floor,

Behind Mumbai University Bus Stop,Opp Standard Chartered Bank,

M.G Road, Fort, Mumbai- 400023,