Starbucks continues mobile reign with multichannel mobile marketing effort

Beverage giant Starbucks is continuing to use mobile and social media to increase in-store traffic and drive awareness for its latest campaign.

The company has partnered with foursquare on its latest initiative. The campaign boosts awareness for the RED initiative that aims to fight AIDS.

“Starbucks is wise to partner with foursquare,” said Wilson Kerr, vice president of business development and sales at Unbound Commerce, Boston. “These consumers tell Starbucks they were there, by checking in and location data confirms it.

“This is likely worth a $1 contribution, since foursquare is likely sharing user data with Starbucks,” he said. “While it makes consumers feel good – and is a good cause – the upside is that Starbucks gains visibility to those consumers who might not yet be using the Starbucks mobile app for payments.”

Mr. Wilson is not affiliated with Starbucks. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Starbucks did not respond to press inquiries. Read More

(RED): Starbucks To Donate $1 For Every Check-in In Foursquare’s Largest Non-Profit Campaign Yet

It’s nice to check-in to battle to be the mayor of your favorite burger joint, or to get 30 percent off a purchase, but it’s much more satisfying to check-in and feel as if you’ve actually done some good in the world. That’s because the AIDS battling organization (RED) has announced today that it will be partnering with Foursquare to leverage check-ins and social media awareness in the largest check-in campaign to date.

The initiative is being held to raise both awareness and funding in support of RED’s RUSH TO ZERO, a campaign that seeks to help deliver an AIDS-free generation by 2015 by way of a series of in-person and digital events and experiences that involve social media, brands, celebrities, gamers, and more.

In this case, from June 1st to June 10th, the campaign is partnering with Starbucks, which will be donating one dollar to The Global Fund for every Foursquare check-in in their stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, up to $250K. (Check out the landing page here.) Penfolds and Bugaboo are also participating and will make donations for check-ins at participating third-party retailers.

Judging by the usual Starbucks check-in rate, I’m sure that goal will be surpassed in a matter of days — if not hours. Just go about your usual bleary-eyed latte purchasing, and after having plied your brain with some of that sweet, sweet caffeine, check-in at Starbucks and bazingo! you’ve just forced Starbucks into doing some good. Other than feeding your caffeine addiction, of course. Read More

Coming Soon to a Coffee Shop Near You: NFC-Powered Foursquare Check-ins

If you think whipping out your phone, searching for a venue and then tapping the "Check In" button on Foursquare is a tiresome waste of several seconds, you're in luck. Like so many other things in life, the Foursquare check-in promises to be simplified by NFC technology, allowing us to simply wave our phones to automatically check into a venue.

Of course, mainstream adoption of NFC is at least a few years away, but owners of Symbian-powered phones can get started thanks to a new update to the Foursquare app for the platform. Read More

Foursquare's Website Just Got a Whole Lot More Useful

In the latest of a series of updates to the scope of its functionality, Foursquare launched a redesigned website today that breathes new life into the service's desktop presence. Whereas the popular location-based social network has always existed predominantly on people's phones, today's update makes Foursquare.com a vastly more useful destination than it used to be.

The first thing one notices upon logging into the new Foursquare website is a map that spans the width of the page. If you've allowed your browser to do so, the map will show where you are on the map and display a number of nearby establishments. This isn't just a stale "You are here" mall directory-style map of your neighborhood. The local businesses it shows you have some real intelligence behind them. Read More

Foursquare: Attract, Reward & Engage Your Customers

Foursquare, the mobile social-media app, has surpassed 1 billion “checkins.” That means that every second of every day in every city in every country people are using the location-based service to “check-in” to places like restaurants, bars, gyms, movie theaters, hotels, schools, sporting events and businesses of any type.  Once they do, they share their checkins with friends on foursquare, Twitter and Facebook.  The gaming aspect of foursquare gives users the opportunity to earn “badges” and “mayorships.” Read More