What a year for entertainment “check-in” service GetGlue! Not only did the company surpass the 2 million user mark before the new year, but AdaptiveBlue, Inc. (parent company of GetGlue) has its eye on evolving the platform beyond simply rewarding users for checking-in to movies, music, and television shows.
As if that momentum wasn’t enough, on the same day that CEO and founder Alex Iskold received the coveted honor of Mashable’s “Breakout Startup Of The Year“ award at the highly anticipated Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2012 in Las Vegas (the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow with over 2700 exhibitors), Iskold announced that GetGlue had raised an additional $12 million in financing led by Rho Ventures, as well as original investors Time Warner, RRE Ventures, and Union Square Ventures.
Seventy-five major television networks now use the GetGlue platform including major players ABC, FOX, NBC, TNT, USA and Food Network to reach consumers watching over 680 available shows. Similar to geo-location check-in service Foursquare, GetGlue leverages real-time check-ins to rewards consumers but in lieu of badges, the entertainment social platform uses virtual stickers and real stickers.
Growing Up
Founded in 2009 only a few months after geo-location check-in Foursquare, GetGlue has not accumulated critical mass as quickly as its location based cousin which surpassed 10 million users in 2011. In April of 2011, GetGlue finally eclipsed the 1 million user mark and doubled again within 8 months.
With over 350 million user data points to extract user behavior patterns and basic likes and interests, GetGlue can now demonstrate tangible value to current sponsors and partners by building a recommendation platform optimized for future advertising. In 2011 alone, GetGlue experienced a 1000% increase in usage, an impressive feat for the entertainment platform.
One of the main features of the GetGlue experience is discovering trending shows, movies, music, etc. As of last week, GetGlue expanded their platform to include a new guide page which is a basic recommendation algorithm which offers TV shows that might interest you (think Netflix).
GetGlue believes that the new guide feature is one of the key components of the company’s future success and the foundation of a future advertising platform for media companies and big brands.
The TV guide that you have today is fairly generic, it’s not really tailored to your taste,” explains GetGlue CEO Alex Iskold. “We want to build a guide that knows you watch these shows, and gives not only reminders, but also let you know when your friends are watching the shows.”
The site is adding a new filter to its conversation feeds that automatically excludes random comments, checkins and other irrelevant information from real-time streams. Users can now contribute to this conversation via the iPhone app.
We’re putting together the infrastructure of being an advertising company”
Partnering With Brands
Stickers allow brands to give consumers both virtual and tangible currency. Since badges are coveted and valued by GetGlue users, they are often shared across social sites once unlocked, driving word of mouth and buzz around events. Moreover, GetGlue stickers also exist as tangible goods that consumers can proudly display in real life, giving additional value to both the brand and consumer.
Sticker Peels offer brands the opportunity to sponsor existing stickers of television shows, movies, and events that compliment existing media partnerships. Users can peel these stickers off to reveal another sticker underneath, both virtually and on the real sticker itself. Back in September, GetGlue partnered with the Gap and Entertainment Weekly to offer users 40% off select single items at participating Gap stores.
Exclusive Stickers afford brands the opportunity extend their sponsorship of events or awards shows to the web and mobile via GetGlue. This is a strong value proposition for brands because GetGlue will design a unique sticker for it users to earn when they check in to the show.
Specials allow brands to promote loyalty by offering rewards which are tailored according to user levels. On GetGlue’s platforms, users who have checked-in to a show many times and liked it are eligible to progress from “Fans” to “Gurus“).
- Giveaways: GetGlue allows brands to offer products to consumers for checking in such as free tickets to a limited release movie premier.
- Exclusive Content: As a way to extend influence, GetGlue enables brands to offer exclusive prizes like free music downloads.
- Discounts: Much like Foursquare, brands can promote consumer loyalty by offering discounts on merchandise.
Sports Partnerships
In early 2011, GetGlue announced partnerships with the NHL, Showtime Sports, FOX Sports, the NFL Network, Speed, Fuel TV, Speed, the San Antonio Spurs, Turner Sports, and the NCAA tournament.
Last year, the Washington Redskins became the first sports team and NFL franchise to partner with Foursquare to create a badge to reward fans for checking into Redskins stadium. GetGlue has also partnered with Dan Snyder’s team to promote the Redskins Broadcast Network with an exclusive sticker shown below:
Look for GetGlue to expand its footprint in the sports industry with more stickers and events in 2012.
