Foursquare's Potentially Game-Changing New Tool Can Measure Foot Traffic Generated by Digital Ads. Foursquare is now in the offline sales attribution game.
The social/location discovery platform is going after retail marketing budgets and promising to connect digital ads—and not just Foursquare ads, but those from across the Web and mobile apps—with actual visits to physical stores. As a tech player stymied by the narrative that its consumer-facing user growth hasn't scaled fast enough, Foursquare execs hope this latest program shines a light on the many positives that they say are developing inside the company. The new offering, called Attribution Powered by Foursquare, has been in the works for several months and has been tested by restaurant chain TGI Fridays, spirits giant Brown-Forman, publishing app Flipboard and programmatic advertising companies Drawbridge and Adelphic.
"Measurement needs to evolve as mobile evolves," said Steven Rosenblatt, Foursquare president. How It Works Or incremental decreases in visits. "You can optimize against it. Global Goals and TV Aims. What Is Foursquare? Bo Peabody: Dennis Crowley Should Sell Foursquare. Don’t Sell Out, Foursquare. Not Now. Not To Yahoo. It is becoming alarmingly apparent that Foursquare is strongly considering a sale to Yahoo.
As of the end of last week they had put the venture capitalists vying for their attention on ice. Those VCs happily provided term sheets valuing the company at $80 million or so. But in the meantime, Yahoo and maybe others expressed interest in the company, and are reportedly offering way above that $80 million. There are so many reasons why this deal shouldn’t happen. Here are just a few: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Foursquare has a destiny. Facebook and Twitter hitting the geo space must be a scary thing for a small startup to contemplate. Smart: Foursquare Segregates Staff Check-Ins From Customer Check. Starbucks offers $1 discount to Foursquare mayors, gets customer. Becoming a Foursquare mayor is not about just bragging rights anymore.
The coffee chain Starbucks announced today that it has started a nationwide “mayor reward” program with the popular location-based service. On the game-like location-based service, users have long been able to claim the title of mayor at businesses like Starbucks coffee shops by “checking in,” or announcing their presence to friends. Starbucks is now rewarding the mayors by knocking one dollar off the price of a frappucino, Mashable reported. News about Foursquare’s deals with major brands such as Starbucks, MTV, PepsiCo and Bravo have been making the rounds for a while. The MTV collaboration lets Foursquare users check out celebrity tips and check-ins, while Starbucks has a “Barista Badge” on the gaming app that users can claim after five check-ins at a coffee shop.
One dollar off Starbucks’ high-margin Frappucinos that usually run around $4 or more isn’t too significant of a discount. And for Starbucks? Location 2012: Death Of The Information Silos. Editor’s note: The following is a guest post written by Robert Scoble, who travels the world for Rackspace interviewing tech geeks for building43.com.
He’s one of the most popular (stalked) users of location-based services and has 8,215 friends on Foursquare. Here he writes about what the location-based world could look like in 2012 and what might keep it from happening. It’s January 2012 and you’ve just gotten your new Android 3.0-based phone. You’re going on a road trip so you start up the newly-released Foursquare. Gone are the checkins of 2010. As we pull out of my driveway in Half Moon Bay we cross a geofence that sends alerts to the various systems that I’ve connected to Foursquare.
Later in our drive, the kids are screaming. McDonalds sounds fun, because Milan likes their Chicken McNuggets and also likes playing in their Playland play rooms. As we drive down the road we’re constantly checking into various things and places. I can hear you saying “Scoble, what are you smoking?”