NBCPolitics.com has announced an exclusive election partnership with foursquare for an interactive "Campaign Check-ins" feature that will display check-ins from President Obama's campaign team and the Republican presidential candidates' campaign teams as they travel across the country on the campaign trail.
Visitors to NBCPolitics.com will also be able to view real-time check-ins from the NBC News journalists embedded with the Republican presidential candidates' campaigns.
The interactive "Campaign Check-ins" map will launch on NBCPolitics.com in Jan. 2012 and is designed to help users immerse themselves in excitement of the campaign trail excitement by allowing them to see which events candidates attend and the types of venues where they choose to make campaign stops.
"NBC News' partnership with foursquare will allow our audiences to more fully engage with the 2012 campaign," said Vivian Schiller, chief digital officer at NBC News in a statement. "By leveraging foursquare's location-based technology, users will be able to go follow candidates and experience NBC's election coverage in an innovative and unprecedented way."
"Understanding where candidates go on the campaign trail and why they go there is a fascinating story that we wanted to share with consumers," added Paige West, creative director, msnbc.com. "Visually mapping the campaigns' activities as we progress through each state's nominating contest and the general election is the best possible way to bring that story to life. Without foursquare, it wouldn't be feasible for us to produce this type of content."
NBC News will also offer co-branded political badges beginning in 2012.
The "Campaign Check-ins" data visualization will track Republican candidates during the primaries and through the general election.
Method, an international design firm, partnered with NBCPolitics.com to help design and develop the interactive experience.
Its data visualization of foursquare check-ins will allow users to view candidate and campaign activity both in real-time and over time, showing the history of the campaign trail activities. That history will also include milestones and successes or failures of the candidates during the process.
