In perhaps the most inevitable combination since peanut butter and chocolate, the addictiveness of both group buying and irrationally checking into places have finally come together as Groupon clone BuyWithMe partners with geolocational gaming app SCVNGR.
The partnership launches today primarily as a collaboration in which local BuyWithMe affiliated businesses in New York, Philadelphia and Boston will now be able to use the SCVNGR platform to integrate local deals with real life engagement, a SCVNGR speciality.
Basically, if someone buys a deal on BuyWitheMe, the SCVNGR app allows them to complete challenges at that specific local business location for even more discounts or rewards. Users can earn points by doing anything from taking a funny photo, checking in, scanning a QR code or whatever customized activity a business owner can think of that will keep users coming back.
“SCVNGR’s game platform gives them more reason to visit again and again,” says BuyWithMe CEO Cheryl Rosner.
For example at the Mercury Bar in New York, one SCVNGR/BuyWithMe challenge is to make a model of the solar system with cocktail garnishes and take a pic, which earns you 5 points — The more points you accumuluate, the more rewards you get at that venue, rewards ranging from free appetizer, free lunch special to 25% off dinner, etc. Deals are also available/viewable through the SCVNGR app, thus creating a group buying and check-in loop of sorts.
From SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch:
“The similarities between our two user bases are something that couldn’t be overlooked. SCVNGR users love to discover new things in their city by using our gaming app to unlock rewards and deals. In partnering with BuyWithMe, we can bring our challenge-based games to an entirely new set of users and show them that a great discount on dinner or at a local spa is only just the beginning.”
The BuyWithMe and SCVNGR partnership may mark the first time a group buying site and a geolocational platform join forces in tying online activity to real world rewards, but certainly not the last. In fact I’m pretty certain this won’t be the last time I write about the newly minted Groupbuy Check-in space.
