Foursquare's modern twist on traditional retail marketing
Gap took a significant step further into social media retail marketing this week, running a promotion that offered Facebook fans, Twitter followers and Foursquare users a one-day-only, in-store discount of 25 per cent across their US stores.
While Facebook and Twitter users had to faff around with print outs and discount codes, Foursquare users could simply use the central 'check in' function to claim their discount.
I think this development illustrates three points of interest:
1) Gap is a big, mainstream player in retail - their offer demonstrates a pioneering keenness to explore this new space in social media marketing. The promotion marks a milestone that will likely influence other big players in the very near future.
2) Geo-location services allow for an experience that 'crosses over' with the real world more readily than web-centred services such as Facebook and Twitter.
3) Foursquare appears to be breaking away from the immediate geo-location competition (Gowalla, Loopt) and is now looking to line up alongside the social media big boys (this is likely to be both a blessing and curse for Foursquare as the big players look to develop their own geo-location offerings).
Gap may be the latest and most high-profile high street retailer to offer its customers loyalty discounts through geo-location social media services, but it is not the first. Paul Frank has been using a similar idea in the US - offering Gowalla and Loopt users discounts for single in-store check ins.
Ann Taylor offers 15 percent discounts to US-based Foursquare users who check in five times or more in a day, and 25 percent to the current 'Mayor' of each Ann Taylor store (the mayor is the Foursquare user with most 'check ins' at a single destination in one week).
Food and drinks retailers such as Starbucks, Burger King and Pizza Hut have also been in on the action, giving away minor freebies to loyal geo-location services using customers.
However, all of the above is US-based activity. What does The Foursquare Gap milestone mean for retail on this side of the pond?
Foursquare now has 2.6 million users worldwide, and is adding approximately 600,000 new users per month month. Although these users are predominantly based in the US, there are signs that Foursquare will continue to stake its claim as the rising star social media service in the UK too.
Whilst it's difficult to say exactly how many UK-based Foursquare users there actually are, the tell tale signs of a service breaking through are already there:
Back in March, the service signed its first worldwide carrier partnership with Vodafone. The deal demonstrates a real commitment to the UK market, but also earns Foursquare the endorsement of one of the UK's biggest mobile networks, and active promotion to Vodafone's customer base.
Domino's Pizza UK is leading the way worldwide in food and drink retail with a free pizza each week for mayors of their UK outlets, while users who simply check in get free breadsticks (the same reward Pizza Hut mayors can expect in the States). Recent stats (July 2010) from the London-division of Domino's claimed to have seen 10,000 check ins from 3,500 unique users.
Jimmy Choo recently ran a fantastically creative ‘catch-me-if-you-can type hunt’ around London using Foursquare. Users could sign up to track, try to intercept and then take home pairs of Jimmy Choo trainers as the shoes took a suitably fashionable journey around London’s hotspots.
The first ever Foursquare UK 'swarm party' took place last Thursday night at the Metrodeco tea rooms in Brighton. Swarm parties happen when 50 or more Foursquare users check in to a single location within one hour. As a result, the tea room doubled their daily takings and notched up more than 250 social media mentions in 24 hours.
Make no mistake Foursquare is definitely on the rise in the UK. However, what I think is really interesting here is the way the service is providing retailers with a distinctly modern way of delivering traditional retail marketing promotions. It's a case of new technology (location-based services) meeting tried and tested marketing techniques (price promotions, discounts, loyalty rewards). The Jimmy Choo example is the exception - it really pushes the boundaries with it's creativity and nicely demonstrates the powerful potential of the web crossing over with reality.
