Angie’s List, which has recently seen a deterioration in its stock as investors have lost confidence in its ability to grow its premium subscription and ad model, has announced that it has gone Mobile First. The changeover is significant because the company, which has nearly three million users, has continued to support a wide variety of media. Many years after other companies went all digital, for instance, Angie’s has continued to provide personalized phone referrals to its well heeled (and older) home owner customer base.

The move to mobile first is accompanied by the launch of a new mobile app, which offers “concierge level” help for consumers seeking to hire the right service and medical professionals. It provides research for providers; shop for specific home improvement services; and “SnapFix” a project, automatically assigning service pros to projects based on specifications.

“We studied our members’ behavior and directly asked them what they want from us,” noted a company press release quoting founder Angie Hicks. “As a result, we’re not just connecting them to highly rated service companies through a swipe or a click, we’re stepping into the transaction, improving their experiences start to finish.”

A press note added that the new efforts are “symbolic of the corporate shift from just providing highly reliable information to getting in the middle of transactions to make the hiring process easier and the results better, faster.”

We’ll be diving deep into the future of Home Improvement services with local digital leaders from The Home Depot, Thumbtack and Serviz on Day 1 of the Leading in Local conference in San Francisco Dec. 3-5. You may register here.

The post Angie’s List Goes ‘Mobile First’ appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Angie’s List, which has recently seen a deterioration in its stock as investors have lost confidence in its ability to grow its premium subscription and ad model, has announced that it has gone Mobile First. The changeover is significant because the company, which has nearly three million users, has continued to support a wide variety of media. Many years after other companies went all digital, for instance, Angie’s has continued to provide personalized phone referrals to its well heeled (and older) home owner customer base.

The move to mobile first is accompanied by the launch of a new mobile app, which offers “concierge level” help for consumers seeking to hire the right service and medical professionals. It provides research for providers; shop for specific home improvement services; and “SnapFix” a project, automatically assigning service pros to projects based on specifications.

“We studied our members’ behavior and directly asked them what they want from us,” noted a company press release quoting founder Angie Hicks. “As a result, we’re not just connecting them to highly rated service companies through a swipe or a click, we’re stepping into the transaction, improving their experiences start to finish.”

A press note added that the new efforts are “symbolic of the corporate shift from just providing highly reliable information to getting in the middle of transactions to make the hiring process easier and the results better, faster.”

We’ll be diving deep into the future of Home Improvement services with local digital leaders from The Home Depot, Thumbtack and Serviz on Day 1 of the Leading in Local conference in San Francisco Dec. 3-5. You may register here.

The post Angie's List Goes 'Mobile First' appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Have you made up your mind to join hundreds of your colleagues at Leading in Local: The National Impact in Atlanta May 7-9? We’re deeply excited about the event and its unique focus on leveraging the franchises, multi location outlets and brands that are investing heavily in local.

Just added: A great Buy Side/Sell Side session with U-Haul‘s Elnora Cunningham and Yelp‘s Pete Hancock. That’s kicking off Day 3 in grand style.

We’ve also announced the full lineup for our Local Retail session. Joining keynoter Mark Marinacci from Gannett/G/O Digital are Twitter‘s Nick Guerriero, General Mills‘ Brian Kittelson, Novus‘ Dave Murphy, AOL‘s John Gregory and Booz‘s Naseem Sayani.

We’ve also recently announced the lineup for our National Vertical session with Angie’s List‘s Kevin Vanes; ESPN Local‘s JonPaul Rexing, New Point Media Group‘s Scott Dixon and Dominion Digital Media‘s Bruce Budkofsky.

Also just announced: the eight finalists for the GoLocal Awards, who will be joined on stage by our judging team, including a great group of real industry experts.

All these additions make up part of our 60 speaker lineup — the biggest group we may have ever had on stage. Register.

The post Hot Adds for Atlanta: Yelp, Twitter, ESPN, Angie’s List appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Have you made up your mind to join hundreds of your colleagues at Leading in Local: The National Impact in Atlanta May 7-9? We’re deeply excited about the event and its unique focus on leveraging the franchises, multi location outlets and brands that are investing heavily in local.

