Local.com has dramatically upgraded its destination site, with soft colors, an excellent user interface and renewed focus on three core categories -- “business,” “coupons” and “events.” The categories are clearly aimed at driving organic traffic from its intended audience of…
The competition among white-label “deal a day” providers is increasingly intense. At the same time, local media companies are beginning to verticalize their deal a days to differentiate themselves. Case in point is The Washington Post, which has rolled out…
A theme has emerged from many companies we've talked to lately; building tools to drive and influence consumer decisions at (or nearer to) the point of purchase. This isn't terribly new and of course is a function of the portability…
With more than 150 brands offering daily deals, and traditional media companies now building out their own deals platforms, the need for differentiation is apparent. LivingSocial, which according to compete.com boasts as many monthly unique visitors as Groupon, has acquired social adventure company…
The future of city guides has been morphing beyond events and features. This was driven home today by the launch of Metromix Deals, a JV between Metromix, the 50+ site city guide chain co-owned by Gannett and Tribune, and Local…
Media General is the latest traditional media franchise to partner with a deal-a-day provider, launching a partnership with Groupon to open a new revenue stream in the much-hyped group buying space. Media General owns both local television stations (18 total)…
AOL is taking the plunge into the competitive deal-a-day space, launching Wow! as an integrated deals sites under the larger brand that will serve "your bargain of choice" from both local and national offers. Increasingly, group buying offers are sold…
Show biz marketing accounts are huge, and their agencies are always looking for more ways to localize them. They've now inspired efforts by ValPak, the promotions giant, and Eventful, the local events site that boasts an audience of nearly 20…
The deal-a-day marketplace is shaping up as a couple of leading brands in each market, some local media using white-label solutions and a healthy dose of aggregators repeating most or all the deals. Seeing to cut across much of the…
As "the media capital of the world," New York is rife with daily newspapers, high-culture magazines and lifestyle publications, yet Trevor Sumner says he had "no idea what was going on in my neighborhood. I couldn't even keep up with…
The concept of a local affinity club for like-minded members looking for deals is always out there, although it's never really been mastered. Now, in the wake of Groupon’s success, the club concept looks like a vertical take on group-buying…
The Canadian publisher DirectWest has teamed up with VendAsta to enter the hot group buying space.The new service will be called Mysaskdeals, and it is reportedly the first of its kind in Saskatchewan. “We are very excited about this new…
The Canadian publisher DirectWest has teamed up with VendAsta to enter the hot group buying space. The new service will be called Mysaskdeals, and it is reportedly the first of its kind in Saskatchewan. “We are very excited about this…
Angie’s List, the premium ratings and review service for home and medical services, has announced that it has raised $22.5 Million from institutional investors as it prepares for an IPO within 18 months. Investors in this round include some public…
As BIA/Kelsey's Mike Boland has detailed, Fanminder's mobile coupon platform is notable for both its simplicity of use and economical price, hallmarks that should resonate with SMBs looking to utilize mobile messaging. Fanminder's latest release, Fanminder Offers, builds off this…
The Groupon deal-a-day model -- “no money upfront, but we’ll take up to 50 percent of the coupon value” -- has been met with high satisfaction. Groupon’s internal data show that 97 percent of participating SMBs want to do it…
Groups have been using the Web since the mid-1980s for a wide range of activities, such as scheduling, discussions, photo sharing, referrals etc. Groups have been a special strength for Yahoo. BigTent, a group software company based in San Francisco,…
The deal-a-day model thrives on the power of its e-mail list, sales channels, promotion, clever copywriting and vendor selection. Newspapers and TV stations should be especially well positioned to leverage these strengths, right? Many, in fact, are diving in to…
BIA/Kelsey has asserted that a logical next step for deal-a-day providers is to target smaller geographical radii and specific consumer preferences to bolster their value proposition. LivingSocial has made a move in that direction by serving deals at the neighborhood…
Today, Yellowbook is launching a group buying/deal-a-day product called Weforia.com in three of its markets -- Boston, Phoenix and Ft. Myers, Florida. This makes Yellowbook the first U.S. Yellow Pages publishers to enter this space, which has become a local…
