Surely by now you have heard of SCVNGR, you know, the geo-location tool that allows users to check-in & complete Challenges at businesses across the country… Here at Catalyst we have written about SCVNGR quite a few times already, as we think it has a TON of potential as a marketing tool for small businesses. If you need a refresher on SCVNGR, please feel free to check out some of those past articles like, “Use SCVNGR to Drive Sales for Your Small Business” or “Corporate Chains Should Create Treks on SCVNGR“.
For those of you who are familiar with SCVNGR then you know that SCVNGR allows people and businesses to create Treks on SCVNGR. Treks are a set of Challenges across a geographic area. Once a Trek is created SCVNGR users can work to complete the Trek by completing each of the Challenges that make up the Trek. Treks on SCVNGR provide a HUGE opportunity for Malls and the stores that rent space within malls. In this article we are going to walk through how malls, and even shopping centers, should be taking advantage of building Treks on SCVNGR.
Malls are essentially made up of a group of businesses who all share a close proximity with one another. The most successful Treks on SCVNGR are the ones that consumers can complete without traveling great distances to complete each Challenge. Treks on SCVNGR have been setup across cities and local towns, but what’s better than having a Trek that you can complete without leaving one single location? Now, consumers who don’t drive (like teens under 16-17) can participate, as well as, everyone else who visits the mall.
Malls should run a Trek on SCVNGR as a promotional opportunity. Malls can have the businesses who rent space within the mall sign-up if they want to participate. It would be in the stores’ best interest to participate as a successfully executed Trek promotion can drive a TON of foot traffic to all participating stores! Malls can also create a new revenue stream out of this by charging a small fee for participants (stores).
Once a list of businesses within the mall who want to participate is created the mall Marketing Department can work with store managers to setup unique Challenges on SCVNGR for each store. After the Challenges are established then all that remains is setting up the logistics of the Trek and Trek Promotional Campaign. Things like how long the promotional campaign will stay active, the rules for the contest, and most importantly the prize details will all have to be determined. It is highly recommended that prizes are awarded to those who complete the Trek on SCVNGR. Determining what prizes to use and how they should be awarded can be accomplished in many different ways. A small prize can be given to everyone who completes the Trek on SCVNGR. There could be three big prizes and everyone who finishes the Trek on SCVNGR get entered into a drawing to see who wins the 3 top prizes. Whatever you decide is best for your mall, be sure the prizes have significant value for the participants or they won’t bother to participate in your Mall Trek Promotion.
Proper promotion of your new Mall Trek on SCVNGR is HUGELY important. Here are a few ideas for promoting your Mall Trek:
- Create YouTube videos explaining the contest and embed them on the Mall’s website, Facebook page, etc. – At least one video should be dedicated to explaining how to sign-up for SCVNGR as it’s still in the early growth stage as far as mass adoption is concerned.
- Design & print fliers about the contest. Hang them up around the mall.
- Ask participating stores to create their own promotional fliers (or even better, the mall can provide them to each store) and ask them to also promote the contest on their social media sites.
- Connect with local media for media coverage of the contest.
- Shoot videos and take pictures (be sure to get release forms signed by anyone in the footage and photos) of consumers completing the Trek on SCVNGR through the mall. Use these to entice more people to participate and for post-event promotion.
- Stores should run related Sales during the promotion in order to capitalize on all of the extra foot traffic.
SCVNGR is a really great new tool for businesses. As we always say, all that it takes is a little creativity to come up with engaging ways to use the tools effectively for driving sales. Malls should definitely look into creating Treks on SCVNGR as it will drive mall traffic and store traffic. The benefits of running a Trek on SCVNGR promotion for your mall are numerous. Here are a few of the main benefits:
- Creates engagement between local consumers, the mall, and mall stores
- Great for publicity
- Drives sales for mall tenants (businesses)
- The promotion could go viral, which will drive even more participants and media coverage
- Keeps consumers in the mall for longer periods of time than they would normally stay
- Drives consumers into stores they may not normally have entered, which might lead to new customers for those stores
There are many ways to run a Trek on SCVNGR promotion. Hopefully this article simply shows you how to use Treks on SCVNGR for promoting your mall and your mall tenants, explains why you should create a mall Trek on SCVNGR, and its benefits. If you have any questions about how to execute this promotional opportunity at your mall or if you want some help in setting it up, please feel free to contact Catalyst with your questions. Good luck and please let us know how it goes!
