Pitch me maybe? (Photo: flickr.com/joeshlabotnik)

Tonight is the premiere of the Public's revival of Sondheim's In the Woods, which means free tickets were distributed at 1p.m. yesterday. Because New Yorkers love nothing so much as an excuse to stand in line at a park (see also: Shake Shack), Gothamist reports that the queue was hundreds of people long by midday.

And because New Yorkers also love to make a buck, the waiting musical theater enthusiasts were immediately descended upon by pitchmen. One man handed out flyers for a deli that delivers to the line. Random House interns were distributing galleys of an upcoming release. Manhattan Fruitier was handing out sample apples, plus coupons, and another team was passing out ticket vouchers for Katie Couric's new show.

But notice who's missing from that list? Tech startups, usually the biggest hustlers in the game. The closest thing appears to be the team promoting an "online trivia game." What, you can all decamp to Texas for South by Southwest, but Central Park is too much of a trek?

Scoutmob deals served up in the foursquare app

New York's most itterative location based social network likes to pitch itself as the modern day loyalty card, so it makes sense that it would want to offer its users deals and discounts when they check in. But rather than building out an extensive sales force, it has been adding deals from companies like LivingSocial, Gilt Groupe, AT&T, Zozi and Groupon.

Now foursquare is partnering with Atlanta based Scoutmob to add another 500 local deals in 13 American cities. “Of all the deal integrations we’ve done, the Scoutmob partnership most closely aligns with our own Specials format, where no payment is required to redeem deals spontaneously” said Tristan Walker, Director of Business Development at foursquare. 

Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley often talks about how he wanted the service to help people get away from their computers. Scoutmob co-founder Michael Tavani echoes that statement, noting that, "From day one, we've been utilizing a user’s location as a form of currency. That has allowed us to flip the traditional ‘pay upfront’ deal model on its head. Our thought is that locals should impulsively explore their cities; having to pay upfront for a deal doesn't really allow that behavior."

Union Square Ventures Andy Weissman had a blog post today about the fundamental ways in which web advertising is broken, largely because it borrowed its form from print. He hopes a golden age of internet marketing may soon be upon us, if companies learn how to build products that match the natural experience of using their service. Deals for places users check in seems like a strong example of this new kind of well integrated local marketing. The question is how much revenue can it ultimately drive to foursquare, which is rapidly expanding its head count on the east and west coast.

The company, which raised $5 million from advertising giant WPP back in October, is bringing on Comscore veteran Luca Benini to run its European operations. France is one of Facebook's fastest growing nations,  although the real explosion is taking place in less developed nations like Brazil, China and India.