Called Loopt Star, users play with friends and gain achievements, coupons, and other brand-specified rewards for checking into specific locations via a virtual loyalty card.
The venues themselves are able to determine what requirements need to be met for the rewards to be triggered. Potential options include total number of check-ins, check-ins made with a specified number of Facebook friends, or check-ins made at a named date or time.
"Hyper-local advertising should be about much more than simply clicking on a banner ad - it should be about connecting with brands and getting rewarded for loyalty, says Loopt co-founder and CEO Sam Altman.
"Loopt Star enables brands to create customised campaigns that reach their customers in a completely targeted, interactive way that rewards the behaviours they want."
Big star billing
The scheme follows in the wake of brand-specific, localised deals done by many of its rivals with specific venues and chains.
What Loopt is proposing however, is a wider scale adoption of such practises, offering the business community as a whole a standardised way to link up with the app to encourage its users to check-in.
Though unlikely to generate the kind of headlines Foursquare and MyTown have thrived on, Loopt Star potentially sets a new benchmark for LBS apps.
Additionally, Loopt is set to generate its own challenges for the app, already offering free music downloads when users check-in at any bar across the US.
[source: Loopt]
