Comments on: Checking-In: Foursquare At SXSW Music http://www.edelmandigital.com/2010/03/24/checking-in-foursquare-at-sxsw-music/ Authentic Communications Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:09:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Foursquare Expands Beyond Your Backyard with Music Festivals and TV Channels | isitbuzzing.com http://www.edelmandigital.com/2010/03/24/checking-in-foursquare-at-sxsw-music/#comment-134 Foursquare Expands Beyond Your Backyard with Music Festivals and TV Channels | isitbuzzing.com Sat, 04 Sep 2010 17:54:48 +0000 http://edelmandigital.com/?p=2087#comment-134 [...] trying to write up a post on how music festivals promote themselves, I stumbled upon this years South by Southwest’s festival promotion, which uses location-based check-in/check [...] [...] trying to write up a post on how music festivals promote themselves, I stumbled upon this years South by Southwest’s festival promotion, which uses location-based check-in/check [...]

]]> By: What We're Reading This Week | Trada Blog: Paid Search Marketing, Online Advertising and Small Biz http://www.edelmandigital.com/2010/03/24/checking-in-foursquare-at-sxsw-music/#comment-133 What We're Reading This Week | Trada Blog: Paid Search Marketing, Online Advertising and Small Biz Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:05:56 +0000 http://edelmandigital.com/?p=2087#comment-133 [...] 21 Unique Location Examples from Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl and MyTown – Jason Keath (@jakrose) provides 21 case studies of the big geolocation services and how they’ve been used for marketing. Am wondering about the success rate of some of these examples given this previous article from Edelman Digital on Foursquare and Spin Magazine. [...] [...] 21 Unique Location Examples from Foursquare, Gowalla, Whrrl and MyTown – Jason Keath (@jakrose) provides 21 case studies of the big geolocation services and how they’ve been used for marketing. Am wondering about the success rate of some of these examples given this previous article from Edelman Digital on Foursquare and Spin Magazine. [...]

]]> By: Mike Albanese http://www.edelmandigital.com/2010/03/24/checking-in-foursquare-at-sxsw-music/#comment-132 Mike Albanese Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:25:18 +0000 http://edelmandigital.com/?p=2087#comment-132 Great piece. As someone who worked closely on the SPIN/4sqr program I also agree that in retrospect, the badges were too difficult to unlock. Keep in mind that there were real world rewards (SPIN@Stubbs show) and there might have been problems were the badges too easy to get, and if they far outstripped the number of tix we had allotted to the promotion. Also, although the venues and shows were comprehensively mapped, there was no way to stop individual users from creating their own "venues" which lived in parrallel to the shows that we had in the 4sqr system. As Dennis said, check ins were way up vs 2009, we learned a lot and frankly, had a good time doing it. We look forward to bigger and better programs w/ 4sqr in 2009. Great piece. As someone who worked closely on the SPIN/4sqr program I also agree that in retrospect, the badges were too difficult to unlock. Keep in mind that there were real world rewards (SPIN@Stubbs show) and there might have been problems were the badges too easy to get, and if they far outstripped the number of tix we had allotted to the promotion. Also, although the venues and shows were comprehensively mapped, there was no way to stop individual users from creating their own “venues” which lived in parrallel to the shows that we had in the 4sqr system.

As Dennis said, check ins were way up vs 2009, we learned a lot and frankly, had a good time doing it. We look forward to bigger and better programs w/ 4sqr in 2009.

]]> By: Elaine Ellis http://www.edelmandigital.com/2010/03/24/checking-in-foursquare-at-sxsw-music/#comment-131 Elaine Ellis Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:33:18 +0000 http://edelmandigital.com/?p=2087#comment-131 Being a former agency person, I know how hard it is to generate good content for a blog. Edelman is really leading the pack. This is brilliant thought leadership on whether Foursquare works or not from a brand strategy. What's more amazing is that it elicited a response from the founder that was honest and forthright. Being a former agency person, I know how hard it is to generate good content for a blog. Edelman is really leading the pack. This is brilliant thought leadership on whether Foursquare works or not from a brand strategy. What’s more amazing is that it elicited a response from the founder that was honest and forthright.

