Like most of my blog posts, I’ve been kicking this one around in my head for a while, not really sure if it’s worth posting or not. Then I heard about the upcoming Evolution of Foursquare Marketing Social Fresh panel, and thought the post just might be topical enough to publish.

For those of you who don’t know, Foursquare is a location-based social media service that allows users to “check in” at locations using their smart phone of choice. It was started by a couple of guys in New York City who wanted to get to know their city a little better by keeping up with where their friends were hanging out; e,g.,”Hey, I see that Chet just checked in at Clyde’s Pub over on 98th. I didn’t even know there was a pub over there. Nice.”

Right away you can see the marketing potential for restaurants, bars, retail outlets, and other places that have (and want more) foot traffic. When I check in at my local deli/pub Southsiders, all of my Twitter followers and Facebook friends (and Foursquare friends, for that matter) know about it. If they trust my judgment and have never heard of Southsiders, they might be inclined to check it out.

That’s all fine and good for places that get a lot of customers through the door, but at 1060 Creative, we’re a service-based company. Hence, we don’t get a lot of foot traffic. Sure, clients will come by to drop off or pick up stuff, or sit in on an edit, but largely, our door remains closed throughout the day. So how does a company like us market themselves with Foursquare?

Warning: what follows will probably not rock your Marketing World, but maybe it’ll spark an idea. The bottom line is that I don’t have a complete answer, but I can tell you that the use of Foursquare’s “Tips” feature is a way to at least let people know you’re in the area. Basically, Tips work like this: a user can leave a recommendation for visitors to a particular venue (“While you’re at Clyde’s Pub, please…try the veal”). These tips will pop up when a user checks into the venue. Furthermore, and this is important, a user’s phone will also display recommendations for venues that are near his or her current location; e.g., Chet checks in at Clyde’s Pub and a tip pops up, “Since you’re near Tony’s Pizza, try the Wednesday special. Free anchovies!”

To that end, we recently received a couple of inquiries about our services based on tips I posted. They’re pretty simple and generic, really:

• The tip for our current location in Fort Mill states, “Call on 1060 Creative for all your video production, post-production, and motion graphics needs. Visit www.1060creative.com or call 704-332-0111 for more info.” Well, someone checked in at location nearby, and our tip popped up. He called us the next day.
• Our old offices were in the Uptown Charlotte area. When we moved, I left a tip that informed people that we had moved, along with all the pertinent information. That tip also resulted in a phone call when someone checked in at a nearby business. (Note: yes, I know I should mark that location as “closed”, but, um, I have no plans to do so. Do the math. Bonus discussion question: Does that make me a bad Foursquare user?)

I related the above to a friend of mine (Jim Mitchem of Smash Communications) over lunch at a local sushi restaurant. In a more clever approach, he left this tip for the restaurant: “I had my first sushi here. Which reminds me, you should hire me for your next communications campaign.” I don’t think he’s had a nibble on that yet, but it’s out there, and who knows? Right? Hell, I’d call him I ran across that tip. Makes me chuckle…and I like hiring people who make me chuckle.

Anyway…look, I’m well aware that two measly phone calls and a non-sequitur comment made at a sushi joint is neither proof nor an example of the sizzling success that can be had by using Foursquare to market your company. But then again, to paraphrase an old friend, those phone calls were “two more than we’d received the day before”.

Something to think about, anyway.

–Ant.

I edited this music video for Remedy Drive featuring their new Coldplay-esque single “Rescue”.  In fact I edited this one several weeks ago, but the group’s record label just gave permission to post it last week on Ransom.tv.  Gotta love record labels!  So, now it’s live and 1060 Creative is VERY excited to post it on our site as well.

This one had more of a story than the Skillet “Awake and Alive” video.  It took a solid week to put together NINE cameras’ worth of footage! And I believe I made something special.  It was fun to bump it up a few levels with some lens flares and color correction.  No one will notice, and I guess that’s the point, eh?

Enjoy!

I’ve learned a bit about customers being a 6-year entrepeneur…”Customer is king” “If we don’t take care of our customer someone else will” and my favorite for present business, “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world they might tell 6 friends – if you make customers unhappy on the internet they could tell 6,000 friends”.

We at 1060 Creative work hard to make our customers not only happy, but happy enough to spread the word around – which is why I want to spread the word about the Junior League of Charlotte’s JLC Wearhouse.  The Wearhouse is similar to various used clothiers around Charlotte, but what sets this apart are the super ladies working there.  Every time I shop there they greet me with a smile, a laugh, a joke….EVERY TIME!  They genuinely want to be there.

On my latest visit they had a plateful of cookies laid out for customers.

“What’s the occasion?” I asked.

“No occasion.  Just because we appreciate you.”

So, be aware that there are great stores out there with great people working in them.  It’s not all nasty customer service.  I lift my gently used hat off them!

1060 Creative shot a series of new product web videos for KEYper Systems.  The world is full of keys and locks, and someone has to keep track of ‘em!  They provide systems to track, and protect all these keys in one place.

Keyper Systems will unveil a new electronic device billed as an “electronically controlled steel cabinet used to store and restrict access to keys which can only be opened by wireless signal after a user is verified.”  They called on 1060 Creative to shoot some web videos.

Dennis Guessford, Keyper’s Chief Operations Officer (pictured with our talent above), explains their business as,

KEYper Systems, based in Harrisburg, NC is a global company committed to providing you  with the best solutions in key storage and key  management, padlock management for your “lock out / tag out” procedures, security guard tour monitoring systems, and asset control of equipment.

Hand Held Studio, our office-mates, installed a new dimensional logo for the lobby.  According to Craig Hand,  “The sign is 1/2″ acrylic on brushed aluminum stand-offs with 1/4″ lasercut acrylic letters, custom painted to match our PMS colors.  Our tag line is in direct applied black vinyl because it was just a little too small to cut on the laser.  I think the overall look is really clean and the drop shadows on the wall will look really cool once we get the lighting package installed.  It’s a fine example of our custom logo work and we’d love to put something like it in your lobby.  Contact us today if you want to talk about it.”

Ooh.  Since you’re already VISITING our website, it’s a shameless plug within a plug.  Suweeet.  They did an EXCELLENT job.

Sometimes when a client gives you very little direction, you come up with a lot. Darcy Grimes, AAA Carolinas’ Manager of Travel Marketing, hired 1060 Creative to create a series of :15 “bookend” commercials for the “Time To Travel Collection” promotion. The opening stayed the same for all destinations, and we created a total of 3 end spots that promoted different cities (Las Vegas shown here).

The only direction she gave me was to hand me the brochure below.  The spots turned out to be some of my best work!