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This weekend, thousands of interactive marketers, PR professionals, Web designers and social media enthusiasts have once again converged upon Austin, Texas for the South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference. SXSW is known for thrusting social networks such as Twitter into the limelight, so it is only natural to wonder who will emerge as this year’s social media darling.  

One of the races we’re watching closely is the competition between popular location-based applications, Gowalla and Foursquare.  Although both applications have experienced exponential growth (Foursquare tweets “one million check-ins a week”) since their initial launch at last year’s SXSW, this trip to the Lonestar state could be the tipping point for one of them, especially since social networking giant, Facebook plans to offer location-based services soon. Both companies rolled out major upgrades to both the mobile and Web versions of their applications, which have significant implications for how brands leverage the tools to reach key stakeholders.  

Based on my experience here at SXSW with both of these apps, the most prevalent improvements fall within the realm of customized user experiences. If you weren’t able to make it to Austin this year, I’ve included screen grabs (Above: Fourquare on the left, Gowalla on the right) that show how both apps appear when you check-in around SXSW. As you can see, Foursquare and Gowalla created unique user experiences for attendees of SXSW, which include several brand-sponsored games and giveaways. Customized location-based applications are trending down here in Austin, but in more ways than one. Stay tuned for my next post about how brands can create unique experiences for consumers with location-based games with little known tools and strategies.