"Mobile is a big part of our business," said Mihir Shah, Groupon's VP-Mobile, in an interview this afternoon with BIA/Kelsey analyst Peter Krasilovsky at the Mobile Local Media event in San Francisco. Shah said that 30 percent of Groupon's transactions…
Cox Target Media announced its acquisition of Savings.com, an online coupon website, and its British-based sister site, Savoo.co.uk today. Terms of the deal are undisclosed. Cox Target Media also owns and distributes Valpak coupons. Its print coupons from national and…
We've been thinking for a long time about having a mobile-centric event that wouldn't get lost in all the converging agendas of our mega Interactive Local Media conferences. That's what we'll do June 27 at our Mobile Local Media event…
Amazon doesn't usually speak at industry gatherings. But that was before it needed to reach out to the advertising community to sell display ads on its sites, ads on Kindle, national and local offers on Kindle, and extend its promotional…
Not to be cynical about it, but charity has always been great for business. "Charitable marketing," or "altruistic marketing," has been embraced by many of the leading brands, from McDonald's and Ben & Jerry's to the National Football League. It…
Constant Contact has made a really big bet on presence management with the acquisition today of SinglePlatform, a provider of a one-stop "write once, read everywhere" presence management network that provides parsed searching capabilities and services for 600,000 SMBs, including…
Mobile local promotion and wallet services that marry offers to linked credit card accounts and track usage are proliferating. A partial roster of players includes Plum Rewards, MyFavEats, RewardLoop, AirPay and PunchCard. They're all fighting for a share of smartphone…
Loyalty and engagement programs are now flooding the local ecosystem. They see themselves as the next step up from daily deals. At the same time, they hope to be more effective than "buy 10 get one free punch cards," according…
Google Offers has just celebrated its first anniversary and now has a presence in 40 markets, says Group Products Manager Nitin Mangtini, who was speaking Tuesday at the Street Fight Summit West conference in San Francisco. Mangtini, who also spoke…
ScoutMob, the two-and-a-half-year-old mobile-centric deals company, has landed a new $3.25 million round to develop its technology base and add more markets. It is currently in 13 cities and has more than 1 million subscribers. The company, which had previously…
Groupon Rewards -- "the easiest rewards program in the world" -- rolled out nationally this week after tests in 36 markets that began in October. The product is Groupon’s answer to the emerging “transaction marketing” space that many believe will…
We’re seeing three models in the new loyalty and engagement space: "punch cards" where merchants reward you based on how often you come back, "Frequent flyer" or diner points that give you a leg up on airline or hotel points…
American Express is all over the deals and promotions space, with its Link, Like, Love campaign on Facebook; Twitter offers; and geo-based deals on Foursquare. Its Serve product also has been providing deals for AOL's Patch.com. Until now, there has…
One of the big bets in 2012 is that merchants will transition from one-time deals to loyalty efforts that keep bringing customers back. Swipely is one of the more ambitious efforts in a loosely defined space that also includes players…
ILM East 2012 took place last week in Boston and is now one for the history books. It was definitely a fun show that really showcased the fast moving local innovations that BIA/Kelsey focuses on. There are many learnings we…
Ted Leonsis, Groupon vice chair, American Express board member and Internet pioneer, emphasized the importance of scaling for local in a global economy during a keynote at ILM East yesterday. “Indiana really matters. India matters more,” said Leonsis, pointing out…
Long before daily deals surged, and now after they’ve peaked and pivoted, loyalty and rewards programs stand as beachheads in the evolving online promotions/commerce ecosystem. At ILM East 2012, three leaders in loyalty discussed how advertising and commerce are quickly…
Here’s what we’ve been waiting to announce: Google Offers’ head Nitin Mangtani will join our great list of keynoters at ILM East March 26-28 in Boston. We believe Mangtani’s appearance marks one of the first public debuts of Google Offers,…
The giants of American commerce are now diving into the “local” space. American Express, MasterCard, Citibank are just some of the big brands entering local via SMB and national retailer relationships. FirstData, which processes secure transactions for 7,000 financial institutions…
Until recently, the European deal market was basically a year behind the U.S. But NimbleCommerce CEO Prashant Nedungadi argues that “they are beginning to catch up.” Nedungadi says they’ve graduated to more advanced platforms, and are more committed to driving…
