The global social media phenomenon known as Foursquare Inc. has tapped Sigler Cos. to help it market its merchandise all over the world.

On Aug. 8, the Ames-based company launched an online retail outlet for New York City-based Foursquare, a service that rewards users with points and “badges” when they use mobile devices to “check in” at various locations.

Foursquare also allows businesses to offer discounts and specials to a growing number of mobile-minded consumers. And when Foursquare officially recognizes their venues, they gain access to information they can use to measure customer loyalty.

They also become eligible to receive a window cling, a flexible plastic patch that sticks to glass, which shows that Foursquare has verified an actual business has claimed a specific location.

Foursquare stumbled onto Sigler as it worked to register Sigler on Main, a collegiate apparel retail outlet Sigler opened this spring at 304 Main St. in Ames. That location also houses an office of Innova Ideas & Services, a Sigler subsidiary.

“We were doing a very thorough search for a fulfillment provider to handle our window cling effort back in the spring of this year when Sigler came through our venue manager approval queue,” said Charles Birnbaum, a business development representative with Foursquare. “We reached out and began a dialogue.”

Since its March 2009 launch, Foursquare has attracted nearly 4 million users worldwide, 60 percent of which are in the United States. And as demand for Foursquare-branded merchandise grows, so has the company’s relationship with Sigler.

“They designed and programmed the entire site,” said Beth Cross, Sigler’s president, referring to the Innova employees who spearheaded the launch of http://store.foursquare.com.

Today, Sigler is charged with fulfilling every order of Foursquare-themed T-shirts, window clings, badges, buttons and stickers, which includes printing and shipping those goods to nations around the globe.

So far, Sigler has mailed such products to 44 countries, including an overnight shipment to Brunei Darussalam, a small country located on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia that the 53-year-old printer had never heard of.

When a Foursquare representative initially e-mailed Innova to inquire about its services, Sam Schill, a business development executive, immediately called him back on the phone.

“They had a ridiculous amount of pent-up demand from their users,” Schill said. “In the beginning, we were watching orders come in like crazy. And they continued at a very steady pace, and they have stayed consistent every day.”

Though she declined to disclose how many Foursquare orders and units Sigler has shipped, Beth Cross, the company’s president, said she expects demand to accelerate as more businesses begin using the application to promote their products and services.

“I think they are growing fast,” she said of Foursquare. “So there are a lot of demands on us every day from a production standpoint to keep up with the demand that they have.”

Five years ago, Sigler purchased the production arm of Ames-based T Galaxy Inc. and renamed it Signify Apparel & Merchandise.

Cross attributes much of Sigler’s own growth to Signify and to Innova, which opened in the late 1990s as the commercial printer’s clients clamored for more marketing, branding and communications services.

She said her top 10 clients utilize the services of all three companies.

“In 1998, we really knew we needed to focus on becoming more than just a printer,” she said. “We had a lot of clients asking for a lot of different communications and marketing services … so we thought there was a great opportunity.”

Sigler’s revenues have grown by 463 percent since then, Cross said, adding that her company uses applications such as Foursquare to market its own businesses while teaching its clients to do the same.

“They are huge fans of Foursquare at Sigler and everyone there is an avid user,” Birnbaum said. “Basically, their interest in our platform led us to them.”

The rapport between Foursquare and Sigler has led the latter to new opportunities.

In the past 30 days, Schill said, people’s interest in Foursquare and its connection to Innova and Iowa has given his company “instant credibility” in the eyes of several prospective clients.

“The guys in Foursquare obviously have a lot of contacts,” he said, referring to the techie start-up community in New York popularly known as Silicon Alley. “There are tons and tons of new things coming out of there every day.

“If you look at how it has spread across the world, it is fun to have our finger on the pulse of what’s happening out of the little office in Manhattan that these guys are working out of,” Schill said. “No one was questioning, at all, our validity and what we could do and what we could bring to the table. So that makes my job a lot easier.”

Cross said Sigler works with more than 1,500 clients on ongoing marketing and communications projects. It also handles annual projects or custom orders for more than 12,500 customers. Sigler, which employs 242 people in Central Iowa, has a 125,000-square-foot production facility in Ames, and three Innova offices, including two in Des Moines.

But no matter how diverse or technologically savvy Sigler becomes, Cross said, nothing beats a personal touch when vying for a contract.

Schill said about 16 other companies made a bid for the e-commerce project and on June 25, as Foursquare prepared to make its final decision, Cross made one, too.

“You need to go get online, you need to get three tickets and you need to get to New York,” she recalled telling her staff. “Because I guarantee once they meet you it will seal the deal.”

By Tuesday morning, Schill and two other Innova employees — Tyler Koontz, an account executive, and Tony Thrush, a creative director — were on a plane. They were in Manhattan by 11:30 a.m. By 1:30 p.m., they were sitting in Foursquare’s office.

The deal closed the following week.

“Sigler really understands what Foursquare is all about, and they have top-notch capabilities in-house, Birnbaum said. “They offer a wide variety of customizable products and have great operation, design and technical teams that allowed us to work with them on the Foursquare store start to finish without needing to bring in any third-party service providers.”

“It’s a fun niche for us, being in Des Moines and Ames, to be able to go out to Manhattan and bring that work back to Central Iowa,” Schill said. “I just love that idea of being able to do that.”