Many hotels are already offering experience-based rewards in their loyalty programs and enhanced concierge services to assist guests with discovering the world outside of the hotel. Instead of stockpiling points for a free night’s stay, members of these programs can earn cultural activities, like going backstage before a performance at the Peking Opera or spending the day with a professional bullfighter. Some loyalty programs even offer express experiences specifically designed for business travelers who may only have an hour or two to spare but who still want to go home with at least one memorable insight into the destination they visited.

Additionally, several startups have recently emerged to meet the wanderlusty needs of travelers by offering trip curation tools, local knowledge and a much-needed dose of personalization to the online trip planning process.

Launched in April, Vayable connects travelers with tour guides offering unique and intimate local experiences, like scouting Montmartre street art in Paris or visiting sample sales in NYC with a fashion insider. By allowing these independent guides to sell their local knowledge, Vayable is redefining the tour and activity segment of the travel market.

And then there’s Fortnighter, also launched this year, which provides (for a fee) made-to-order itineraries from professional travel writers based on the user’s dates of travel, interests and budget. Fortnighter brings currency, personalization and expert knowledge to the travel planning table and allows users to steer clear of the unreliability of algorithms and user reviews.

A slew of other services have also cropped up recently. All of this suggests that the travel experience marketplace is heating up, and there appears to be room for more. When looking across the dreaming, researching, booking, experiencing and sharing travel cycle, what kind of product or service can you offer that will assist travelers with collecting those sought-after experiences? How do you evoke the moments that inspire us when we travel? How do you help deliver more authentic travel experiences?

You can’t go wrong with helping people get around at these events, and we spotted complimentary private limos (from a social network called Tagged) grabbing people at the airport and getting them downtown. But, this was a tech fest after all, so the most appropriate mode of transportation were the pedicabs from Uber (pictured above). The clever Uber system cut out the dispatcher, and let attendees hail a cab by simply sharing their current location via the Uber smartphone app. That sure comes in handy after those free parties with the free beer, don’t they?

You also can’t go wrong by feeding these poor, starving conference attendees (who coughed up hundreds of dollars to attend). Many, many companies were offering much-appreciated free food throughout the event, ranging from street teams with breakfast tacos to food trucks with more breakfast tacos. (People like their breakfast tacos in Austin, alright?) But the brand that had attendees lined up around the block for the entire conference (literally – see the image at right) was a stationary food truck from the publishing platform Squarespace, who smartly submitted to the experts when it came to cooking. Each day, Squarespace brought in a new local food vendor to take over their site, delivering unexpected and unbelievably tasty treats each day (see the menu here). By offering both a rotating menu and tapping favorites from the local community, Squarespace managed to generate tons of word-of-mouth recommendation and capture the conference’s attention among countless of other free food offerings.

Considering that conferences are inherently temporary, it wasn’t surprising to see brands investing in pop-up retail experiences at SXSWi. While the most buzzed-about store was definitely Apple’s pop-up dedicated to selling the iPad 2 (it sure helps to be selling the most desired device at a conference full of tech geeks), the most unexpected pop-up came from CNN, as they completely took over an existing bar (even installing their own sign, as seen in the image to the right) where they held events and parties all week. Again, the ever-changing content, as well as the all-out commitment to the takeover of the building, got a lot of heads turning and stimulated a lot of conversations on behalf of CNN.

It also helps to think about the most pressing needs of conference attendees. At a place like SXSWi, everyone is essentially attached to a cyborg’s-worth of devices that each have a limited battery life. Fortunately, the automakers in attendance thought this through, with Chevy offering branded power strips at almost every outlet around the conference center, and Lincoln offering free access to every imaginable phone charger at a nearby restaurant . Sure, a nerdfest like SXSWi is the ideal place for these solutions, but as smartphones, tablets, and other devices become increasingly ubiquitous, offering (branded) power options at any conference will always be a much appreciated gesture.