If you’re familiar with SCVNGR then you know that users can be both players and builders, but up until a week ago only the players were able to showcase their activities on SCVNGR through a Player Profile. With this new release small businesses can now continue building Challenges and 
Think of your Builder Profile on SCVNGR as your foursquare Venue page or your Facebook Business page. These are pieces of online real estate that you have claimed and can now use to promote your small business. Your foursquare venue page allows you to leave tips about your small business, run foursquare Mayor specials, and check out foursquare Analytics. Your Builder Profile page on SCVNGR will allow you to show off all of your recent Challenges, Treks, and Rewards that you’ve created for your store, display a description about your small business (filled with keywords for SEO of course), as well as, show your Social Score. 
I guess it was about three weeks ago at this point, when we first heard about SCVNGR here at Catalyst. I read about the New England Patriots using SCVNGR to engage their fans during the “off-season” in the NFL. After a little research, it was clear that SCVNGR is onto something BIG for businesses. We went ahead and penned our first post on using 
Here at Catalyst Marketers, we were fans of SCVNGR before we started our relationship with them, now that they’ve engaged us, and taken an interest in what we do, we are HUGE advocates. Every time we write a blog post about SCVNGR or tweet about them to our followers, the SCVNGR brand grows. Who knows, perhaps we’ll even write our next eBook, in our Driving Growth for Your Small Business eBook Series, on SCVNGR. SCVNGR created a remarkable product, and they are now using online tools to help build relationships with early adopters, and drive growth – IT’S WORKING. Now, that’s the power of using online tools, like Twitter, to build your brand!
Starbucks should create a National Trek on SCVNGR, whereby customers who stop at stores across the U.S. will check-in and complete Challenges at each location. Starbucks can even create a Global Trek on SCVNGR. The possibilities don’t stop there, as local county-based Treks can be built, or Treks for a city. What I’m saying is that if you own multiple stores, you can build a Trek on SCVNGR for your business. You don’t have to be Starbucks to take advantage of this creative marketing opportunity. Perhaps you’re a chain of 3 local donut shops, a chain of 11 regional hotels, a chain of 20 gyms…whatever business you’re in, SCVNGR provides a platform for you to engage your customer across multiple locations. 
“SCVNGR is a game about doing challenges at places”. People play SCVNGR by going places, doing challenges, and earning points. SCVNGR is currently available for both the iPhone and Android. With that said, one really cool feature is that anyone can play as long as they can text & snap pictures from their phone. Similar to foursquare, SCVNGR has given the user the power to add to the game by adding places (think venues on foursquare), creating Challenges, and even building Treks. Challenges are built into every location on SCVNGR. Challenges can range from snapping a photo, scanning a QR code (this is pretty unique), or taking part in an activity. Users then earn points based on the Challenges that they complete. Treks are a series of Challenges. Treks can be completed as one-time events, or can be on-going. Treks can also be completed over time. When completing a Trek, SCVNGR users go from place to place completing challenges. What’s really cool about SCVNGR is that business owners can build their own Challenges and Treks! This feature provides TREMENDOUS marketing value to small businesses.
SCVNGR provides small business owners with yet another fantastic platform to use to reach, and engage their customers. Building Challenges on SCVNGR entices your customers to take part in an activity while at your location. That activity is then shared with others who are connected to your customer on SCVNGR. You can change challenges as often as you’d like for your business. This will help keep customers engaged. 
