Flashback 2010: Digital trends decoded (Part 2)

After unravelling Android, Mobile Web and Tablets in the part 1, afaqs! demystifies two more digital trends that garnered lot of hype in 2010.

In continuation of part 1.

4. Foursquare.com (4SQ)

Foursquare.com caught the attention of users when it was covered extensively by many prominent digital media blogs like Mashable.com and Readwriteweb.com. Also, its popularity among early adopters or digital addicts who made it a regular part of their Facebook and Twitter updates, aroused the curiosity of various netizens and marketers in India.

Foursquare is a location-based social media tool, game, application or service, which enables users to broadcast their physical or geographical location and earn virtual points. The user can add tips, comments, photos and key in additional information regarding the venue, whenever he publishes his location update via Foursquare.

Members can access the Foursquare service and update their location by visiting the website or through mobile devices. The user can download (a phone-specific feature) the Foursquare mobile application from its website.

The application will use the GPS facility of the phone to update the user's location. The internet firm also offers the facility to update location through text-SMS.

Users can also integrate their Foursquare account with their Facebook and Twitter accounts. This will enable them to publish the Foursquare location updates on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Here is some commonly-used 4SQ terminology:

Check-In: When a user updates his location on Foursquare, it is called Check-In.

Badge: Badges are virtual rewards that a user earns based on the number of check-ins.

Mayor: A mayor is the user with the most number of check-ins at a specific place within the past 60 days. Only one check-in per day at one place gets counted for Mayorship.

The 4SQ adoption

Launched in 2007, the social media site crossed five million users in 2010, globally. In India, its adoption is still slow and the users' base is estimated to be less than a lakh.

Prominent brands like Jimmy Choo, Red Bull, McDonald's, Starbucks, Wall Street Journal, GQ magazine and History Channel have started using it globally. According to a mashable.com report, Foursquare.com helped Jimmy Choo and McDonald's boost sales.

Jimmy Choo employed Foursquare.com for a real-time treasure hunt around London to promote its trainer shoes. A pair of Jimmy Choo trainers checked in (virtually) at various locations and the news was notified to followers of Jimmy Choo through Foursquare updates.

Consumers who actually visited the place - before the trainers left and checked in at other places (virtually) - got a free pair of shoes. In just three weeks, over 4,000 trainers were given out. Daily in-store sales went up by 33 per cent at zero advertising cost.

On April 16, 2010, McDonald's offered free gift cards worth $5 and $10 to 4SQ users who checked in at its outlets in the US. In the Mobile Social Conference, held in the US in 2010, Rick Wion (head of social media, McDonald's) announced that McDonald's was able to increase traffic to its stores by 33 per cent on that day.

Interestingly, a few local brands experimented with Foursquare in India. The New Delhi-based restaurant Yum Yum Tree created its presence on Foursquare and invited visitors to come to the restaurant and get a free round of draught beer. Mumbai-based restaurant Blue Frog also offers discounts to 4SQ users.

Malls like Inorbit are active on Foursquare. Inorbit runs 4SQ-based contests across its Mumbai and Hyderabad stores. It rewards repeat visitors (especially 'Mayors') to its locations with gift vouchers.

Shoppers Stop launched itself on 4SQ, though it is not doing much activity around the location-based social media site. However, it has created an interesting Facebook-Foursquare application called Mayors@ShoppersStop (Apps.facebook.com/mayorsatshoppersstop/mayors.php), which helps a Facebook user to locate Shopper Stop stores and its 4SQ Mayors in various parts of India.

Is it worth the hype?

The availability of a huge numbers of affordable smartphones and the launch of 3G mobile telephony system in 2011 could fuel the adoption of Foursquare in India.

Foursquare will become even more popular as it adds new features. For example, users are now allowed to add photos and comments related to a venue they visit. The Foursquare platform also allow developers to build third-party mobile applications.

The marketing opportunity

*Sales: Since Foursquare is related to direct check-ins or physical visits to locations it is suitable for service-oriented outlets like coffee shops, restaurants or bars and movie theatres, which get repeat visitors more often than an outlet for consumer durables or an automobile showroom.

Companies can create their brand profile on Foursquare, present special offers like discounts and reward consumers with gifts and thus get repeat visitors and build brand loyalty.

*Events: Foursquare can be used to promote events and conferences as well. When a 4SQ user enters and updates his location - which will be the venue in the case of an event - his 4SQ, Facebook and Twitter friends get to know about the event.

*Consumer research: Brands can review the 4SQ data to find out the type of users who check-in to the particular outlet, time of their visit and purchase pattern.

5. Augmented reality (AR) and Quick Response Code

Augmented reality (AR) involves the addition of virtual elements to the real environment. Virtual elements could include computer-generated images, video clips or textual information pulled from the internet while the real environment includes elements such as a printed picture, object, or a building or landscape.

To retrieve additional or virtual material, the user will need an information reader such as a web camera connected to an internet-enabled computer or the camera of a GPRS-enabled mobile phone which can identify the real object and then pull out virtual information contextually related to the real object.

Quick Response (QR) Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) which consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. QR Codes are usually printed on newspapers, magazines and outdoor hoardings.

To access the content stored in a QR Code, the user must have an internet-enabled mobile phone camera and a QR Code reader application to open the QR Code reader application and take a picture of the code. Once clicked, the application will serve the information or content on mobile phone.

It is normally the advertiser who provides the link to download the QR Code reader application. The user too can download it from websites like Reader.Kawya.com. Smartphones come with pre-installed QR Code reader application.

Scalability

AR technology seems to be more scalable in the longer run as compared to QR Code. Why?

An advertiser who wants to disseminate additional information with a print ad can replicate the same experience of accessing information through a QR Code by printing the URL or short SMS code in the ad, instead of embedding the QR Code. If the QR Code is embedded, the user will have to download an application and click on the code to retrieve information.

The early adopters

Last year, brands like PepsiCo 7UP, HUL Annapurna, Ford Figo, Tata Manza, Fiat Punto, Nike and Mid-Day tested these technologies on their print ads and packaged material.

PepsiCo used AR for a two-month-long campaign, You Click, I (Allu Arjun) Dance, for its 7UP brand in Andhra Pradesh. Allu Arjun is the Telugu actor, known for his dancing skills. Arjun is also 7Up's brand ambassador in the South.

Mid Day started publishing QR Codes in the newspaper to provide access to rich media content like videos on mobile phones. Ford Figo shared its TV commercial, Punto distributed its mobile brochure, Annapurna offered users a downloadable mobile application (which provides tips related to salt usage) while Nike disseminated information related to athletes through QR Codes published in their print ads. These QR Code campaigns were managed by the Bengaluru-based mobile solutions company, TeliBrahma.

(Based on interviews with Mahesh Narayanan, AdMob; Prasanth Mohanachandran, AgencyDigi; Guneet Singh, ex-cofounder Dealsandyou.com; Rajiv Hiranandani, Mobile2Win; Anuj Kumar, Affle; Kushal Sanghvi, StratosHear Technologies; Nimesh Shah, Windchimes Communications; Gaurav Mishra, MSL Group; Suresh Narsimha, TeliBrahma; Hrish Dhempe Thota; Flaunge.com; Nimish Dubey, Freelance Journalist, Manoj Kandasamy, GroupM Interaction and Lalit Bhise, Mobisy.)

To read part 1 of Digital Trends Decoded, click here.