]]> By: dens http://www.edelmandigital.com/2010/03/24/checking-in-foursquare-at-sxsw-music/#comment-130 dens Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:53:48 +0000 http://edelmandigital.com/?p=2087#comment-130 Hey all - Thanks for weighing in on this and great to hear your thoughts. A few thoughts from foursquare HQ: + We were super psyched to have the chance to partner with SPIN at SXSW and you can be sure that when we try this next year, we'll be sure to improve on everything. Truth be told, last year, we were lucky to have 100 checkins at SXSW Music. This year we were rolling in the tens of thousands (what a difference a year makes, right?). And while it's no secret that while Interactive was a run-way success for foursquare, we're just still in the "early adopter" stage of our growth curve. My bet: For 2011, foursquare will see more checkins at Music checkins than Interactive (a trend that I'd bet Twitter followed too, from 06/07 -> 08/09) + I do think the badges were a little on the "hard to unlock" side and we should have done a little more to make them easier to get. For the Interactive badges we added "hints" to make them easier to unlocks and in the mad rush of all-things-SXSW we didn't get to do these for SPIN. Next year for sure... + Two other sidesnotes: (a) the music showcases *did* count towards the Animal Collector badge (though it was a little off that some of those shows run for 6 hours so a checkin *anytime* during those 6 hours unlocked all those bands... more of a "data" problem than a "tech" problem) and (b) the Survivor badge was definitely broken (a bug on our end - sorry!) tho we did retroactively award them to everyone that should have unlocked it. In any case, we were pretty psyched how well foursquare went over during all of SXSW... no tech meltdowns, a few glitches here and there and something like *120k new users and close to 3.5 million checkins* over the past 10 days. There's not arguing with that. Thanks again to SPIN (and to everyone else whose been checking-in). We'll see you next year for sure, hopefully with more SPIN badges (and a working Survivor badge :) - @dens co-founder, foursquare Hey all -

Thanks for weighing in on this and great to hear your thoughts. A few thoughts from foursquare HQ:

+ We were super psyched to have the chance to partner with SPIN at SXSW and you can be sure that when we try this next year, we’ll be sure to improve on everything. Truth be told, last year, we were lucky to have 100 checkins at SXSW Music. This year we were rolling in the tens of thousands (what a difference a year makes, right?). And while it’s no secret that while Interactive was a run-way success for foursquare, we’re just still in the “early adopter” stage of our growth curve. My bet: For 2011, foursquare will see more checkins at Music checkins than Interactive (a trend that I’d bet Twitter followed too, from 06/07 -> 08/09)

+ I do think the badges were a little on the “hard to unlock” side and we should have done a little more to make them easier to get. For the Interactive badges we added “hints” to make them easier to unlocks and in the mad rush of all-things-SXSW we didn’t get to do these for SPIN. Next year for sure…

+ Two other sidesnotes: (a) the music showcases *did* count towards the Animal Collector badge (though it was a little off that some of those shows run for 6 hours so a checkin *anytime* during those 6 hours unlocked all those bands… more of a “data” problem than a “tech” problem) and (b) the Survivor badge was definitely broken (a bug on our end – sorry!) tho we did retroactively award them to everyone that should have unlocked it.

In any case, we were pretty psyched how well foursquare went over during all of SXSW… no tech meltdowns, a few glitches here and there and something like *120k new users and close to 3.5 million checkins* over the past 10 days. There’s not arguing with that.

Thanks again to SPIN (and to everyone else whose been checking-in). We’ll see you next year for sure, hopefully with more SPIN badges (and a working Survivor badge :)

