Foursquare: 55 Million Users, 54 Percent Lift Since Relaunch

Whether it’s all part of the master plan or more opportunistic, Foursquare is undertaking a “multimillion-dollar effort” to brand and differentiate itself from Yelp and other local search apps.

The campaign will appear in out-of-home locations in New York and Chicago as well as online in other cities. I believe branding is important for Foursquare, so this is a campaign that can help build awareness and answer the “why question” for users: why should I use the app vs. a competitor?

As with the new Foursquare itself, the theme of the campaign is personalization. The main idea is that Foursquare knows you and can make better recommendations than its competitors. Certainly that’s a true statement from a data perspective.

The question is whether it will be persuasive to users who are quite happy with Yelp, TripAdvisor, Google Maps, OpenTable, YP, Urbanspoon or other similar local apps.

In an AdWeek article discussing the new campaign, Foursquare shared some new numbers:

• The site has 55 million registered users (though it hasn’t disclosed active users)
• The post-Swarm Foursquare “saw a 54 percent lift in users compared to the same month 2013”
• A third of users are just on Foursquare, a third only use Swarm and a third use both monthly
• Foursquare now has 50 million tips (tips per active user are up 116 percent since Foursquare relaunch)

If these numbers indicate new momentum, then Foursquare’s big bet on personalization may be paying off, and the company might not be headed for a near-term acquisition.

Here’s one example of the ad creative featured in the AdWeek article: