In the year or so since the launch of location-based Facebook Places, businesses have come up with some pretty creative marketing campaigns.

The check-in service allows brands to build their fan base while engaging and rewarding customers.  Facebook Places provides viral marketing for a company since every check-in shows up in the news feed of the user's friends. It allows businesses to create incentives for those who come to their physical location or events.

Unlike Groupon and Living Social, Facebook Places lets you choose exactly how to structure your offer with no fee. You can build money-off vouchers or both individual and group discounts. You can choose how discounts are claimed (as in checking in a certain number of times) and how many times by it can be claimed. Charity offers can be created where donations are made based on the number of people checking in.

Here are eight Places campaigns that we think are worth highlighting.

Promoting Events

Electronic Arts U.K. hosted a "Play4Xmas" tour at six different shopping malls across the UK in November and December. Those who checked in at each event had a chance to win up to 10 games per day.

Discounts For Check-Ins

Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara, Calif. has given away coupons like 25 percent off any single item at Sports Authority or 20 percent off full-priced items at Ann Taylor for checking in at the shopping center.

Co-Branding

Nike teamed up with a Portland-based Korean taco truck to give away "Destroyer Burritos," or fake burritos stuffed with branded athletic jackets, to those who checked in.

Event-Specific Places

Onitsuka Tiger Australia was a sponsor of the Sydney Bicycle Film Festival and created a check-in point at each of 10 events. Festival attendees then checked in at their points instead of the actual venue because if they checked in at least three events and answered a question on their Facebook page, they had a chance to win a custom bike and Onitsuka Tiger gear. More than 50 percent of attendees checked in at the first event.

Daily Check-Ins

The University of Kentucky installed big, wooden Facebook icons on its campus to encourage students to check in at different locations around the school every day. Students used them to check in while on campus and at sporting events and the college is hoping it will help boost recruiting efforts for the students' friends who are still in high school.

Ambush Marketing

Instead of paying an arm and a leg for an exhibition table at the ITB Berlin (the world's largest travel tradeshow), Germanwings used Facebook Places to create check-ins at each one of its competitors at the fair. When someone checked in at an airline's booth, their status update would read something like "Air France: France for a bargain price is only available from Germanwings." thanks to their hidden messages.

Leaderboards

VisitBritain is a U.K. tourism promotion agency that has a "Top 50 U.K. Places" leaderboard on its fan page based on Facebook Places check-ins for the country's landmarks.

Check In For Charity

Southwest Airlines did a holiday charity campaign last year where they made a $1 donation to the Make-A-Wish Foundation per check-in at any Southwest airport, capped off at $300,000.

Source: All Facebook