New England Patriots Use SCVNGR technology to Build Excitement for 2010 Season

Usually when you hear social media and the New England Patriots in the same sentence, you would be referring to the latest trending Twitter topic about Tom Brady’s newest actress or supermodel conquest, but the marketing department for the storied Patriots franchise has developed a cleverly engaging campaign to energize the Foxboro fanbase for the upcoming 2010 season. Using the location-based social media technology SCVNGR, which at its essence is “a game about doing challenges at places,” as noted on its websites, fans are tasked with hitting the streets, businesses, and boroughs around Boston to help find Patriot defensive tackle Vince Wilfork’s stolen Superbowl ring.

If you haven’t heard of SCVNGR, then listen up, because the Boston-based startup is starting to make waves in the world of social media.  Along with a simple “check-in” technology similar to FourSquare or Loopt, businesses, non-profits, events, musicians, and the like can use the service to set up a series of location-based challenges, which upon completion, can earn the scavenger points, badges, discounts, and prizes. The Patriot’s “Help Vince” campaign is comprised of a series of places a fan must visit and tasks he or she must complete in their mission to find Vince’s lost Superbowl ring, all the while chronicling the trip with uploaded photos and venue check-ins in. And for the winning scavenger who finds the stolen ring? The grand prize of a dinner with a Patriot’s player.

Along with being fun, unique, and cutting-edge, the “Help Vince” campaign works on a variety of different levels because it is well-thought out and fully engaging with the New England fanbase and culture. The campaign was launched on the Patriot’s website with a video press conference, chocked full of reporters and journalists, where the Patriot’s organization, along with Vince himself, discusses the recent events that led to him losing the ring. Amidst the interview, they then show a video of a loud-mouth New York Jets fan, their arch rival football team, mocking Patriots fans and mouthing off about the ring he stole. Where the organization could have quickly and easily pulled off a “do this, get this” promotion, the “Help Vince” campaign immerses fans in the Patriots tradition and brand from start to finish, and that attention to detail has paid dividends.

The common problem for many social media startups is solving the “chicken and the egg” conundrum. Social media is powerful when people engage with the technology, but how do you get people to engage with a site or a technology before a crowd is already there using it? Recently FourSquare has proven that if you add some small incentives to the technology, even if it is simply “badges” to show off and brag about to friends, you can build the base of followers necessary to begin experiencing exponential growth. SCVNGR might have solved this problem as well by taking the incentive structure even further in the form of games and challenges. Their success, though, will depend on hooking up with brands whose followers are so invested that they are willing to complete potentially exhaustive location-based challenges.

It is quite obvious that Patriots fans will do just about anything to prove their status as a diehard fan, so the “Help Vince” promotion has not only been a huge success, but it has also garnered an impressive amount of PR and media coverage as well.  Just imagine if you took this a step further and involved one of their superstars like Tom Brady in the campaign? But that’s just the world needs, huh, more Tom Brady exposure.