February 2011
On Super Bowl Sunday, Foursquare, the location-based mobile game, experimented for the first time with the idea of a manually promoted venue and badge holder redemption codes. During the Super Bowl, all users saw the same promoted trending venue, “Super Bowl Sunday,” instead of the fare of venues promoted by popularity. Over 200,000 fans checked in to receive Super Bowl themed badges, with a special badge for users at the stadium. Unlocking the badge came with a unique redemption code that gave them a discount on merchandise at NFL.com. Although no money exchanged hands on Sunday, this testing leads to the potential for Foursquare to open up promoted venues to paid advertisers as well as offering badge holder redemption codes in association with future partners.