But, of all the things brands can give away at these conferences, perhaps the most valuable takeaways aren’t schwag or tacos or even beer. They might just be your smarts. To steal a point from this great article by Scott Belsky, some of the brands that made the biggest impacts at SXSWi did so by simply getting themselves involved in a number of innovative panels and presentations. To paraphrase Belsky, brands have to work very hard (and spend a lot of money) to get people’s attention through traditional advertising, but attendees will gladly come running to them when they share their peek-behind-the-curtain insights and unique experiences. In particular, PepsiCo did an excellent job of contributing to a number of panels we’ve referenced in our earlier SXSWrapups, which did as much to activate their sponsorship of the festival as some of their other initiatives, such as their live stream of keynotes and panels at pepsico.com/sxsw.

This might seem like a lot to take in. Well, it is, especially when you’re there amidst the chaos. But if there’s one thing we’ve harped on since introducing our Driven by Data trend, it’s the benefit of being a good curator. And curation becomes especially useful at a place like SXSW, where data overload is a given. The Appstores site delivered a brilliantly simple service before anyone even arrived, offering attendees a series of recommended smartphone apps that would enhance and improve their experience. (Low hanging fruit alert! Brands should definitely offer a similar suite of recommended apps for attendees at other giant conferences or tradeshows.) During the conference itself, AOL offered a booth with a streaming screen of the top news from the conference, sortable by viewers interests. Interestingly, at a conference where every attendee had their own way of monitoring tweet streams and foursquare check-ins and the like, AOL still drew a crowd simply because they did an effective job of paring down the clutter to the real meat of the conference. And, of course, we did a pretty good job of that ourselves.

Speaking of getting to the meat of things, we’ll finally be wrapping up our SXSWrapup with our next post. Be sure to check back to see how the story ends!

• Sneaking in under the wire, our foursquare follow-ups sparked one heck of a response in the Twitterverse (even getting a shoutout from foursquare’s head of business development, Tristan Walker). In case you missed what the fuss was all about (which means you should be following us on Twitter, silly), we started off by looking at how foursquare was using location to deliver geographically-relevant, time-sensitive promotional deals to consumers. We followed that up with a peek at the possible future of shopper marketing and loyalty cards, in which deals are dependent on the behavioral habits of consumers instead of just their purchase histories.
• Speaking of sweet location conversations, plenty of folks were fans of this collection of innovative, location-based music videos.
• And speaking of online stirs, our take on the Gap logo dustup (and a completely different response to Chiquita’s logo tweakin’) proved popular in the lead-up to Gap’s infamous logo reversal.
• Finally, we understand if our trends report at the beginning of 2010 might’ve slipped under your radar. But, if you haven’t seen our free 2011 Trends report by now, I simply don’t know what else to tell you. Oh wait, of course I do: we’re going to keep coming back to them via webinars, Potty Postings, client-specific presentations, and follow-up posts here on the blog all year long. Cuz 2011′s going rock, and that’s just how we roll. We’ll see you then!

There are plenty of marketing lessons to be learned from the explosive success of Groupon. The fact that a Groupon only kicks in after a certain number of buyers commit definitely creates a bit of urgency, but also highlights the compelling proposition of group buying.  The basic idea: if enough consumers work together to guarantee a significant amount of sales, they’ll be rewarded with extreme discounts. We’ve also seen this proposition at work when participants aren’t committing to a straight-up purchase, but instead focus on funding creative endeavors (via Kickstarter), supporting responsible businesses (via Carrotmob), or spreading the word about sale items (via Uniqlo’s Lucky Counter).

So, knowing all this, why aren’t more companies offering something like eBay’s just-launched Group Gifts option? The video above demonstrates the simple concept: for higher-ticket items, friends and family can band together and commit to the purchase. Contributors can be recruited via email or social networks, all the deadlines and other nitty-gritty can be arranged up front, and the payment is automated through Paypal. It’s so friggin’ easy, and so obviously in-touch with the rise of group buying, that we can’t help but wonder what’s taking the rest of us so long to jump on board. After all, the infrastructure is already in place to easily make these arrangements; eBay’s system is really just a simple checkout layer that’s sitting atop consumers own communication networks (via Facebook) and promotional channels (via Twitter). For industries where big-ticket items often end up as gifts (ahem, like the travel industry?), this seems like a no-brainer.

