If you've got a Klout score of 40 or higher, you're now able to enjoy the comfort of Cathay Pacific's First and Business Class Lounge at San Francisco International Airport—even if you're not flying on Hong Kong's flagship airline.
Klout, the San Francisco-based startup that measures social media users' "influence" in the online world, is partnering with Cathay Pacific on the novel promotion, which runs through July at SFO, the two companies said in a joint statement.
"At Cathay Pacific, we pride ourselves in providing exceptional products and services on the ground and in the air," said Dennis Owen, Cathay Pacific's vice president of marketing for the Americas. "By partnering with Klout, we have the opportunity to invite travelers who typically may not fly with us to experience our ground products and services, in hopes that they may one day choose to visit us again."
Any travelers making their way through SFO's "A" boarding area simply have to show their Klout score via the company's new iPhone app to staff at the Cathay Pacific lounge. And it's a pretty sweet deal; the airline's SFO lounge has shower suites, workstations, and a noodle bar.
Klout is clearly a company on the rise, though the idea of ranking people based on how much time they spend on Twitter, Facebook, and the like is not without its critics. A recent profile of the company in Wired detailed how some employers, hotel staff, and customer service reps are checking people's Klout scores before offering upgraded services and perks—and even jobs—to social networkers deemed influencers by the rating service.
That article inspired Internet prankster Tom Scott to build Klouchebag.com, an in-your-face rebuke to Klout that ranks people based on such social media crimes as mangled English and excessive re-tweeting.
Love it or hate it, we'll probably be seeing more Klout-based promotions like Cathay Pacific's in the future. The appeal of buttering up folks who are measurably capable of influencing others to use a product or service is a marketer's dream, after all.
Klout, naturally, is happy to monetize its two-and-a-half-year-old service by linking it to real-world enticements like free trips to a first-class airport lounge.
"We recently unveiled Klout for iPhone to give our users instant access to their influence wherever they go. Getting a pass into one of the most luxurious first-class lounges in the world is a great example of how they can benefit from that," said Klout's vice president of business development, Matt Thomson. "Cathay Pacific is the first partner to make a major offer like this to our mobile users. It's great to work with a brand that has the foresight to understand the power of online influence."
For more from Damon, follow him on Twitter @dpoeter.
