Foursquare Visits receives industry’s first media rating council location-based advertising guidelines accreditation
Today, we’re excited to announce that the Media Rating Council (MRC) has granted Foursquare Visits MRC’s first-ever accreditation for location data based on its Location-Based Advertising Measurement Guidelines. As the first such location service to be accredited, Foursquare Visits has been found to comply with industry standards for its ability to estimate and validate real-world visits, and surface that data to customers through its Foursquare Visits offering.
The MRC serves as a trusted industry source to validate measurements and data. They have administered hundreds of audits over the years to ensure such services that are used by advertisers and marketers are valid, reliable and effective.
“This is the first accreditation MRC has granted in the location space since MRC’s Location-Based Advertising Measurement Guidelines were issued in 2017, and as such, it’s an important and noteworthy achievement by Foursquare’s externally syndicated Visits offering,” said George W. Ivie, Executive Director and CEO of the MRC. “Foursquare is to be congratulated for its diligence and perseverance throughout the accreditation process, and as accurate location data is increasingly a critical must-have in the marketing ecosystem, the industry now can be confident that it has an MRC-accredited location data set on which they can place their reliance.”
Accreditation means that independent CPAs engaged by the MRC conducted a rigorous, thorough and in-depth audit to ensure Foursquare Visits complied with applicable industry standards set forth by the MRC (including MRC’s Location-Based Advertising Measurement Guidelines), and that a committee of industry practitioners reviewed and ultimately agreed with this assessment.
In addition to Foursquare Visits being available directly to customers or via major marketing tech platforms, it is also the foundation of multiple Foursquare products — including its best-in-market offerings Attribution, which has not been audited or accredited by the MRC.
Foursquare has always been seen as the pioneer in location; from its creation of the check-in, to developing the #1 solutions for offline-to-online measurement, targeting and point-of-interest data, this achievement for Foursquare Visits demonstrates that Foursquare keeps data quality at the forefront of its offerings and continues to lead in advancing the possibilities of location data.
Marketers, advertisers and publishers rely on the MRC to accredit organizations’ offerings — they want to feel confident in choosing organizations whose solutions have been put under MRC’s rigorous testing and review processes. For the thousands of brands who already rely on Foursquare’s location technology and data and even those who are seeking out a trusted location partner, the accreditation of Foursquare Visits offers an additional mark of assurance that the data that underlies our location offerings are valid, reliable and effective.
“Pandora and Foursquare have had a long-standing relationship, and this industry-first accreditation exemplifies the quality and rigor of Foursquare Visits. We applaud Foursquare for their commitment to transparency and quality,” said Keri Degroote, senior vice president of research and analytics at Pandora.
“At 360i, we believe location is a critical intent signal to consumer behavior,” said Doug Rozen, Chief Media Officer at 360i. “With the accreditation of Foursquare Visits, Foursquare now has greater credibility in connecting their sizable first-party location data and strong attribution with greater media delivery assurances that top advertisers expect. This should enable more end-to-end activity due to high transparency and measurement consistency.”
As the location space becomes more sophisticated with enriched location data, the need for a trusted and accredited solution is paramount to progress industry innovation. We are proud to be the first solution to be accredited to measure visitation in the physical world, where 90% of retail transactions occur.
Foursquare has long said that creating location technology is not the hardest part of the job. Dreaming up and building The Next Big Thing in location — and doing it responsibly — is what drives us every day. We’ve long believed that data is a privilege, which is why partners, customers, and all of their users trust Foursquare for its location data, and this MRC accreditation of our Foursquare Visits data proves that we’re doing the hard parts right.