Of course, not every collaborative buying endeavor is so equitable in its rewards. We’re also witnessing the rise of sites like To Vie For, who counterbalance their community’s cooperation with some casual competition. As demonstrated in the video below, the prices of items on TVF continue to plummet as additional participants commit to buying them. But these prices don’t drop indefinitely; once the limited number of items are sold, anyone who hasn’t locked-in a price is out of luck. If this reverse-auction style seems like it’s a bit of a game, that’s because, well, it is. TVF is blunt about their use of gaming mechanics, describing their setup as “play-to-win” and even using the phrase “the game ends” when an item sells out. It’s got all the excitement of a Black Friday stampede, without the risk of getting trampled!

Whether you’re making your customers work together, or pitting them against each other in a bit of friendly (?) competition, the important thing is that these services are recognizing that their customers are a micro-community, and motivating them in ways that tap into these group dynamics. Could this benefit your brand, too?

The latter is part of Levi’s “Ready to Work” campaign, which bluntly addresses the current struggles of the American worker. Not exactly a small problem with an easy solution, right? As a whole, the issue is overwhelming; even a significant contribution would likely have little effect on the problem at large. Instead, Levi’s focused on making legitimate, comprehensive improvements to a single community. Following the logic of Hometown Heroism, Levi’s forges an undeniable connection to the residents of Braddock, distinguishing the brand as one that’s willing to act rather than just talk. By building community centers, urban farms, and libraries, the campaign is making tangible, long-term improvements to the region.

Of course, calling attention to a brand’s charitable efforts always runs the risk of making the CSR campaign seem inauthentic. But, “Ready to Work” doesn’t feel that way; even the comments on the Youtube videos are uncharacteristically supportive. Why is this campaign connecting with consumers without coming off as a cheap stunt? We think there are a few explanations.

For one, the campaign is daringly innovative. How many brands would have the courage to take on the daunting task of reviving a depleted community? As articulated in a post from Ed Cotton, this campaign communicates a good foundational idea in an interesting, compelling manner. By collaborating with IFC and the Sundance Channel to document the in a video series, Levi’s ends up telling the story of grassroots community revitalization instead of running around yelling “Hey, look at what a nice company we are! No really, look!”

Moreover, consumers want brands to be more socially responsible, and seem to be more comfortable with marketers publicizing these campaigns as long as the efforts themselves are authentic. Even the most cynical critic has to acknowledge that Levi’s efforts are making a legitimate, measurable difference in Braddock, so publicizing these contributions is accepted (if not encouraged). The central idea of the campaign is more than a hollow marketing ploy; it is coming to life for real people.

And, these real results bring us back to the idea of “small” cause marketing. In our opinion, the third factor that explains the embrace of this campaign is the motivational power of getting something done. As we stated above, reviving post-industrial communities is a gargantuan task, but bringing just one to life is a feasible possibility, as demonstrated by this campaign. Levi’s is forging a blueprint for how this process could work, but also showing that these efforts do work, and are thus worth pursuing in the first place. And that’s why people who have no connection to Braddock specifically can relate to this campaign at large. It’s an example of a brand delivering on a series of small promises, and achieving big results in the process.

Of course, foursquare’s not the only game in town.

While the world figures out what to make of Facebook Places, Gowalla continues to be the best LBS alternative to foursquare. While both services have much in common, one dramatic difference is Gowalla’s disinterest in rewarding users for checking-in repeatedly at a single venue (i.e. foursquare’s “mayors”). Instead, Gowalla tends to reward users for checking-in at a variety of venues. In some cases, these are part of coordinated “trips” that are produced by Gowalla users and brand partners. (National Geographic‘s robust collection of trips is a particularly good example of brand-building via LBS.) For any brand looking to connect on a regional level, this Gowalla feature allows you to creating a walking tour of, say, bars in a given city with Negra Modelo on tap.

A new addition called Highlights promises to add another layer of personalization to this content, with users being able to label spots as the best nighttime views, best guilty pleasure, or best kept secret (I think I’ve found a flaw in that last one). Assuming that Gowalla has plans to integrate marketers into these Highlights, there’s plenty of room for partnerships – I’m sure a number of bridal products would love to get a piece of the “Hitched” highlights.

