Why we're so excited by geo-locational mobile marketing

Location-based social networking is a hot topic right now, but we think that this trend is going to have a bigger impact than most people realise, and leading the way (at the moment) is Foursquare – a virtual game that allows users to earn badges for 'checking in' at various physical locations using their mobile phones. The overall objective of the game is to 'explore your city' scoring points along the way, with the ultimate goal being to get honoured with a Mayor badge if you check in somewhere enough times. Foursquare is not just a bit of fun though, it's highly addictive – up there with the likes of Tweeting, checking your Facebook page and uploading photos to Flickr.

Foursquare is growing rapidly (apparently 100,000 people signed up over 10 days in March), but still has less than 1 million users, most of whom are in the US. Figures show that UK uptake is still relatively low, but with brands such as Debenhams and Domino's Pizza recently signing up, it looks like people, and companies, are beginning to sit up and take notice.

And that's what excites us the most; the wealth or opportunity for brands. The monetary opportunities lie within the ability to connect people with tangible, promotional experiences in their everyday lives, and if used efficiently, Foursquare has the potential to allow for true interaction and engagement between companies and consumers, and it is interaction that can truly be measured. It can also offer deep insight into consumer behaviour in the form of real-time offline habits; a level of persona targeting previously inaccessible, which could be seen as more reliable than people's online habits – people aren't always who they say they are on social networks, i.e. saying you enjoy going to the gym and actually going are two very different things!

We believe that this will be the year that brands will be able to turn social media into currency, and we've got some great ideas for making this a reality. Get in touch if you're keen to understand how a Foursquare strategy could work for you.

This blog post was written by Gem

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