Location based social network Gowalla has struck a pretty significant partnership today—Disney. The startup is teaming up with Disney Parks to create a branded, Gowalla-powered destination for park-goers to explore Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts.
People are able to view park happenings with custom Gowalla Disney Passport pages for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts that include maps featuring a check-in stream, a list of popular places, curated trips, and more.
Various destinations in the park will have their own custom stamps, (Gowalla says this is the
largest number of custom Gowalla Passport Stamps ever developed for a brand). So you’ll be able to check-in to the Magic Kingdom or Epcot and unlock a special stamp for visiting the destinations. The Stamps are collected in users’ Gowalla Passports and checking-into locations will also unlock special rewards and virtual goods.
The startup says Disney will be publicizing the partnership throughout its parks, encouraging users to use the Gowalla-branded applications.
This isn’t the first major brand partnership for Gowalla but it’s certainly the largest, says Andy Ellwood, Gowalla’s business development director. In fact, Ellwood says that it is the most comprehensive branded deal formed out of all the location-based apps, including Foursquare. Gowalla’s other partnerships include Whole Foods Market, Larry King Live and Nike/Livestrong.
It seems like a win for Gowalla—Disney is a huge brand and any publicity the media giant can throw the startup’s way should help expand the location-based service’s userbase.
