Basically, these are the 2 questions MyGuest asked us.
MyGuest.me is an innovative content management platform which allows its clients (so far, mainly car dealerships) to publish content on various channels: websites, social media, native iOS and Android apps. “Bring your branded content in a very easy way to your customers, wherever they are looking for it” is the main idea from MyGuest.me, a member of the Carya Invest family. Because MyGuest.me is thinking about the future of brand-customer communication, they want to know if there is any potential in the use of Foursquare for Premium Car Brands and its official dealerships in Belgium.

We analysed the numbers for all official dealerships in Belgium for BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz. We did not use any software, we manually searched for all the locations and collected all data. I have to admit, it was a hell of a job! The metrics we focused on are : total checkins, (different) people who checked in, added tips, added photos, and the (user appreciation) score generated by Foursquare. Please find some extra info about the data and our methodology below this blogpost.

1. The most important statistic : 12.773 people checked in (33.258 total checkins) in one of the 215 BMW/Audi/Mercedes dealerships in Belgium.

This might seem not to be a large amount of people checking in, but in my humble opinion this is a number which can’t be neglected.
Please note that these numbers come “organically”: there is no or very little activation (for example, the “Check in here” foursquare stickers, foursquare specials) so far in the dealerships.

These 3 Mighty Germans all have great, well-managed Belgian Facebook pages with a pretty large reach : BMW Belgium-Luxemburg (37.411 likes), Audi Belgium (54.477 likes), Mercedes-Benz Belgium (52.799 likes).  I can imagine these Premium Car Brands are putting some serious resources in their Facebook presence. Having 40K or 50K Facebook fans is great, but they are only … Facebook fans! One click to like a page is all it takes, that click mostly happens when you’re at home or at work at your desktop/laptop. In return for this one click to become a fan, the BMW/Audi/Mercedes Facebook content might (Facebook Edgerank) show up in the fans’ news feed.

12.773 people (33.258 total checkins) took the time to check in on Foursquare when they were physically present in a dealership. They deliberately choose to interact with BMW/Audi/Mercedes, in most cases they even share their check-in on Facebook and/or Twitter. In return for this check-in they get … not that much. Well, they can brag about being in a Beemer/Audi/Merc garage to their friends, they might become the foursquare-mayor of that venue, but that’s about it.

These 33.258 total check-ins are 33.258 potential brand-customer communication touch points, 33.258 opportunities to provide content to people who are already in the car store!

2. BMW, Audi, Mercedes: what’s the hottest Premium Car Brand on Foursquare?

The numbers for BMW and Audi are almost similar, with a slight advantage for BMW;  the user appreciation for BMW and Audi is identical.
Mercedes-Benz is running behind. The fact that 10 of the 69 dealerships could not be found on Foursquare (see “Data & Methodology” below) is part of the explanation. Other fact : on a global level, at least some efforts are put in the BMW Foursquare page and Audi Foursquare page, while Mercedes-Benz still needs to unlock the full potential.

3. Potential for #SoLoMo marketing in automotive?

One of the main goals of marketing in general is to drive potential customers to a point of sales.
One of the main advantges of SoLoMo (Social-Local-Mobile) marketing, is the fact that you’re communicating to potential customers who are already IN or near your point of sales – in this case the BMW/Audi/Mercedes dealership.

The possibilities for brand-related, in-store messages are nearly endless. Combine this fact with the gamification mechanics and the peer-to-peer recommendation nature of Foursquare, and the sky is the limit. Some examples:

• * You want to promote a new service, product, promotion, event? Provide links to content such as blogposts, landing pages or videos for more info.
• * You want to reward loyal customers? Run a Foursquare special, and (for example) give the Mayor of your dealership free winter tires.
• * You want to promote social sharing? Run a contest for the most original tip left or photo taken in your dealership.
• * You are looking for a new team member? Let people who are visiting your dealership know that you are hiring.
• * (Being BMW/Audi/Mercedes Belgium) : want to improve customer service in all your dealerships? Run a competition for the dealer with the best Foursquare score!
  

Next to these advertising messages, Foursquare offers some other benefits : the detailed check-in statistics, improved online visibility, stronger customer relationships & feedback etc.
Of course, Foursquare is not a world on its own, Foursquare on its own will not deliver miracles. But Foursquare definitely is a must-do in an integrated customer-centric social media strategy!

