I’ll admit it: I’m a Foursquare junkie. I like to put places on the map; I upload pictures and tips like crazy. You can follow my every move on Foursquare’s map, and I collect mayorships and badges. Dear Dennis, I’ve never been this high on badges since my young Boy Scouts days.
And now that we finally met in person at the #canneslions , there is no Cannes Lions 2011 badge. Nowhere. No. Badge. To. Be. Had. I collected a few mayorships (noblesse m’oblige.) But that was it.
In an interview you said you were a bit surprised about check-ins in Cannes being below par. But seriously, why would people continue to check in, if you do not provide the badge? You whispered something about “Foursquare throttling down on event badges.” Why, O why?
The excellent Brandbuilder Olivier Blanchard gave you some great tips a while ago, but diminishing badges was not on that list! While Foursquare is an excellent location based reference tool, there needs to be some kind of reward or recommendation for the user, Dennis. Businesses get better with good peer reviews. You and your loved ones will get (way) better with the new VC funding and one day your IPO or M&A. But for us, dear Dennis, we need badges.
I got some nice stuff from Gowalla. But let’s agree, dear Dennis, that that is not the same! It’s good for once. We’ll be at the next event, checking in, or looking for your badges. Don’t let us down.