Whrrl and Travel Channel let you decide “Who Wins the Food War” in your town
Heated debates are taking place across the country, with loyal fans passionately defending the local eateries and iconic dishes that make their towns famous. Where’s the best pastrami sandwich in New York? Who serves the top Italian Beef Sandwich in Chicago? What’s the #1 hot dog in Detroit?
Today, Travel Channel is premiering a new show called Food Wars, which aims to answer these questions. Food Wars will pit the nation’s most famous culinary rivals against one another for a final showdown, where a blind taste test will settle the score on these long-standing rivalries. And you can choose your side too, with Whrrl.
Starting now, you’ll be able to join Travel Channel’s “Food Wars Society” on Whrrl. It’s simple: just check in to one of the official Food Wars locations around the country and you’ll be accepted into the Society. As a member, you’ll be able to share stories about your own taste tests at these rival spots and declare which you think is the winner. Inspire others to compare these spots too – and help settle these legendary food wars.
But that’s not all. Later this week, we’ll be launching the all-new version of Whrrl. Whrrl 3 will provide even more ways to discover Food Wars content, including:
- Societies Tab: You’ll be able to view the Food Wars Society and all Societies within Whrrl in one place. As a member of the “Food Wars” Society, you’ll have the exclusive ability to view special challenges, view recommendations and create recommendations for your friends.
- Ideas Tab: You’ll also be able to view challenges on the new Ideas tab when you’re nearby any Food Wars location and save these challenges on the new “want to” and “did it” lists. You can also recommend these challenges to friends by placing them on their “Ideas” list.
Food Wars is one of the first among many Travel Channel Societies that will be launching within Whrrl. Stay tuned later this week to learn more!
And don’t forget to catch the premiere of Travel Channel’s Food Wars tonight, Tuesday, March 9th at 10 PM EST, as Travel Channel settles the Buffalo Chicken Wing war and Chicago’s infamous Italian Beef Sandwich rivalry. To learn more, you can visit the show’s Web site.
How Whrrl and other technologies are changing the face of the automobile retail industry
Eric Miltsch posted a great blog post this week on Headlight – a digital automotive trends blog from Razorfish – about how six technologies are changing the face of the automobile retail industry. We were very pleased to see Whrrl and our Merchant Program was mentioned as one of these breakthrough technologies!
The article talks about geo-location services whereby you can offer an incentive for consumers to visit and engage them with new discount/promotional ideas. That got us thinking, and we have an idea.
How about having customers check in on Whrrl, take a picture of the hot new car model, and then tweet it out for a chance to win a prize from the dealer? Or, you could have customers share details and pics from their test drive, creating a “virtual test drive” for other customers, which would lure them take their own test drive?
We’re fired up with ideas- what are yours?
Here’s the article:
UPDATED: 40 new Whrrl Societies now live!
In January, we announced the first expansion of Whrrl Societies to 28 cities throughout the Unites States. If you’re still unfamiliar with the concept behind Whrrl Societies, they are groups of like-minded people that have the same real world patterns. For instance, I’d consider myself a “foodie” because I like to go to restaurants in Seattle that are known for their top-rated cuisine. If you also have a passion for fine dining, you’d be a foodie, too- and we would be in the same Society.
Today we’re excited to roll out our first set of 26 nationwide tag-based Societies. (And there are more than 625,000 places in cities across the U.S. that count toward membership in these Societies!) Do people call you “Norm” when you walk into the local bar because you have a seat waiting for you? Chances are you’ll be in the Bar Fly Society. Are you pampered, head-to-toe, from all the spas and salons you go to? Sounds like you’re the perfect person for our Princess Society!
You can find a list of Societies near you that you’re not yet a member of on your “Profile” page in Whrrl’s iPhone app. Here you’ll be able to read about each Society, and see locations near you that count toward membership into the Society. Each check-in to a place associated with these Societies will count toward unlocking the membership for you. We’ll also automatically share when you are accepted into a Society on your Facebook and Twitter pages (if you’ve linked them). Here is our list of new Societies and the establishment type associated with them.
UPDATE: We added 14 more this week, for a total of 40. The new ones are the first 14 on this list:
- Supermarket Sweep (grocery stores)
- Hold the Mayo (delis)
- High Steaks (steak restaurants)
- Snow Chaser (ski & snowboard resorts)
- Animal House (universities)
- Up in the Air (airports)
- Roller Coaster Junkie (amusement parks)
- Love Birds (bridal)
- Homer’s (donut shops)
- Gym Rat (gym)
- Shaken, Not Stirred (cocktail lounges)
- Pinball Wizard (arcades)
- Slurpee Society (convenience stores)
- Societe de Café (cafés)
- Weekend Brunch (Breakfast)
- Chinese Pagoda (Chinese cuisine)
- Supersized (Fast food)
- Strange Brew (Brewpubs)
- The Dude Abides (Bowling)
- Yo Quiero Mexican (Mexican cuisine)
- What the Pho (Vietnamese & Pho cuisine)
- Pie in the Sky (Pizza)
- Cultured (Museums, Theaters, Galleries, etc.)
- Furry Friends (Pet stores, Veterinarian, Pet services, etc.)
- MiniMe (Kids places, parks, zoos, toy stores, etc.)
- Princess (Tanning salon, nail salon, massage, etc.)
- Bar Fly (Bars)
- All American (American cuisine)
- Pitmaster (Barbecue joints)
- High Jolt (Coffee shops)
- Dough Boy (Bakeries)
- Do It Yourself (Home improvement)
- Mamma Mia (Italian cuisine)
- Wasabi (Sushi joints)
- Fisherman’s Wharf (Seafood restaurants)
- Golden Popcorn (Movie Theaters)
- Starbucks
- Do Not Disturb (Hotels)
- Hamburgler (Hamburger places)
- We Scream (Ice cream )
We’ll be rolling out many more over the next month. What societies will YOU be a member of? We can’t wait to find out! Is there a society we’re missing? Let us know – email us with suggestions and comments at societies@whrrl.com
Location Sharing Landing Pages (That Aren’t Lame)
Around here we’re obsessed with creating ways to bring Whrrl users one step closer to adventures with friends in the real world. Sharing where you are increases the odds that if someone you know is nearby they’ll see your location update and suggest a meet up.
Friends who have Whrrl receive notifications when you’re nearby based on their settings. To reach a larger audience, you can post your location to Twitter so that friends outside of Whrrl will know where you are, too:
Location updates should be more interesting than a link that drops you in the middle of a map without much context. Instead of linking to the Whrrl website, this lightweight landing page makes it easy to quickly build a list of places you’ve been to or want to visit. Places surfaced in the list are based on the preferences of the person featured on the map.
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