foursquare | Cause marketing for nonprofits

Tag Archive: foursquare

The Future of Location-Based Cause Marketing Unfolds with CheckPoints

Written on November 3, 2010 in Location-Based Cause Marketing

CheckPoints, a new iPhone application, allows you to check-in to retail locations and view advertised products. You can then scan product barcodes for points and redeem them for rewards like gift cards and gadgets.

Just think of the potential for cause marketing. You check-in to a store and part of the advertised products featured are cause products. Maybe for a week in October “pink” products are featured by Checkpoints. When you scan the product’s barcode, you get information on the product and breast cancer awareness. If you make a purchase, the manufacturer and/or retailer donates to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

CheckPoints already allows shoppers to donate their points to nine causes.

Check out the video at top and you’ll see there are lots of ways to involve and reward causes.

CheckPoints’ initial partners include Tyson Foods, Belkin, Energizer and Seventh Generation. But I’m curious how the service will evolve for local businesses.

We all may want to read this article as a reality check.

What we’re all waiting for is adoption. The user base for LBS is still tiny. Although there are nearly a billion unique users of social media worldwide, the 400 pound gorilla in LBS, Foursquare, is at four million users and climbing. I think we can all agree that LBS for shopping will be huge moving forward, but it will take time for the space to evolve.

So, if LBS really is going to take off, what’s that mean for you? What should you do next? Find ways to use location-based cause marketing so you don’t fall behind. I have a couple suggestions here, and I’ve devoted a whole category of my blog to location-based cause marketing.

Tags: barcode, cause marketing, checkpoints, foursquare, location-based marketing, location-based services

Coming Soon to a Mother Near You, Location-Based Marketing

Written on August 17, 2010 in Location-Based Cause Marketing

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“Men might do these things first, but women will take it over because they remain the primary shoppers,” said Kathryn Koegel, of Primary Impact. “Especially when there are children, it all becomes about convenience.”

While young men used to be the most active demo for location-based marketing (e.g. coupons, offers) via smartphones, that’s quickly changing, according to a study by Harris Interactive.

Of people with kids younger than 6 in their household, 35% are at least somewhat interested in getting opt-in text alerts from favorite businesses, compared to 32% of households with older kids and 25% of homes with no children. (The study, conducted in May with 2,000 adults, does not distinguish between childless adults and empty-nesters.)

The growing shift of women to mobile offers and coupons is important for cause marketers like me who rely on in-store programs and the women that support them.

The furture is certainly not coupon clipping and Sunday papers as more retailers try to make it easier for consumers to find deals, boost customer loyalty and drive traffic to their web sites. Kroger has just rolled out the Digital Coupon Center.

So what’s this all mean for you? Start learning more about location-based marketing and the mobile web.

I’ve written a whole series of posts on LBM and particularly Foursquare to get you going.
Immerse yourself in the subject at the LBM Summit in NYC in September.
Some great people to follow on LBM include @charityestrella, @schneidermike, @waynesutton, @lbmarketing, @nolandhoshino, and a must follow is @ericleist. One other addition. When Facebook launches its own location-based service this week, you’ll want to follow the FB Monster @johnhaydon as he will have all the news and tools to report. I’m sure I missed someone. Who would you add to this list?
There are a couple great Twitter chats on LBM. The first #LBSchat happens on August 26th at 9pmEST. Also, check out #4SqChat.

What other resources or tools would you recommend to get people up-to-speed about LBM in general and LB[cause]M in particular?

Tags: cause marketing, foursquare, LBM, location-based marketing

Foursquare for Charities: Live Discussion

Written on June 22, 2010 in Location-Based Cause Marketing

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Thanks to everyone who turned out for the live discussion today at Philanthropy.com on Foursquare for Charities. I hope you learned something!

Today’s transcript

To help digest some of the things we talked about, here are the posts I’ve written on Foursquare for your education and enjoyment.

I wrote a two-part series on Boston-based Boloco and their Foursquare program and how nonprofits might learn from it.

Part 1

Part 2

Here’s a guest post I wrote on Foursquare for Philanthropy.com

How Nonprofit Groups Can Benefit From Foursquare

Here are two posts on the big Foursquare launch at SXSW this spring by my friends at StudioGood.

Part 1

Part 2

A groundbreaking program here in Boston that sparked my initial interest in Foursquare was Harvard University’s use of the geo-location service. Here’s their story and what nonprofits can learn from it.

Harvard Schools Cause Marketers on Foursquare

Are you convinced that CauseWorld is the next Foursquare? I’m not. Here’s why.

CauseWorld: Location-Based Cause Marketing

I hope you enjoyed today’s live discussion. If you have any questions just leave a comment.

Additional Reading & Listening

Podcast: Making the Most of Location Based Networks by Allison Fine

A Social Media Experiment Raises Big Money for Small Charity (Story on my wonderful co-presenter today Estrella Rosenberg).