As we’ve been reporting lately, location based games like MyTown, foursquare and Gowalla are making aggressive partnerships to establish themselves as great ways for advertisers to reach a new userbase. Score another one for foursquare as they team up with The Learning Channel (TLC) to offer users the ability to get special badges when they check-in at TLC celebrity approved locations.

Specifically, TLC fans and celebrities have identified some of their favorite locations around the world, and foursquare now offers special TLC summer badges to players that check in at those locations. The locations are all big brand locales, like Smithsonian museums, the World of Coke store and the Fox Bros Market. The way you achieve badges is by visiting these locations, but also completing sets of location. A few are listed below:

TLC Summer: Earn it by checking-in at any TLC Summer tagged location across the U.S.

Cupcake Connoisseur: Check-in three times at a TLC fan-approved cupcake boutique or bakery to earn this sweet badge

BBQ Pitmaster: Make a pit stop at least three times at a Pitmaster-approved BBQ hot spot to earn this badge

This follows up on foursquare’s recent partnership with Crain’s Chicago to provide restaurant tips. It’s a great service where you check in to your restaurant and get a tip like “This place has the best bacon cheeseburger in town, and at $7 it’s a steal.” The concept is really powerful and just underscores how powerful location based services will be to businesses as we move forward. We analyzed this in our recent article about location-based services being a marketing powerhouse.