Tired of competing at high traffic places for mayor on FourSquare? Or tired of being mayor at your apartment and receiving no rewards? Places like Starbucks are now offering rewards for their mayors, but at such popular destinations, they are getting harder and harder to obtain. Most people, like me, are impatient and don’t have the time (or the money) to check into Starbucks four times a day. SCVNGR, a Boston-based mobile game company founded by Seth Priebatsch in 2008, is releasing its rewards program today and is knocking on FourSquare’s door with an iron fist. With the new rewards program, anyone can accumulate points to exchange for free items or discounts by completing simple challenges at the location. There are currently four types of challenges: check-in, social check-in (i.e. checking in with friends), picture taking, and spoken word.
Unlike FourSquare and Gowalla, SCVNGR users earn points by completing challenges around the city they live in, such as the “social check-in” at Upper Crust, which is worth 4 points or the “snap a picture” challenge at The Middle East, which is worth 2 points.
The new rewards program answers the question “what do I do with all these points?” according to Priebatsch. Users will now have the ability to redeem points at participating businesses for things like free coffee, a free burrito, or deals like buy one, get one free. And who doesn’t love free stuff, especially when rewards are so fun to earn?
Before you get too excited, there are a few restrictions. Users can only earn one reward at a time at any given location. However, there is no stopping the ultra ambitious or ultra obsessed who want to attempt to get a free burrito at every Boloco location in Boston, for example.
The rewards program is not only beneficial to customers, but also to businesses. “We’re calling it a social traffic engine for local business,” said Priebatsch. Businesses can customize rewards by deciding how many points they’re worth, how many times a user can earn a particular reward, and when they expire, among other things. SCVNGR has also built a secure communication system into the application so that businesses can focus on attracting and retaining customers rather than whether a customer is trying to game the system.
The first 50 businesses in the first 10 markets that SCVNGR launches in, starting with Boston and Philadelphia on August 15, will get to use the application for FREE. SCVNGR will eventually charge businesses a small annual fee to use the application. Through the new rewards system, businesses will be able to not only increase the number of customers who visit but also continue to engage customers through measurable viral marketing. Having fun and making money – now that’s what all businesses like to hear.
To find out more about SCVNGR, visit their website, “like” them on Facebook, and follow them or Twitter.
Tags: Foursquare, scvngr
