Creating Digital Passports for Publisher’s "best Of" Content

Madison Strunk  |  May 25th, 2023

Digital Passports: Harnessing Power for 'Best of' Content

Publishers for years have been producing and releasing “Best of” articles to showcase their best finds for many products. Ranging from “The Best Books of 2023” to “Try These 10 Restaurants for the Best Food of Your Life”, these articles are always a hit when looking for recommendations on what to eat or where to go. Whether in your own town or visiting somewhere new “Best of” articles can be a great place to start for ideas.


Bandwango passports are a great way to turn your “Best of” articles into a digital experience passport that incentivizes your readers to save money and earn prizes by visiting local businesses. Optionally, these passports could be paid for by consumers which could help generate revenue while growing your audience. While turning articles into passports is a good way to showcase local businesses, it also benefits you as publishers by collecting first-party data, generating revenue, and encouraging community engagement.


Our passports are a way to digitize content in a user-friendly way so that readers and passholders can check in at each location included in your article. We offer multiple different passports depending on our partners needs and desires. The check-in challenge or “gamified” pass is a great way to get users involved by earning points at each location that they visit. Points can be redeemed for prizes, whether that be a sticker, an exclusive t-shirt, or more! A savings pass is a fantastic way to offer exclusive deals or discounts at each participating venue.

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A combination of our passport types can be used to curate “Best of” articles. Each location in your article can be included in the passport providing your readers with a fun experience and with data to understand where your readers are visiting and how they are behaving. This is also a fantastic opportunity to engage your readers more than ever before. Creating and organizing your “Best of” articles with a passport can aid you in establishing authority and expertise in your respective niche. Readers will trust that you truly believe in what you recommend because it is promoted in a way that they understand and can engage with.

Choosing what locations to include in your passport is simple. You can include places that were mentioned in previous articles or you can build a pass and base a new article around your passport! Bandwango passports are very customizable and removing and adding new venues is very simple. You never have to sweat changes when it comes to your passport, our team has got you covered.


While on the topic of Bandwango being customizable, your passports can match your publications' branding. Our passports are a white-labeled product, meaning that while we create the technology behind it, the product can be branded to look like your publication. This makes it simple to incorporate into your campaigns. You can then promote your new digital passport through QR codes in your articles/publications and we use integration to easily add the sign-up to your website. For more information on how integrating works, we have a blog post here! And of course, promoting passports on social media is a great way to create a buzz about your “Best of” articles and passes.


As mentioned before, our passports come with real-time reporting that will be available to your publication at any time. These reports allow you to track the success of your “Best of” passports and see what works for your marketing!

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We have a great example of how a publication’s article can be turned into a digital passport! FOX21 created a food truck pass with plenty of deals for their readers and viewers to save money! For more information, visit their passport here!


So there you have it, create a Bandwango passport to go along with your “Best of” articles to engage your users with an organized and engaging view of your suggestions and recommendations! Have real-time reporting to see how your pass is performing and how your users enjoy specific locations. It’s simple really, you just have to book a demo.