So, you’re feeling pretty good about your handle on this whole social media thing. Your clients have Facebook Fan Pages, your designers are engaging on Twitter and you read Mashable every morning….and then along comes Foursquare.
Billed as the new Twitter, Foursquare combines Facebook, Twitter and Text Messaging into a mostly mobile “game,” where users check in to various locations, get points and unlock fancy badges. You are able to see other users checked in at the same location as you, and the person who checks into a location most often becomes the mayor. Some local spots have done the smart thing and incentivized the mayorship with a free cup of coffee, while others might just offer free cupcakes to anyone checked in on Foursquare during a particular hour of the day. Like Twitter, it really only starts to make sense when you use it, so sign up.
The most promising element of Foursquare from a fashion PR/marketing perspective is in its ability to drive online-to-offline activity (including event attendance, sales, and then offline-to-online buzz) as well as the fact that it is relatively new territory – putting Foursquare integration right in the center of a pretty compelling PR pitch to the industry trades.
Fashion Designer/Retail Foursquare Tips
As reported in Mashable and Fashionably Marketing by Macala Wright Lee, Marc Jacobs and Diesel are two early adopters of this technology. Most recently, Jimmy Choo got in touch with PR Couture about The Jimmy Choo Trainer Hunt. For the next few weeks, Jimmy Choo is using Foursquare to create a real-time treasure hunt around London. As an object, one pair of Jimmy Choo trainers will use Foursquare to check-in at fashionable stop-offs around London and send real-time updates of its location. Those who reach the venue in time to catch the trainers can keep them.
So how can you start to integrate Foursquare into PR strategy? Read on!
Increase Cool Factor with Custom Badges
For a rapidly rising fee, brands can create custom badges, which is what MJ did during New York Fashion Week. The “Fashion Victim” badge unlocked when shoppers checked -in at any Marc by Marc Jacobs store in the country. Four people who unlocked the badge in New York were randomly chosen to receive tickets to the Marc Jacobs show. Checking in at the right location (in my case, Anthropologie), unlocks Bravo’s “Fashionista” badge.
How You Can Do It
Get in touch with Foursquare and be prepared to make a compelling case about how your brand fits in with all the fun and pony up some serious cash. Visit Foursquare for Businesses to get more information.
Drive Engagement with To-Do’s
In addition to the “Lucky Elite Shopper badge,” Lucky Magazine fills it’s account with recommendations on where to shop.
How You Can Do It
Brands can use the “To-do” functionality to list all the boutiques where there line is carried, or to even make recommendations on what to wear to a fashionable event. Retailers can promote sales, new merchandise, even secret code words to be whispered to a sales associate for an immediate glass of bubbly. Individual designers can make recommendations on favorite places to eat, play etc and build a community of followers eager for her every recommendation.
Integrate Foursquare into holistic marketing campaigns to drive in-store traffic and online buzz
Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign has included outdoor and in-store signage, Twitter and Facebook marketing, and now Foursuare. When users checked in within three blocks of Diesel Store on Saturday, a “special offer nearby” banner popped driving users to the Diesel store. According to Fashionably Marketing:
How To Get Your Diesel Foursquare Deal
- Every time a Foursquare user within 3 city blocks of the Diesel store “checks in”, they will be alerted to a “nearby deal.”
- The offer will say “Head over to the Diesel store to unlock your Foursquare deal”.
- Representatives from Iced Media (Diesel’s digital marketing agency) will be on hand at Diesel’s “Foursquare” check-in booth to award people with a special prize.
Here’s where the program gets good:
- While they are in store, customers can pick up a BE STUPID sticker.
- Customers then return home and take a photo of sticker on their forehead.
- They then email the photo to BESTUPID@DIESELCONTEST.COM.
- Customers then receive an auto-reply with an entry form asking them to share their most STUPID story.
The prizes are crazy! In addition to the Diesel Foursquare deal, participants that go one step further and photograph themselves with the BE STUPID sticker can win of five trips!
- Swim with sharks off South Africa
- Ride a motorcycle across Europe
- Fly in zero gravity in Las Vegas
- Take a train through Mongolia
- Cut a record in Jamaica
How You Can Do It
Consider ways to integrate Foursquare into the in-store experience through signage promoting 10% off for the Mayor, Foursquare account name on price tags or receipts, If you are a mall retailer, have a special offer show up anytime a user checks in at a competitor store!
When hosting a public event, integrate Foursquare into the event with a scavenger hunt by asking those who are checked in to add a “Tip” at your location. Attempt to unlock the “Swarm” badge (50 people checked in at a single location) by promoting a Fashion Swarm party!
Thoughts?
Are you on foursquare? Using it personally or for a client? Is this just the newest fad not worthy of inquiry or part of a larger trend toward integrating the online/offline experience. Sound off!
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