4. And the winners are …

Let’s end with handing out some awards –or “badges” in the Foursquare vocabulary- to some Belgian Dealerships :

Highest user appreciation Score :
* BMW : 1. Ginion Waterloo S.A. (8,0) 2. B.Verstraeten (7,9) 3. Jorssen Aartselaar s.a. (7,8)
* Audi : 1. Audi Contact Center (7,9) 2. Top Motors N.V. (7,7) 3. Audi Center Zaventem (7,6)
* Mercedes : 1. Ghistelinck Waregem (7,4) 2. Mercedes-Benz Drogenbos (7,3) 3. Autobedrijf Jacobs (7,1)

Most total check-ins :
* BMW : 1. Jorssen Aartselaar s.a. (1058) 2. B.Verstraeten (750) 3. Centrauto nv Wijnegem (629)
* Audi : 1. Audi Contact Center (1285) 2. R. Maes & Zoon N.V. (956) 3. Ets Delvaux S.A. (878)
* Mercedes : 1. Mercedes-Benz Drogenbos (358) 2. Auto Terminus Brugge (342) 3. Mercedes Europa (339)

Most different people check-ins :
* BMW : 1. Jorssen Aartselaar s.a. (394) 2. B.Verstraeten (287) 3. Centrauto nv Wijnegem (279)
* Audi : 1. Audi Contact Center (309) 2. Beerens N.V. (280) 3. Declerck E. N.V. (228)
* Mercedes : 1. Mercedes-Benz Drogenbos (164) 2. Mercedes Europa (159) 3. Auto Terminus Brugge (127)

Do you want to analyze the numbers and make conclusions yourself? No need to look them up yourself, just let me know, I’ll send you the excel files with all numbers for every individual dealership.
Want to talk about the opportunities of SoLoMo (or other digital) marketing for your business? Don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Got any remarks or questions? Feel free to share in the comments!

Thanks, @TommyStarSurfer

Data & Methodology :
* we manually searched for all the locations and collected all data on Sunday, February 17 2013 (BMW) and February 24 2013 (Audi and Mercedes). Mistakes are possibly, but I’m pretty sure about the data.
* in case of duplicate locations, we counted together the numbers.
* for all 74 BMW and 72 Audi locations, we could find at least one location. In the case of Mercedes, for 10 of the 69 dealerships we could not find any location.
* a lot of Audi dealers are also Volkswagen dealers. We tried to separate those numbers, but that’s not always possible.
* Foursquare (user appreciation) score: most dealers don’t have a score, probably because most dealership locations are too small to have a score. Locations with a score/total locations : BMW 28/74, Audi 17/72, Mercedes 5/69. When talking about this score, we can only compare the venues with a score.

Duval Guillaume Modem just launched “A dramatic surprise on an ice-cold day” to launch TNT, a quality series and movies TV channel coming to the Netherlands.
This (soon to be) viral hit video is a sequel to “A Dramatic Surprise on a Quiet Square”.

In this new dramatic piece, the now famous red button was placed somewhere in a Dutch shopping street in the quiet town of Dordrecht . When innocent passers-by dare to push the button, pure TNT-drama unfolds with a slightly new twist: close ‘participation’ of the public. Strategy was to develop a piece that would allude to the original but feature new situations inspired by TNT’s content.

So Flemish Government, why don’t you guys let us create a commercial to change the overall perception travellers have?

Visit the website of the agency that created this 90-second spot at: http://www.m2film.dk/

But those are campaigns with a limited use of time, creating a single ‘wow’-moment but not leading directly to a continuing engagement from brand fans.

Gillette, part of the Procter&Gamble group, now takes it one big step further: teaming up with YouTube, they just launched the ’Gillette Football Club’. This is not a campaign, this is a platform aiming to bring premium football (’soccer’, if you’re US based) content in an innovative way to millions of football fans, while branding Gillette as the premier brand for football fans along the way.

So what does this Gillette Football Club actually promise? These are in my opinion the 4 most innovating features :

• * HD quality from YouTube partners covering top leagues like Spain’s La Liga and Italy’s Serie A; over 50 different clubs, including Manchester City FC, Chelsea FC, Paris Saint-Germain, and Olympique de Marseille; as well as news from sports content providers such as TalkSport and ESPN.
• * a personalized experience: at sign up, viewers will have the option to select their favorite leagues and clubs to have the latest videos delivered to them the moment they are available.
• * the channel will also include exclusive entertainment programs and new functions such as social gaming to be rolled out after launch.
• * integration of player & team statistics into the YouTube experience.

