Turkcell Lands Second Foursquare Badge in Two Months

Turkcell got its second Foursquare badge approved for a gnçtrkcll campaign. Turkcell’s “youth club” gnçtrkcll offers deals to anyone who feels young enough to self-enroll, and now has become the second entity associated with a Foursquare partner badge in Turkey. Last month, the mobile network operator had earned Turkey’s first badge ever, which was announced simultaneously with the Turkish localization of the check-in app.

To earn this second badge, users need to check in at two venues that cooperate with gnçtrkcll on deals. The locations are presented in six lists on the gnçtrkcll Foursquare profile page, and offer discounts in theatres, coffee shops, pizzerias, and other location from brands like Little Caesars, Sony, and Kahve Dünyası.

Even though the Foursquare partner badges are for sale, not just anyone can flaunt one. The check-in app wants the partner badges to conform to certain, largely subjective criteria. Unlike special offers and promotions, the partner badges act as much an advertisement of Foursquare as it is of the partner’s services. For example, the badge should be accessible to a very large community—even city-wide events are scoffed at. The partner should take care to throw in an incentive in the form of deals, present it in a clear narrative, and advertise the badge widely through other channels, like TV.

It is not surprising, then, Turkcell has the only two badges from Turkey. The company is the largest mobile network operator of the country by a large margin, one of the largest in the world, and is the first Turkish company to be listed in the New York Stock Exchange. Turkcell seems to be close with Foursquare, whose Head of Business Development, Holger Luedorf, lavishly praised their partner during the launch of the Turkish localization.

Turkcell was criticized in June when the company made overt attempts to present the Turkish localization as their work, when it was a community project around Foursquare. The resulting controversy does not seem to have damaged relations with Foursquare, though it might have taught Turkcell a lesson or two. The presentation of the second badge is decidedly less self-promotional and its conditions are consumer centered. Still, that is how gnçtrkcll rolls, and the shenanigans of last month… well, that might just be how Turkcell rolls.