But, Gowalla perks work at individual locations as well. Gowalla users often receive virtual items for checking-in at certain locations (which can subsequently be dropped or swapped at other locations). For instance, you might receive a metal robot when you check-in at a toy store, or you might receive free tickets to an NBA game by checking-in to sportsbars and basketball courts. Huh, wha? Yes, the New Jersey Nets hid 250 pairs of virtual (but redeemable) tickets at various Gowalla locations in the area for their last game of the season! Our “athletically challenged” colleagues here at Upshot might be more interested in a similar giveaway from Adobe, in which virtual items redeemable for a dozen free copies of Creative Suite 5 were distributed across various Gowalla spots nationwide. (A summertime campaign from Eye-Fi spruced up this model by including a random sweepstakes for anyone checking-in at Apple Stores.)

The aforementioned Nets promotion brought up a particularly compelling way for brands to deal with unused inventory (a problem that the Nets had ample opportunities to consider – heyyo!). The same article that described the Nets campaign suggested that hotels could offer unsold rooms in a similar fashion, in the hopes that the winners would make additional purchases via room service or on-site bars and restaurants. (The same mentality could be applied to movie theaters and amusement parks.) Of course, the other benefit is that a LBS-user is almost certainly going to be an active participant in social media, so they are more likely to start conversations about your brand than a traditional contest winner. Why not focus your rewards on someone who’s likely to be a vocal brand advocate?

Before moving on to the next topic, we should add that, um, we’re still not done here. In fact, our coverage of marketers on foursquare and Gowalla is still overlooking brands who are doing great work on other LBSs. Before you get completely exasperated, yes, the slew of services is a problem, and yes, we’ll be addressing this at a later time. But no, this won’t undermine the impending “Year of Location” – in fact, it should help. That’s a whole ‘nother post, though. In the meantime, we’d like to call your attention to Red Bull’s work with Whrrl, simply because it’s a stellar example of a Niche Network in action. When people join the Red Bull Society on Whrrl, they’re privy to exclusive deals (including drink discounts at select bars and clubs) and access to Red Bull events (such as tickets to the Red Bull Air Race in NYC). When our previous post asked “what’s the point of checking-in?” this is about as good an answer as you can give: being part of an exclusive community with tangible benefits, organized around a set of common [and local] interests. We hope other brands continue to do the same. But if they don’t, you can always garner attention with wacky offers like free Virgin America airline tickets for checking-in to taco trucks on Loopt. Wait, wha?

As part of Pacifico’s sponsorship of the US Open of Surfing, we rolled out a program via QR code for the event’s attendees. Better yet, we made sure we were delivering compelling content according to the recommendations from our QR code Smartshot webinar, in which we advised that QR codes should deliver convenience, entertainment, or exclusivity.

Fortunately, the Pacifico code nails all three at once.

On the convenience side, the code offers a Pacifico tap finder for USOS attendees, enabling them to map out their route to the nearest bars (which, presumably, will also quickly lead to entertainment). Speaking of entertainment, the mobile site also offers a calendar of events surrounding the USOS (viewable to the right), so that attendees can catch concerts and parties after the day’s work is done (and, yes, this doubles as convenience as well). Finally, the mobile site offers exclusivity by also directing users to Pacifico events during the USOS, providing access and benefits that are unavailable to people who haven’t scanned the codes.

This campaign shows that checking off the boxes for convenient, entertaining, and exclusive content doesn’t have to be so complicated. In fact, it brings to life our mantra here at Upshot: simple ideas, brilliantly activated. Good marketing is just that easy.

If you haven’t already, please don’t forget to vote for our SXSW 2011 panel, accessible here. You’ll need to create an account to vote, but we promise that it takes less than a minute. Voting closes Friday, August 27th, and we appreciate every bit of help we can get!

So, when GE recently rolled out their MoodCam iPhone app, our antennae went up. It’s certainly a clever idea: snap a photo of a room in your house, determine what kind of “mood” you’d prefer the room to have (i.e. intimate vs peaceful), and the Moodometer will recommend the appropriate GE bulb and show you the expected result.

I get it. I really do. And I think there will be a lot of folks who use this once and get a kick out of it. And, maybe I’m underestimating GE. Perhaps this is a Trojan Horse of sorts, and they’re planning to blow out this app with additional features after the first round of users put it on their phones. But, if not, the app just seems to fall flat. Which means, after the initial use, this app’s just taking up space.

