Today during the Location-based Marketing Summit, members from the marketing team for the New Jersey Nets, as well as reps from ad agency VaynerMedia, talked about a unique and highly successful LBS campaign that recently took place by partnering with Gowalla.
This past April, VaynerMedia — an agency specializing in social media branding, used Gowalla to distribute 250 pairs of tickets as virtual items in targeted locations such as sports bars, outdoor parks and gyms, for the New Jersey Nets vs. Charlotte Bobcats game that took place on April 12th. Users that found the virtual tickets were able to redeem them for actual Nets tickets at the arena’s box office.
The overall redemption rate was 15.2%, which might seem relatively low, but not when considering that there were no announcements of the campaign, no media costs whatsoever, and the fact that compared with previous rates of just 8%, using LBS increased voucher redemption by 100%. The campaign successfully met the multi-level goals set by the marketing team as well, beyond simply driving foot traffic through the doors. It leveraged expiring inventory, was a primary driver of continuing engagement and the overall experience of attending a game (purchasing team gear, concessions, etc.) and costs very little from a budget standpoint.
In the end, it was deemed a huge success by all involved. Other sports teams have actually contacted the marketing dept. of the Nets to try and replicate the successful results, indicating how powerful location-based marketing can be at large venues.
