Author Archives: huntkristofer
Starbucks Launches Mobile Payments App
Big news this week as Starbucks coffee drinkers can now use their smartphones as a payment method at nearly 6,800 of the Seattle-based coffee shops nationwide. The app allows users to attach Starbucks giftcards to a user’s Blackberry or iPhone … Continue reading
eBay Reports 233% Growth in Mobile Sales
This weeks sign of the times has to be the news that eBay saw their sales via mobile devices rise from $600mm to over $2b in 2010. The apps, which are available for the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone … Continue reading
Carl's Jr. and Hardee's Check-In Rewards Mobile App
CKE Restaurants, which owns Carl’s Jr and Hardee’s, has an iPhone/Android app that allows people to check-in at their local fast food locations to be rewarded with a chance to win free stuff. The interface is very clean and at … Continue reading
Google Rounding Out Mobile Strategy With Stealth Startup
It was announced this week that Google acquired Zetawire, a Toronto-based mobile payments-focused startup, in August. This is important and revealing news for anyone trying to understand the long-term mobile strategy for the Silicon Valley search engine behemoth. It’s widely … Continue reading
Gowalla 3.0 Integrates With Major Social Media Outlets
With the release of version 3.0, Gowalla has taken the lead in location based services as “the richest virtual check-in application available”. According to their CEO, Josh Williams, v3.0 is meant to begin reshaping the company into “a socially curated … Continue reading
Foursquare, PepsiCo and Safeway Form LBS Loyalty Program
Safeway launched a pilot customer loyalty program this week at 300 of its Vons grocery stores in Southern California, combining location based services from Foursquare and special offers from PepsiCo. The results of this trial will have very important implications … Continue reading
Facebook Messages Raising the Bar for Relevant Messaging
Facebook has released a beta version of a new form of messaging to a select few of its 500 million users that has important implications for the digital communication methods of retailers. The new platform allows easy filtering of Facebook … Continue reading
Facebook Adds Deals in Effort to Make Places App Relevant
Looking for ways to increase their penetration in Location Based Services (LBS), Facebook announced yesterday that they’ve added an application called Deals to their platform. Currently only 4% of online adult Americans use LBS applications to let their friends know … Continue reading
7-Eleven Road Trip Rally Connects Brands, Retail and Social Media
This past May, 7-Eleven launched a social media campaign called The 7-Eleven Road Trip Rally, which featured 2 teams racing across the United States for 3 weeks to the Indy 500. They were only allowed to make pit stops at … Continue reading
How to Build a Corporate Presence on Facebook
With social media now “fast becoming more popular than e-mail on mobile devices and more convenient for news consumption than the daily paper”, companies and organizations across all industries are competing for social media market share, whether they’re aware of … Continue reading
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