Free Food for Foursquare Mayors
ADOTAS – Until 2008, only one person got to eat free at Ben’s Chili Bowl, a culinary institution in my hometown of Washington, DC: Bill Cosby. This was proudly proclaimed on a sign by the register, but it was amended to include the Obama family after the 2008 election. The new president accepted the offer before being sworn in — as anyone who has had the chili cheese fries can tell you, he’d be a fool not to.
Sorta following in Ben’s footsteps, Charlotte, N.C., eatery Blynk Organic has announced that the mayor eats for free — that is, the mayor as elected by Foursquare.
Users of Foursquare, a location-based mobile social network that includes gaming elements, get “badges” for “checking in” at various locations — stores, restaurants and so forth. If you check in the most at a certain locale, you become the mayor, which looks great on your resume — “10/5/2009 to 10/13/2009 — mayor of Krispy Kreme, Alexandria, VA.”
But being the mayor was little more than an honorary title until now (well, it still is if you don’t live in Charlotte). While other locations have had unofficial promotions tied to the mayorship, Blynk Organic is the first venue to offer such a promotion though ads in the app. Beside the mayor getting a free meal, “gym rats” — people that visit locations tagged as gyms — get 25% off egg sandwiches.
Tristan Walker, director of business development, told TechCrunchthat around 400 businesses are running geo-triggered promotions with the service. However, there is no monetization scheme yet for the offers.
Heading into 2010, geo-location is the talk of the town with Facebook and Twitter are getting in on the action. However, it would seem Foursquare is already a few steps ahead.
Reader Comments.
hey hey! thanks for the post! we actually have had folks running promotions since August 
Blynk’s is just the first of its kind tied to a badeg. Check out foursquare.com/businesses for all the other venues who have run promos with us
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