The Future of Location-Based Cause Marketing Unfolds with CheckPoints

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.