- @dens
co-founder, foursquare

]]> By: Lizz Kannenberg http://www.edelmandigital.com/2010/03/24/checking-in-foursquare-at-sxsw-music/#comment-129 Lizz Kannenberg Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:13:02 +0000 http://edelmandigital.com/?p=2087#comment-129 @ George - I came to Edelman from nearly 10 years in the music biz, so I made my observations from both the social media and music industry/event-specific perspectives. While the partnership may have been progressive in terms of the former, parts of it did not work in terms of the latter. Don’t get me wrong - I agree that the program generated buzz and that SPIN was forward-thinking to partner with Foursquare, but a big part of my job now is to observe these kinds of programs as they emerge and to determine what works and what doesn’t. In that sense, we were doing our due diligence and ensuring that OUR clients’ programs will be bigger and better. @ George – I came to Edelman from nearly 10 years in the music biz, so I made my observations from both the social media and music industry/event-specific perspectives. While the partnership may have been progressive in terms of the former, parts of it did not work in terms of the latter. Don’t get me wrong – I agree that the program generated buzz and that SPIN was forward-thinking to partner with Foursquare, but a big part of my job now is to observe these kinds of programs as they emerge and to determine what works and what doesn’t. In that sense, we were doing our due diligence and ensuring that OUR clients’ programs will be bigger and better.

]]> By: George Nimeh http://www.edelmandigital.com/2010/03/24/checking-in-foursquare-at-sxsw-music/#comment-128 George Nimeh Wed, 24 Mar 2010 12:21:03 +0000 http://edelmandigital.com/?p=2087#comment-128 Bit harsh, no? Surely, you'd have to admit that the PR value of this experiment in location-based social media and gaming was huge. "Everyone" knew about it and "everyone" was talking about it. Massive kudos to Spin for being brave in the first place and to Foursquare for doing something clever by exploring the potential of marketing, partnerships and event-related social gaming in this very nascent space. Could it have been better? Sure. Will it be? I'd bet on it ... an agile and iterative planning process demands it. Regarding the number of badges unlocked, is it supposed to be easy? What's wrong with making them hard to earn? Personally, I think that rare objects are more valuable. That said, I think they could have done a better job in terms of having a range of badges/rewards, of which some would be easier to unlock than others. All-in-all, I think it is a massive success, considering how much publicity and coverage it has received. I'd bet a badge or two that a simple assessment of the value of the media coverage would surely prove that point, to say nothing of all the posts, tweets and other buzz. I find it incredibly ironic that I'm reading this critique on a PR agency web site. @iboy Bit harsh, no?

Surely, you’d have to admit that the PR value of this experiment in location-based social media and gaming was huge. “Everyone” knew about it and “everyone” was talking about it.

Massive kudos to Spin for being brave in the first place and to Foursquare for doing something clever by exploring the potential of marketing, partnerships and event-related social gaming in this very nascent space. Could it have been better? Sure. Will it be? I’d bet on it … an agile and iterative planning process demands it.

Regarding the number of badges unlocked, is it supposed to be easy? What’s wrong with making them hard to earn? Personally, I think that rare objects are more valuable. That said, I think they could have done a better job in terms of having a range of badges/rewards, of which some would be easier to unlock than others.

All-in-all, I think it is a massive success, considering how much publicity and coverage it has received. I’d bet a badge or two that a simple assessment of the value of the media coverage would surely prove that point, to say nothing of all the posts, tweets and other buzz.

I find it incredibly ironic that I’m reading this critique on a PR agency web site.

@iboy

]]> By: Peter Flaschner http://www.edelmandigital.com/2010/03/24/checking-in-foursquare-at-sxsw-music/#comment-127 Peter Flaschner Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:36:06 +0000 http://edelmandigital.com/?p=2087#comment-127 A small note of caution: there's a flaw of sorts in the analysis in this sentence: "While 7,000+ users unlocked the first badge, Austin Explorer, by checking into 5 venues in the city, only slightly more than 1,500 were still checking in at the airport on the way out of town to earn the Survivor badge." If one checked in to their gate, as opposed to the airport (which many did), there was no survivor badge. I'm not pointing this out to be troublesome, but to draw a degree of caution to the conclusions one draws from the data. It may not be as accurate as it seems. A small note of caution: there’s a flaw of sorts in the analysis in this sentence:

“While 7,000+ users unlocked the first badge, Austin Explorer, by checking into 5 venues in the city, only slightly more than 1,500 were still checking in at the airport on the way out of town to earn the Survivor badge.”

If one checked in to their gate, as opposed to the airport (which many did), there was no survivor badge. I’m not pointing this out to be troublesome, but to draw a degree of caution to the conclusions one draws from the data. It may not be as accurate as it seems.

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