Location-based social network Loopt has just added two new rewards to its Loopt Star app, this time from brands Paul Frank and Element.
Loopt Star, which is basically like a digital loyalty card for your iPhone, lets you earn discounts or other rewards when you check in to certain shops. The program is slightly different from some of the other incentive programs that other location networks use because the retailer or business has more granular control over when discounts can be offered and what conditions need to be met.
At participating Paul Frank stores, users get an instant 20% discount on their purchases just for checking in. The company’s stores in Chicago, Costa Mesa, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco are all participating in this promotion.
Just check in and present this coupon on your smartphone at the cash register:
At the Element store in Times Square, you can check in with Loopt Star to receive a free Element Eco-Water Bottle and a 10% discount off any purchase of $75 or more.
Element and Paul Frank are running similar promotions with Gowalla as well.
This summer, Loopt Star has also rolled out rewards for things like free music at participating bars throughout the U.S. The company will continue to add new partners and promotions every few weeks.
Incentives Are the First Step to Widespread Location Usage
While the social sharing and “badge earning” aspects of social location games like Foursquare, Loopt and Gowalla are certainly interesting and compelling for some users, we believe that it’s incentives and discounts that will really make the effort to check in worthy of mass adoption.
However, the other growing issue with location-based services is originality. While some services like SCVNGR are doing very creative things to play up the game elements of their apps, creating a unique experience for users is something all location-based services are struggling to do.
Loopt’s solution is to offer three separate apps, each of which offer different kinds of experiences:
- Loopt: For traditional location-based sharing within your network (complete with proximity alerts and background location).
- Loopt Mix: A local friend-finding app. Can also be used for, say, finding a fourth person to join your basketball game.
- Loopt Star: For users who cares less about earning badges, and more about sharing rewards and finding out about cool things going on with the brands they like.
Ultimately, we’d like to see all of those products together under a singular Loopt brand, or at least the option to combine accounts if for no other reason than overall consistency.
Loopt Star’s greatest asset is its use of Facebook for your social graph. Unlike other geolocation services, you don’t have to add friends or invite people. Its integration with Facebook has amazing potential, we think; Loopt could, for instance, pull in data about your Facebook Likes and other information for special promotions, or allows for seamless sharing and synthesis with features like Facebook Events.
Combine that with something like proximity alerts for rewards — for instance, getting a notification that your favorite store around the corner is having a sale right now — and we think Loopt Star could really position itself as the consumer loyalty location program to beat.
What do you think of how location based services are teaming up with brands to offer discounts and rewards?
Reviews: Facebook, Foursquare, Gowalla
More About: element, geolocation, loopt, loopt star, MARKETING, paul frank
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