Just added: A great Buy Side/Sell Side session with U-Haul‘s Elnora Cunningham and Yelp‘s Pete Hancock. That’s kicking off Day 3 in grand style.

We’ve also announced the full lineup for our Local Retail session. Joining keynoter Mark Marinacci from Gannett/G/O Digital are Twitter‘s Nick Guerriero, General Mills‘ Brian Kittelson, Novus‘ Dave Murphy, AOL‘s John Gregory and Booz‘s Naseem Sayani.

We’ve also recently announced the lineup for our National Vertical session with Angie’s List‘s Kevin Vanes; ESPN Local‘s JonPaul Rexing, New Point Media Group‘s Scott Dixon and Dominion Digital Media‘s Bruce Budkofsky.

Also just announced: the eight finalists for the GoLocal Awards, who will be joined on stage by our judging team, including a great group of real industry experts.

All these additions make up part of our 60 speaker lineup — the biggest group we may have ever had on stage. Register.

The post Hot Adds for Atlanta: Yelp, Twitter, ESPN, Angie's List appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The spanking new program is set for Leading in Local: The National Impact, which is May 7-9 in Atlanta.

We’ve put together a great list of 55 hand-picked speakers – all centered on what’s really happening in local with a special, unprecedented eye on the all important franchise and brand customer — plus a unique tour of The Weather Company (and a chance to meet weather celebrity Sam Champion.)

Leading executives and thought leaders with advanced franchise and brand applications for local are at the top of the bill, including:

— Chip Perry, Independent Consultant, AutoTrader’s ‘First Employee’
— Curt Hecht, Global CRO, The Weather Co.
— Mark Marinacci, President, Gannett/GO Digital
— David Lebow, EVP & GM of Digital Markets, YP
— Mitch Spolan, EVP, Global Retail, Living Social

And we’ve added some great session speakers, including:

— John Gregory, Chief Category Development Officer, AOL
— JonPaul Rexing, director of sales, ESPN Local
— Kevin Vanes, director, national sales and partnerships, Angie’s List.
— Meribeth Papuga, Exec VP and Director of Local Activation, MediaVest

The centerpiece of the conference is several key sessions where we go deep on search, geotargeting, digital agencies, cross channel and loyalty programs. Leaders will share their local insights from top franchise groups and brands representing most of the top local verticals, including auto dealers, real estate, restaurants/dining, health services, insurance, travel, consumer packaged goods, moving and cleaning. The companies appearing include a vital cross- section of U.S. commerce:

— AAA of the Carolinas
— Aflac
— AutoTrader
— General Mills
— Genghis Grill
— McKesson Health
— Maid Right
— Scion
— Two Men and a Truck
— U-Haul International

Will you join the BIA/Kelsey local community in Atlanta? Register

The post Speaker Update for ‘Leading in Local: The National Impact’ May 7-9, Atlanta appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The spanking new program is set for Leading in Local: The National Impact, which is May 7-9 in Atlanta.

We?ve put together a great list of 55 hand-picked speakers ? all centered on what?s really happening in local with a special, unprecedented eye on the all important franchise and brand customer — plus a unique tour of The Weather Company (and a chance to meet weather celebrity Sam Champion.)

Leading executives and thought leaders with advanced franchise and brand applications for local are at the top of the bill, including:

— Chip Perry, Independent Consultant, AutoTrader’s ‘First Employee’
— Curt Hecht, Global CRO, The Weather Co.
— Mark Marinacci, President, Gannett/GO Digital
— David Lebow, EVP & GM of Digital Markets, YP
— Mitch Spolan, EVP, Global Retail, Living Social

And we’ve added some great session speakers, including:

— John Gregory, Chief Category Development Officer, AOL
— JonPaul Rexing, director of sales, ESPN Local
— Kevin Vanes, director, national sales and partnerships, Angie’s List.
— Meribeth Papuga, Exec VP and Director of Local Activation, MediaVest

The centerpiece of the conference is several key sessions where we go deep on search, geotargeting, digital agencies, cross channel and loyalty programs. Leaders will share their local insights from top franchise groups and brands representing most of the top local verticals, including auto dealers, real estate, restaurants/dining, health services, insurance, travel, consumer packaged goods, moving and cleaning. The companies appearing include a vital cross- section of U.S. commerce:

