Given there's no mayoral setup on Gowalla – a fact that will no doubt please Foursquare, following recent changes to rival Yelp's setup – giveaways on the location-based app are somewhat difficult to pull off.

How do you decide who wins if each venue has no king?

Gowalla's solution is to set up a lucky dip of sorts. Starting today, Gowalla users who check in at Best Buy outlets or Apple stores will have the opportunity to win an Eye-Fi card – memory cards that give devices wi-fi capabilities.

Eye-Fi for all?

After checking in, on the screen will appear a button users can tap to determine whether they've won an Eye-Fi card, with 500 in total being offered the $75 card.

Even those who don't win will be offered a coupon code for one year's worth of free hotspot access if they decide to pick up an Eye-Fi card regardless.

"This represents a remarkable opportunity for a brand to promote a product directly to people who are visiting a location where that product is sold," says Gowalla founder Josh Williams.

"It's accessible to anyone who checks in on Gowalla, regardless of how many times they’ve checked in or whether or not they’ve been to that location previously."

No Mayor in town

Indeed, rather than a weakness, Williams and co. are attempting to turn Gowalla's lack of mayors into a strength it can present to commercial opportunities.

While Foursquare itself doesn't limit its rewards to check-in kings, Gowalla will be hoping its comparatively open approach encourages further deals like the one with Eye-Fi in the coming months.
TechCrunch