Citypoly: Real Life Monopoly in Nantes, France

In the dynamics of the Open Data (open public data), the city of Nantes has launched a call for proposals in March, to build smartphone applications. The final date for submission was May 18 Of the 34 selected projects, one in particular caught my attention: Citypoly.

This is almost the only game of this call for proposals; the others are more practical applications. The concept of Citypoly is quite simple: create a life-size Monopoly, with the game board as the city of Nantes. As in the famous board game, at the beginning you have a certain amount of money you have to grow. Here we do not buy street but symbolic places of Nantes, as the town hall, tram station, the library, the LU tower… But you don’t definitely buy them; you have the concessions for seven days.

You are geo-located thanks to your phone, and on the screen you can see all the places listed in the game in a 500m radius. Green tags indicate the places available, the red ones indicates those which are not, the blue ones are places belonging to you and the yellow are the ones that will soon be re-listed.

Another difference with the classic Monopoly, when you go to a place you do not lose money, but you win! Each passage reward the visitor and the owner. This encourages players to keep their phones close to hand when they travel to Nantes. They visit the city and discover places while having fun. As soon as you check-in a place you can find all the information on it. Contact information (address, telephone number), its price and rent in the game, and a link to its website.

Each transaction (gain, purchase) and the player’s ranking are recorded in the home screen.

Currently this is only the first version of Citypoly, updates are already in preparation for the next weeks. Eventually prices and rents are bound to fluctuate depending on the passage, which will also raise or lower purchase prices. This will be to the player to find the places most profitable. The goal is still to gain a maximum of “Citos”, the currency in Citypoly.

The designers also want to give this real life Monopoly, a dimension of social network. The owners will know who passed by its properties, a kind of playful Foursquare.

Citypoly is available for free on Apple and Android platforms since May 23 and has already about 200 users.

We spoke a few weeks ago about another check-in game with more or less the same principle, mixing foursquare and monopoly.

Wanna beat your friends out at a venue ? Get a Nokia Lumia 900 !

A viral video was uploaded by Nokia yesterday about a brand new smartphone called the Nokia Lumia 900. The video, featuring a magician, explains who fast Foursquare runs on this phone, along with a Windows Mobile OS, by comparing the check-in speed between the Lumia 900 and random smartphones of the crowd. Some reviews confirm the Lumia 900, thanks to an automatic list of the closest venues around the user, is the fastest one. Even faster than the Iphone 4S.

The multitouch screen actually displays both Foursquare logo (direct acess to the app) and closest venue, enabling the user to check in within less than 3 seconds. The video displays an example with a Blackberry smartphone, which needs around 8 secondes for the same action. It is also stated that Windows Mobile increased the data processing, making the phone even faster. The Lumia 900 also enables push-notifications, so the user is steadily informed about his friends and checked places around him.

Don’t forget the speed of the app depends on the network speed, and that the app on the Lumia 900 was displaying the venue before the Blackberry in the video thanks to a second window on the scren, making a check-in almost instantaneous.
But a fun way though to advertise a product, giving the fact that users are more and more “hic et nunc” consumers.

http://nokia.ly/SmarterApps

Feed your dog with Foursquare !

When kibbles fall from the sky!

I wanted to tell you about a great street marketing operation that made me smile:

“Check in! Snack out!”, from Granata Pet Snack using Foursquare.

At first sight, the Granata Pet Snack Check seems to be an ordinary billboard. Referenced on Foursquare, it allows passers to connect and send their check-in on the social media website. In each new recorded check-in, kibbles are automatically served into a bowl, giving your dog a product sample.

The brand focused its strategy on the principle that people like to receive free products, and that dogs also liked these kind attentions. So they tried to hit the target at the right time, that is to say when they walk their dog.

This campaign is another clever use of Foursquare which also allows the operation to be relayed on Facebook since the two accounts can be linked. Its viralization has resulted in numerous comments on social networks.

Small downside though, the video quality slightly spoils the originality of the action …

The first badge of the Olympic Games is now available !

Get ready, the race will be long!
In a few weeks, the Olympic Games 2012 will take place in London.

The foursquare team who loves sport offers us the first badge of the Olympic Games:

How to unlock this badge?

“8,000 miles. 8,000 stories. From Land’s End to Lerwick, Lowestoft to Enniskillen, you’re somewhere on the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay route. Find out when the Flame is coming and line the streets to cheer on your local Torchbearers! This is your moment to shine.”

Well, to unlock it, it’s not that simple.

First, like all the other partners badges, you will have to follow the Olympics’ official Foursquare channel : London2012

Then, you must check-in when the flame reaches the place nearest you.

You can also find out where the Olympic torch is going each day by visiting BBC Torch Relay page

What do you think? What types of badges would you have for the Olympic Games?

That’s a good example of Social Media Marketing. Check out also how you can use Foursquare for your business!

Fun facts about Foursquare

Foursquare, apart form being a great application, also raises some fun facts.

The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was a gathering that took place on October 30, 2010 at the National Mall in Washington DC. Led by Jon Stewart (host of the satirical news program The Daily Show) and Stephen Colbert ( in-character as a conservative political pundit), the event gathered about 215,000 people and 30,525 of them checked in on Foursquare. The goal was to denounce the most conservative republicans during the midterm election. The fun fact is, the last country to check in at the venue was North Korea.

In late 2010, Foursquare measures indicate check-ins in North Korea, which appears funny too, giving the fact media are strongly controlled and monitored, and social media forbidden.

Another funny fact concerns Wendy’s fast foods in the USA. There is a badge dedicated to girls called Wendy, and only 224 of them checked in at a Wendy’s in 2010 and only one of them is mayor of a Wendy’s.

And you, do you have some fun fact about Foursquare ?