Who doesn’t love a two-for-one? On Tuesday, Virgin America and location-based social mapping service Loopt partnered to offer people two-for-one tickets to Cancun or Los Cabos from California. It was a pretty simple deal too. All you had to do was check in at SFO, LAX or one of the Virgin Mobile taco trucks in San Francisco and/or Los Angeles in a four hour window. Do so and you were immediately eligible for the two-for-one deal.
Let’s just say that it went pretty well. According to TechCrunch, Loopt says that 1,300 people checked into only one taco truck in San Francisco, and 80% of those people have already bought tickets on Virgin American flights. It was Virgin’s fifth highest revenue day ever, says Loopt.
So where is Loopt in all of the Foursquare location awareness and check in hype? Well Loopt has over 4 million users, and the previously mentioned Foursquare hit their two millionth member on July 10th of this year. Needless to say, Loopt isn’t small potatoes, even though they get covered far less than the smaller darling Foursquare. Adam Saltman, Loopt CEO, is quietly amassing a significant presence in the geo location and check in race.
Geo location, location awareness, check in, mobile, all terms you need to familiarize yourself with in the next year. This is what will be supporting your purchasing habits, event choices, and dinner destinations. Virgin America is not a mom and pops pushing a coupon. However the scale does translate to small businesses. Relative to gross monthly numbers, an effective Loopt, foursquare, or gowalla campaign could net even a small business its fifth highest revenue day ever.
It is going to be interesting to see where the tipping point for brands and businesses happens when it comes to geo location and check in deals. The shift is moving ad campaigns from a yearly or quarterly basis, to literally a day to day basis. Users are consuming large amounts of raw data and are allowing brands to watch them consume it. Marketing and advertising dollars are being flat out thrown in a trashcan and lit on fire. It’s a mad dash to find water. Dose the flames, and you find yourself with fifth highest revenue days hand over fist.
Photo credit Techcrunch
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