— AAA of the Carolinas
— Aflac
— AutoTrader
— General Mills
— Genghis Grill
— McKesson Health
— Maid Right
— Scion
— Two Men and a Truck
— U-Haul International

Will you join the BIA/Kelsey local community in Atlanta? Register

The post Speaker Update for 'Leading in Local: The National Impact' May 7-9, Atlanta appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

In the wake of Groupon’s successful IPO, Angie’s List is apparently set to issue its own IPO on Thursday. The offering would raise up to $113 million for the Indianapolis-based company, which provides members-only reviews of services and medical providers. For us, the big question is whether consumers will continue to be willing to pay from $10 to $67 a year for a safe firewall when other review services, including Yelp and ServiceMagic, are free (answer: I’m a member).

We’ve recently written about highlights from the S-1, noting that the company has a membership roster of 820,000 paying households in 170 U.S. markets, and earned $25.58 million last year. We also noted that while revenues were split 50/50 between membership fees and advertising in 2008, it has now shifted to 39 percent membership fees and 61 percent advertising. The company, which apparently turned down a buy-out offer from Gannett several years ago, currently has 19,750 advertisers.

Additional opportunities come from the introduction of Angie’s List’s Big Deal, which is now in 27 cities and is available to members and non-members alike. More than 63,000 deals have been sold since its launch in June 2010.

The post Angie’s List Seeks $113 Million From IPO appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Angie’s List issued an S-1 this week as it seeks to raise $75 million from an IPO. The S-1 is full of details about the 16-year-old service reviews company. Its massive, $60 million national ad campaign over the past 18 months, for instance, has produced a membership roster of 820,000 paying households in 170 U.S. markets.

The company, which earned $35.58 million in 2010, has also seen a shift of its revenue pie. While revenues were split 50/50 between membership fees and advertising in 2008, it has now shifted to 39 percent membership fees and 61 percent advertising. The company currently has 19,750 advertisers.

Additional opportunities come from the launch of Angie’s List’s Big Deal, which has been introduced in 27 cities and is available to members and non-members alike. More than 62,879 deals have been sold since its launch in June 2010.

Key to the company’s next stage is a successful introduction of new a la carte verticals such as Health & Wellness and Classic Cars, and increased user penetration in large markets such as New York and Los Angeles. The key is to maximize marketing dollars from its national ad campaigns, which receive 100 percent of its marketing budget.

Several major questions remain about the company.

1. Can it make money? Angie’s List has been outspending its revenues in its rapid push to gain scale via national advertising.

2. Can it compete against free services? Like cable TV and newspapers, Angie’s List’s business model is based on a dual revenue stream of membership (“paid circulation”) and advertising. Customers will only continue to pay for the service if reviews are considered more accurate, more local and more numerous than competitors.

3. Can it go more local? As Angie’s List’s growth relies more on suburban and exurban areas, it will be challenged to provide more locally-oriented service providers. Its current metro-wide approach includes many service providers that are farther than 50 miles away in some cases.

4. Can it market locally? Angie’s List is currently devoting 100 percent of its marketing dollars to national advertising. The effort treats the entire country as a single market, making it less efficient to reach smaller markets. If Angie’s List is to grow these markets, it is going to need to rely more on local media, social media and word of mouth.

5. Can it acquire and integrate companies? Angie’s List is mostly homegrown and remains a relatively straightforward operation that relies very lightly on innovative technologies. As the company seeks to add more features and grow overseas, however, it is likely to need to acquire various entities (a la ServiceMagic). It remains to be seen how well it will integrate other operations.

A full report is being published next week for BIA/Kelsey Marketplaces clients.

The post Angie’s List Provides New Details in S-1; 820,000 Members appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The home and trade leads space was getting a lot of attention a year ago, with a number of social media driven leads companies hoping to cut in on longtime leaders such as ServiceMagic and Angie’s List. Among the contenders: Cox’s Kudzu, Redbeacon, Likelist, HelpHive , Sears’ ServiceLive and Thumbtack.

Not much has been heard from the space since then, but it hasn’t been standing still. Redbeacon landed a deal with Yahoo; some new contenders have jumped in (i.e., The Washington Post’s ServiceAlley); and Angie’s List has landed another $24 million in financing as it heads toward an apparent IPO.

