Swedish grocery chain ICA uses Gowalla for promoting new store
In this article from November last year I asked when retailers in Europe will start to utilize location based services like Gowalla and Foursquare. It looks like they are finally starting! At least one is:
Swedish grocery chain ICA will open up a new store for food to go in central Stockholm tomorrow, and has launched a competition that encourages people to check in with Gowalla every time they are coming to the store. The person who has most check ins at the ICA to Go store on March 30 and who is able to answer a single question wins an iPad. Furthermore, everyone who passes by, checks in and becomes a founder before tomorrow will get a free coffee after opening.
ICA has set up a Wordpress site which shows recent check-ins and the top 10 list of people with most check-ins.
Props to ICA for (to my knowledge) being first at least in Sweden, and one of the first (if not the first) retailer of significant size in Europe to use location based services to create loyal customers (and to get some media coverage and Twitter buzz).
Update: @fdqps asked me if I could add that the campaign was created with the help of the agencies teknograd and Deportivo. I think I can do him this favour.
