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McDonald's Using Foursquare in N.Y. C.

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McDonald's' summer "Toast Your Town" campaign marks its first use of Foursquare in the New York metro area.

The campaign promoting McCafé beverages, from agency Arnold Worldwide, also spans Twitter, online and traditional media.

Residents of nine metro areas -- Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, Fairfield County, Conn., Long Island, New Jersey and the Westchester/Hudson Valley region -- are being encouraged to celebrate their hometowns and engage in a friendly competition to win McCafé "parties" (beverage giveaways at McDonald's restaurants).

The campaign kicked off with a Twitter "Live Toast" event, in which people were invited to use a McCafé beverage to toast what makes their hometowns the best place to live.

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Consumer tweets were tracked with a #toastyourtown hashtag, and tweets went live on the campaign's microsite (toastyyourtown.com) each day between noon and 2 p.m. This 14-day promotion increased Twitter followers of @McDNYTriState from 900 to 7,423, reports Arnold.

Those two efforts helped build awareness for the main phase of the campaign: three Foursquare competitions inviting people to check in at participating McDonald's restaurants for chances to win one of the McCafé parties. The region logging the most check-ins wins. Live tallies of check-ins by region are being posted on the microsite during each competition.

New Jersey won the first competition, and Manhattan the second. As a result, New Jersey McDonald's restaurants offered giveaways of free, small McCafé beverages on July 7, and Manhattan McDonald's' units will offer the same on Aug. 4, between 2 and 4 p.m. The third competition starts Aug. 8.

The campaign also includes use of mobile banners. The banners encourage participation in the Foursquare competitions and also redirect users to a mobile site with information on McCafé beverages and a tool to vote for their favorite variety. At summer's end, those votes will determine which beverage is the "Toast of the Summer."

Through Sept. 1, radio, out-of-home and in-store merchandising are also being employed to promote the beverages and the Foursquare competition.

In addition to building regional awareness of McCafé offerings, the campaign is serving to provide McDonald's with platforms for engaging with New York metro area consumers, and with insights about regional variety/product preferences, noted McDonald's marketing manager Jennifer Nagy.

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