Angie’s List and ServiceMagic, in fact, are all over the airwaves with their commercials — among the most prominent ambassadors for the Interactive Local Media ecosystem.

Thumbtack, too, says it has been quietly making inroads. The 11-person, San Francisco-based service, landed an angel round in June 2010. Since then, it has signed up 110,000 home and trade pros (and rejected 5,000 that did not pass its background checks).

The site has generated 100,000 leads in the past three months (30,000 in the last week). It also has done well with consumers, generating 390,000 unique visitors last month.

The site’s traffic comes largely from SEO, rather than from media partnerships. It works efficiently because only job specific information ends up in the search results (i.e., San Francisco Plumber). “It means we have what you are asking for,” says CEO Marco Zappacosta.

The service, which is national in scope, rather than focused on individual markets, works with home and trade pros in two ways: They can either opt to pay for leads upfront or pay commissions after they get the job.

Leads are only provided to home and trade pros on an opt-in basis, allowing for vacations or full schedules. That differs from lead gen providers that require pros to accept a minimum number of leads towards a monthly commitment.

Which revenue model that is ultimately chosen varies from category to category. More established professionals in higher end categories, such as roofers, want to pay for the lead upfront. They have internalized their sales cycles. After they have gotten a lead, they don’t want to monkey around (with leads providers such as Thumbtack).

On the lower end, home and trade pros such as tutors or handymen want to pay a commission. They don’t have a lot of cash flow, and they may not trust the leads provider to provide a good lead, at least the first few times they use them, says Zappacosta.

The post Thumbtack: 30,000 Home and Trade Leads Last Week appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The Washington Post continues ramping up its vertical strategy, launching Service Alley to provide leads for home and trade professionals. The site, which is a standalone and not directly linked to Washingtonpost.com, follows the launch of other Post verticals, such as Capitol Dish.

The site currently serves Washington D.C., and its Virginia and Maryland suburbs. It efficiently divides listing categories in three main groups: “Cleaning Services,” “Inside the Home” and “Outside the Home.” It features full-fledged directories of providers built on licensed data; and a “Coupons in Washington D.C.” section.

In addition to procuring leads for home and trade providers, the service also has weekly deals of service providers with a strong viral element. If three friends buy a deal based on your recommendation, the deal is free for you. Only businesses that have been well reviewed are allowed to participate.

The site also has a convenient list of your own favorite providers that you can use for reference (although, in the spirit of review generation, it might be better to have made it a list of providers that you have actually reviewed).

Service Alley has also been designed to maximize its use of social media. Users can connect with their friends and neighbors via Facebook, and check out their recommendations in Service Alley’s directory, which is built from licensed data.

Currently, there are two tiers of participation for service providers. The free basic tier gives three free leads and some basic info and charges $9 every time a coupon is activated from the coupon directory. A “pro” tier is $30 a month (or $300 per year) and enables unlimited leads, multiple listings in different categories, testimonials and awards listings, and a discounted $3 coupon activation rate.

Interestingly, the engine that powers Service Alley is provided by TeachStreet, the Seattle-based site that connects consumers with classes and teachers. While TeachStreet remains focused on its own fast-growing activities, it turns out to have an engine that is totally compatible for home and trade providers, says The Post’s Tim Condon, who is director of new digital ventures.

Condon tells us that The Post determined that there was plenty of room for a new entrant for home and trade in town, and that it was time to get back in the water. The Post had tried out a number of home and trade-focused dot-com projects over the years, including a big effort with BigBook in 1998.

The Washington metro area, of course, with its strong demographic profile, is one of Angie’s List’s best markets. But home and trade leaders such as Angie’s List and ServiceMagic are relatively closed systems, says Condon. To use them, you either have to be a member or accept the leads they give you.

By jumping in the water now, The Post beat the likely entry of other home and trade sites, such as Redbeacon, ThumbTack, LikeList and HelpHive. It also gets a jump on efforts by existing providers such as Kudzu and ServiceMagic. The challenge — as it is for all these services — is to ramp up the sales efforts for this hard to reach but valuable segment.

The Post’s Tim Condon is a featured speaker at ILM East in Boston March 21-23.

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