This is, as Gillette claims, ’the best a fan can get’, subtle hint to their main baseline ‘Gillette, the best a man can get’.
At least, being a football fanatic, this is what I expect from an innovative football content distribution platform.

Another important aspect from this launch, is a quote from one of the P&G marketing guys : “We don’t talk digital, we don’t talk mobile, we talk about brand experience in a connected world”.
Good to see that some big brands are finally moving away from this channel-focused approach. Everything is digital nowadays, everybody is mobile. It’s not about Facebook, YouTube or Twitter, or iPhone vs Android, or online vs offline. It’s about reaching your customers, wherever you can grab their attention. I do think some people at Gillette marketing are fans of Brian Solis’ Connected Consumerism #GenC model

In my humble opinion, this is a very wise move from P&G / Gillette: like most marketers experience every day, a marketing job is already half done when you’re marketing a brand with a high ‘passion potential’. When it comes to passion, sports (& sports teams) are second to none. Football is passion. Your favorite football team is passion. Being able to link your brand in a clear but non-intrusive way is a smart (but rather expensive, I guess) move.

The success of the Gillette Football Club platform will mainly depend on the ability to bring this premium ’only on our channel’ content. But with the partnerships with teams and leagues Gillette could announce already today, the future looks bright, the future of football content distribution looks Gillette!
Main challenge for Gillette will be to create enough buzz around this initiative, because there is a lot of competition on the market : every decent football team has its own youtube channel, all major sports-news-brands have their own channels, … . But I do believe the P&G PR machine will be able to gain enough momentum, in order to make Gillette Football Club the number one top-of-mind football video platform for fans worldwide.

So, nothing negative to say about the Gillette Football Club?
Well, to be honest, the launch event (live streamed on youtube this morning at 11.00 CET) was rather boring, a couple of hundred people watching is not really a massive crowd, and disabling comments during the event is not really ’conversation company’ style. But hey, practice makes perfect!

More info : www.youtube.com/gillettefootballclub
Get the full press release via this link

Why, as a tourist, spend a lot of money on guided tours by bus or boat when you have the public transport to show you around? This is exactly what they thought in Gothenburg so they came up with a solution, a free app called: The Tram Sightseeing App. As they say in the video, now all you have to pay is one tram ticket. Well, not exactly. There is one minor issue. The app is connected to the realtime network of the tram meaning it will use up all your data. And we all know how expensive data is when you’re traveling.

Well no, and Planned Parenthood makes good use of the technology. All you need to do is scan the QR-code before or after you’ve used one so Where do you wear it can show your location. For those of you who fear privacy issuus, the website just shows a spot close to where you’ve scanned it. No worries, your parents won’t find out you just did it while they were downstairs. For those of you who don’t have a smartphone there is the possibility to fill in a small form with your coordinates.

I’m a fan of QR-codes if they are implemented in a true brand experience and if they are used with a creative twist which is the case here. Oh plus their graphics are great. Nice, colorful, playful.

As they say: Safe sex happens!

Go to www.wheredoyouwearit.com to find out more.

Let’s face it, runway shows have been quite the same throughout the last few decades. Some of them have tried to combine modern technologies, most of them have stick to their good old fashion walking up and down with people sitting by the sides and taking pictures. The only problem is that many of their consumers nowadays are sitting at home. Eager to see that runway show as well, without having the experience of being in the room with the loud music, the perfect lighting,… So how do you keep those folks satisfied?

Topshop has found the answer. In collaboration with Facebook they will launch an überinteractive runway show where consumers get to personalize the entire show. And by entire I really do mean entire! While models are walking down the runway you’ll be able to click the catalogue right next to the video screen, see all the colors and even order that same piece you are seeing there and then. Are you a fan of the music playing? The make-up their wearing? Well you’ll be able to select and buy those as well. Instant gratification!

I think this’ll be a big win for Topshop!

Follow the runway show at: Topshop.com

Saatchi and Saatchi Tel Aviv uses YouTube, a strong medium to explain a difficult term, integrated advertising. So what is it exactly? In short combining several media channels and tools under one big idea, in order to produce a greater experience for the consumer. Want to know more on integrated advertising? Watch the YouTube video!

So what is ‘Integrated Advertising’? from The Digital Baker on Vimeo.