Whrrl: Social Media Week LA

Location-Based Marketing: To Check-in or Not to Check-in
John Kim
VP of Products of Pelago

Quick Bio
John Kim
@jkimlosangeles
VP of Products for Pelago
Previously at:
Medio
Yahoo!
Overture
White House
Accenture
Bank of America & HSBC

Primer: Location vs. Place

Precision matters
Primary values:
What does it mean to others?
How can this data make my everyday life more fun or make information to me more relevant?
What else can I discover?

Whrrl is a real-world game with a purpose: to end Social Rut.
Whrrl enables people to explore and experience their surroundings in an entirely new way.

How?
By bringing together people with the same real-world passions to share ideas in a social game experience.
Enter Whrrl Societies

Whrrl Societies = Passion Groups for the Real World
“There’s a Society for that.”
(Over 4000= and rapidly growing.)

Societies are Unique and Powerful
A community, not a badge - Groups of people interacting with each other through real-world recommendations. Everyone can participate. Foodies, craft beer lovers, architecture geeks, Four Seasons guests...
The game - The gameplay in Whrrl is designed to compel Whrrlers to share their passions and intimate knowledge of the real world.
Unprecedented relevance - Simply by bringing together people of shared passions, the conversation gets more interesting. Then, Whrrl supercharges the discovery with proprietary algorithms.
Society Rewards - For the first time ever, brands and merchants get exactly what they want: the ability to reward word of mouth.

Society Levels
How the game works:
Users earn points for influencing others, via:
Check-ins
Recommendations
Want Tos
Did-its
Sharing
Trend-
setter
Maven
More Loyalty & Influence
VIP
Insider
Rookie
Users level up and earn titles as they gain points.

Check-ins help you discover Societies
Pelago
@ Pelago
90 Union St., Seattle
Pelago
Rookie
Four Seasons Society

Check-ins unlock recommendations, missions or challenges
Pelago

And share experiences
Whrrl users share their real-world experiences out to Facebook and Twitter as photos and notes. Their friends then comment and “like” their slides - a viral loop.
When friends are together, they can join their check-ins and connect their cameras!

And broadcast to the Web...
Photos and notes are published out to Twitter and Facebook (not shown)
Whrrl tracks page views

Check-ins unlock Society Rewards
As users level up in the Society, they get more chances to win!

So why should physical world businesses care?
People are voting with their feet
They are creating media
This is the opportunity to drive:
Activation
Virality
Compulsion

Murphy USA
Murphy USA is Walmart’s co-located gas partner
1,100 locations
Among users who checked in
44% visited a Murphy USA for the first time
85% choose Murphy USA over a competitor
Brand study to follow

http://www.maxgladwell.com	69
http://momentfeed.com	52
http://feeds.feedburner.com	27

Whrrl: Social Media Week LA

by Rob Reed on Oct 06, 2010

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Whrrl: Social Media Week LA — Presentation Transcript