Foursquare TV? "We don't need no stinkin' badges..."

Spinning through the TechCrunch RSS feed the other day we discovered that:

Starting on August 1, when you use GetGlue to check-in watching one of HBO’s hit shows, you’ll earn exclusive stickers designed by HBO.

And later that day, while trying to compare Hulu Plus with NBC's own website, we stumbled across:

Now you can be as proud as a Peacock with historic NBC logos! Collect all seven. NBC's 'N' logo got its start in 1975 and was used through 1979. With two brightly colored trapezoids making the 'N', the design was very much of its time.

We're all in favor of rewards which promote and retain viewer engagement, still we’re skeptical that a badge, mayorship, or other electronic social doodad is going to accomplish much here. Two ideas on how to do better:

• rewards have to be integrated into a cycle. TV has for all practical purposes turned into an application with six parts, of which rewarding is a final (and an important) step
• instead of badges, give viewers more of what they want – programs. Build points towards a la carte premium viewing (Hulu Plus credits, whatever). This is an opportunity to build and reinforce the six-part cycle above. And it’s also a much more meaningful way to keep viewers connected. To quote one of our favorite parts of the Hoffman|Lewis credo:

"We don’t get them to try our product by convincing them to love our brand. We get them to love our brand by convincing them to try our product."  (via The Ad Contrarian)