Time Square in New York City has always been dominated with an array of advertisements. Sticking with this traditional avenue of advertising, online companies have decided to join in on this prime advertising real estate. Recently, Foursquare partners with American Eagle and takes over the media space above the American Eagle retail store in Time Square. The advertisement promotes Foursquare’s platform with the call to action to “Check in, find your friends, unlock your city.” This advertisement campaign premiered shortly after Facebook launched their newest interface, Facebook Places. Perhaps Foursquare felt threatened by Facebook Places that they figured they needed to launch a campaign of their own to compete with media space.
It is also reported that Foursquare did not pay American Eagle for the advertisement space. This is interesting as it goes to show that a retail store (American Eagle) supports geo-location software from a social media standpoint. Both companies win with their combined efforts, as customers are visiting American Eagle and posting it online to their Foursqaure account.
Is this an occurrence that we will start to see more frequently? Social media platforms partnering with retail stores for media space. In the past we have seen marketing through television, then moving online to pay per click advertising. I think now, the partnership between online companies and retail stores, is most certainly an up and coming form of advertising. Especially for these well established retail companies that are looking for a way to get with the times and improve their online presence.