The passion of Whrrl
By Simon Fuller. The increased take-up of smartphones is resulting in a slew of services utilising a user’s location to provide info or make recommendations. It’s no surprise that brands are interested in how these location-based gizmos can help them, and with plenty of seemingly similar services out there – Foursquare, Gowalla, etc – there’s a lot of choice.
Enter US-based tech outfit Pelago with Whrrl 3, the latest evolution of the company’s geosocial networking app, which offers something a tad different.
How? Well, with the Whrrl app, iPhone and mobile web users experience a storytelling game linked to a location-based service. Players can use their locations to find what Pelago term ‘Societies’ – collections of Whrrl users who share their interests, whether that’s scouting out happening night clubs, or whipping up a good stir fry. The idea is that users interact with other members of their Society by sharing info or by relating an experience – by leaving a photo, for example. And then the game part of Whrrl kicks in, since users garner points for contributing anything which other users likes the look of.
“Whrrl is focused on its mission of getting people out in the world and doing new things,” says Jeff Holden, Pelago’s CEO. “The way we go about achieving that is to create an ecosystem of people who inspire each other to try new things. To that point, the core of Whrrl is Societies – passion groups for the real world.”
The more points you get, the more influential you are – and that means reaping Society Rewards, a kind of loyalty scheme which brands can get involved in by offering users who visit certain places something for doing so. For example, gas brand Murphy USA created its own Whrrl Society and gave out $50 gas prizes for lucky members checking in at a branded tour bus. The widely-publicised bus stopped off at a host of gas stations across the US earlier this year.
“Societies are communities not badges, and designed to help you discover the world around you with unprecedented relevance,” says Holden. “Who better to give you recommendations than others who share the same passions? From the merchant and brand perspective, this is simply what they want from social media.
“Brands within stores – not just merchants and retailers – can have Societies and therefore enjoy all of these benefits.”
Whrrl has been used by non-profit organizations too. Pelago teamed up with the Experience Music Project to spread the word about the history of rock across the US. By joining certain Societies – ‘New York Punk’, or ‘Jimi Hendrix’ for instance – Whrrl users could get access to nuggets of information about influential artists and scenes by checking in to key spots around the country.
“It comes down to a brand’s objectives, of course, but what Whrrl enables is a physical-world community with the brand at the centre and measurable real-world activation,” says Holden. [It also provides] social loyalty that rewards both visits and word-of-mouth that drives other people to visit, and organic growth through viral sharing by the Society members.
“Non-profits generally want to raise awareness of their cause and motivate action,” Holden continues. “In the case of EMP, for example, the goal is to engage people in the history of popular music by connecting with them where the history transpired. Whrrl allows the EMP to have a much wider net than what the museum itself can offer.”