Back when we lauded the ColorCapture app from Benjamin Moore paints, we pointed out that the app allowed users to be inspired by colors in the world around them, then match those colors to the brand’s color palettes. For people who are likely to paint their homes, this seems like the kind of app that will be used repeatedly, even if it’s not everyday. But, how often are we really adjusting our lightbulb types?

Bringing it back to the central point of thinking After the App, we have to ask if this same functionality could be offered as effectively via the mobile web. Could consumers upload a photo to a GE mobile site (perhaps accessible by a QR code)? If so, let’s do the smartphone users a favor and save them some space on their app menus. After all, they need to make room for the new app from the Choose Your Own Adventure series!

To do this, you could follow the lead of the employee profiled in the above article, who spends an enormous amount of time finding and monitoring the guests’ social media profiles. Or, you could use technology to drive those conversations to a central location. As profiled in PSFK’s article on 10 Innovative Uses of the iPad by the Hospitality Industry, San Diego’s Hotel Indigo is using customized iPads to drive these kinds of conversations right to the hotel’s social media profiles. Got a question about what to do in the surrounding area? Submit it through the iPad to the hotel’s Twitter feed, and crowdsource your way to an answer (which, coincidentally, should always start with “GO TO THE BEACH, DUMMY!”). The hotel also displays these conversations (along with those on their Facebook page) in real-time in their lobby, so guests know as soon as they arrive that they’re part of an active conversation with the hotel. Sure beats scavenging Twitter feeds for mentions of the hotel, doesn’t it?

Of course, the iPad can be used to be a better concierge, too. The Plaza hotel in New York is taking this literally, allowing guests to use iPads in order to perform tasks like requesting room service and making spa appointments. But, frankly, any high-end hotel can offer these conveniences. What makes one luxury hotel differ from the next? Or, more precisely, what can the hotel do to make sure its guests feel like they are getting an experience that differs from the experience at competing hotels? One answer is to more clearly define the expectations of what kind of person stays at this hotel; in other words, delineating what makes this Micro Community differ from everyone else. We recently highlighted how LVMH is using their Nowness site in order to accomplish this goal, and we see a similar motivation behind London’s Berkeley Hotel providing guests with an iPad that’s pre-loaded with a variety of handpicked content. This includes select newspapers and magazines, a list of the concierge’s must-visit places, children’s content, and more. Sure, this is an extremely convenient service for the guest, but it’s also an effective way to define the hotel’s brand through curated content. Rather than telling their guests about what differentiates The Berkeley from its competitors, the hotel is showing them that their guests are the type of people who read magazine X about topic Y (on device Z – or i?).

So, it’s not entirely surprising to see a number of articles about tweeting travelers getting the virtual concierge treatment. This article from the Wall Street Journal (thanks to Paul Marran for the tip) profiles a Orlando Marriott World Center employee named Zachary Long, who engages in a comprehensive program of social media monitoring. A selection of Long’s activities include:

• Monitoring Twitter for mentions of the hotel and the hotel’s competitors
• Monitoring the individual social media profiles of guests who will be staying in the hotel
• When applicable, interacting with guests before their stay via social media
• Monitoring check-ins on foursquare

This is a remarkably thorough way of addressing Consumer Controlled Conversations – so remarkable, in fact, that it may seem like an unreasonable amount of effort for other hotels, retailers, and brands. Moreover, this article (along with a number of others) seem to be encouraging consumers to whine and complain their way to free perks and special treatment. Is this really something that we want to incentivize? Do we want our customers to feel that the only way they can get an ideal experience is to beat our brands up online and then retract their criticisms?

Of course not. Monitoring social media is an absolute necessity in the age of Consumer Controlled Conversations, but proactively engaging consumers is the best way to ensure that these conversations play out in a positive manner. While it’s only mentioned in passing in the article, Long does reach out to hotel guests before their stay, interacting with them via social media if possible. Doing so enables the hotel to anticipate special requests before they become complaints, and even delight their guests with unexpected (and customized) surprises upon their arrival. Over time, these insights serve as a virtual suggestion box that can help the hotel develop refine their hospitality efforts. And when that happens, even Consumer Controlled Conversations will focus more on the brand’s successes than its shortcomings.

After all, the only thing better than actively monitoring online complaints is using these insights to prevent the complaints in the first place.