Miso Gets Big Brand Love. Check-In To The Hot Tub Time Machine

For the past few years, being the “Twitter for FILL-IN-THE-BLANK” has been a popular trend among startups. Now, we’re starting to see a shift. Several new startups are launching as the “Foursquare for FILL-IN-THE-BLANK.” And big brands are actually starting to take notice.

Miso is an iPhone app that incorporates the “check-in” idea with watching movies and television shows. So, for example, if you’re watching that NCAA Tournament this weekend, you can check-in to let your friends what you’re doing. You can then send these check-ins to Twitter, Facebook, or yes, Foursquare, checking you in there in the process (assuming you’ve also attached an actual location to your movie/TV show check-in).

But plenty of other services now are predicated around the check-in idea. What makes Miso the Foursquare for entertainment viewing, is that you earn badges for your check-ins. The idea has already attracted the interest of big-time brands, such as MGM Studios, which decided to strike a deal with Miso for its new movie Hot Tub Time Machine.

Miso has made a special badge for the movie that you’ll get if you check-in to the movie. This is similar to the deals Foursquare has been signing with big brands, such as Starbucks, which gives users a special barrista badge if they check-in at Starbucks.

Currently, there is nothing special beyond the badge you get for checking-in at the movie, but eventually the plan is that these types of check-ins could unlock special content from films, for example. There could also be sweepstakes you could enter by checking-in.

Other apps, such as Hot Potato, also incorporate the idea of checking-in to events rather than just places.

Miso is the latest app by Bazaar Labs. Their first app, FlixUp!, a sort-of Rotten Tomatoes for movie talk on Twitter, launched at our Realtime Crunchup last Fall.

You can find Miso in the App Store here. It’s a free download.