Will card-linked offers supplement coupons and advertising for national and local merchants and services? Will financial institutions such as banks and credit card companies take advantage of their access to card data to become major players in ecommerce and media as well? And will cash back remain the primary driver of the card-linked offer space?

These are some of the key questions we asked in an anonymized survey we have just completed with some members of The CardLinx Association, whose roster include such companies as Microsoft, Facebook, Bank of America, MasterCard, American Express, First Data, Cardlytics, Living Social, Deem and Linkable. Some non-members also participated in the survey, which had 14 respondents in total.

One key finding: this space appears to have momentum. While some startup publishers have ceased their operations, others have dug in. And more merchants and consumers are participating in card-linked offers than last year. Respondents also noted that card-linked offers have gone from representing “experimental” marketing budgets to — in some cases — seven figure contracts.

Survey results will have their public debut at BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local: Interactive Local Media Conference Dec. 3-5 in San Francisco. The session also includes interviews with CardLinx Association CEO Silvio Tavares and Cardlytics CMO Kasey Byrne.

The post The BIA/Kelsey/CardLinx Survey: Momentum For Card Linked Offers appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

We have all gotten used to looking at our phones and seeing several notifications on our home screens. From text messages, to emails, to sports updates, we are able to receive notifications for almost anything. More than ever, local businesses have apps that provide push notifications to consumers to encourage traffic.

— According to BIA/Kelsey’s Consumer Commerce Monitor ™, 35% of consumers who use smartphones when shopping locally regularly use apps to assist with their shopping experience. Most are not just using one shopping app either. On average consumers have 3.5 different apps they regularly use when shopping locally.

Push notifications have contributed substantially to app use in relation to local shopping due in part to the increase in engagement that happens once a consumer joins. According to the “Good Push Index” released by Urban Airship, on average mobile application users who have opted in to push messages have a long term retention rate that is 92% higher than those who have opted out of the messages. Not only is app retention substantially increased, but app engagement is also increased. Opt-in app users open retail apps 12.5 times per month on average compared with only 9.0 opens for those who opted not to receive push messages.

For marketers, the challenge is converting these consumers to buyers. In the local shopping space, according to BIA/Kelsey data, promotion and sales for local shoppers close the loop. Coupon reminders are a popular use of push notifications for retail apps.

According to BIA/Kelsey’s Consumer Commerce Monitor, 43% of local purchases made by smartphone users within the last six months were made through promotions or sales, such as discount deals, “daily deals”, coupons, or similar types of discount offers. Thirty-six percent of respondents to RadiumOne’s survey of women and their use of coupons on their mobile devices felt that push notifications of mobile coupon offers were useful.

Geo-targeting these coupon push notifications is important to drive purchases from local shoppers, especially smartphone users who are using their phones for local shopping in a variety of locations. Most importantly this includes 68% of smartphone users using their phones in the store, according to BIA/Kelsey data. We can also see that smartphone users are often on their phones when they are out and about. With 68% of smartphone users using their smartphones in public and 60% using them in transit, geo-targeting would prove to be highly effective in encouraging nearby consumers to pay more attention to the local businesses around them.

While the future of mobile push notifications is uncertain, BIA/Kelsey’s Mike Boland gives us his prediction in his blog post, BIA/Kelsey Mobile Outlook: 5 Predictions and a Wild Card.

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Traditional media’s rush into digital marketing services as an incremental revenue source is in full swing, with Hearst LocalEdge, GateHouse Media’s Propel, Digital First’s AdTaxi and GannettLocal among those taking aggressive stakes in the opportunity. Now smaller publishers are seeking to capture the tailwind with consultative sales approaches of their own.

But the challenges are diffuse: targeting smaller businesses (micro SMBs) with a scalable offering, handling fulfillment and supporting the popular cross-platform sales mantra.

A cloud-based marketplace platform that has launched to satisfy these publisher concerns is AdStrix. The solution targets newspapers specifically with a coupon-based, trackable suite that spans online, mobile and print.

Yes, print, which AdStrix sees as an important touch point that can be tied to coupon calls to action (SMS short codes and QR codes, for instance). Interactive print is coupled with a digitized version in the publisher’s branded “business-to-consumer portal” (think: local marketplace) as well as a white-labeled, location-based mobile app.

The AdStrix team stresses a few key differentiators from the perspective of both the publisher partner and the SMB (which uses the company’s DIY interface to easily build its own campaigns). All campaigns connect to customized landing pages and are directly tied to calls to action through coupon codes. This enables analytics that extend beyond reach and traffic to isolate redemption recency and frequency. Customer segments can then be built to enable smarter re-targeting.

It’s a simple but potentially effective form of loyalty for SMBs whose database marketing is often unorganized, and whose campaigns often go untracked.

The post AdStrix Multi-Platform Coupons Empower Publishers to Reach SMBs appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

While deals are getting most of the attention right now, coupons remain a substantially larger player in the promotions business, says Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons.com, who was keynoting at BIA/Kelsey’s Deals 3D conference this week in San Francisco.

Boal notes that deals and coupons have very similar demographics. They’re both heavily used by women, for instance. But the industries are really very different in terms of sales, product segments, redemptions and user habits. “We tried to get into the ‘local commerce’ space ten years ago” but it didn’t work at all, he said – something that the CEO of ValPak warned him would happen.

It has all ended up fine, however. Electronic coupons are poised to go deeper than the deals space with established consumer brands than the deals space. They enjoy huge redemption rates, and are riding the backs of social media to even greater, viral success. Indeed, the potential for electronic coupons lead institutional investors to recently invest $200 million in Coupons.com.

“Coupons were the first form of social media,” noted Boal. Historically, housewives “used to get together to clip coupons and socialize” Now, social capabilities might take coupons to the next level. “Social might be the next newspaper,” in terms of being an offer distribution point, he said. When brands like Oreos can attract 22 million fans on Facebook, they don’t need the Sunday paper anymore.

Coupons.com itself has implemented its offers within Facebook; integrated offers with fan pages, and applied the same app credentials across its entire platform. Mobile remains another opportunity. Boal said that much more is to come as the company spends some of the $100 million it has slated for development on integration and acquisitions.

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Cox Target Media’s Valpak business is “better than ever, with free cash flow better than it has ever been,” according to COO Jim Sampey, who was keynoting the Deal-a-Day SuperForum at ILM:10 in Santa Clara. But the company, which puts out The Blue Envelope of local coupons in 70 metro areas and has 800 sales reps, has been trying to figure out how to extend the print business — and the Valpak brand — into digital.

Specifically, the company has been looking at online coupons, a Facebook coupon app, scannable QR codes, video ads, loyalty programs, LBS push messaging and daily deal offers.

Sampey acknowledged that Valpak.com, as an online flagship for the company, has been “part of the get rich slow” train. But the company is currently revamping the entire portal to focus on its traditional strengths, such as neighborhood zoning. The key is to provide advertisers with services throughout the month.

“We’re rounding out our offering to our SMB folks,” said Sampey. “ It has to be better than just activating a deals coupon and then being “dry for the next 28 days of the month.”

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Angie’s List, the ratings service for home services and medical providers in markets around the U.S., is adding Groupon-like group buying offers to services and medical providers that receive high ratings from its members of “B” or above — the criteria for all its advertising.

“The Big Deal” offer is being developed in-house and is being tested in three markets: Indianapolis, Chicago and Washington, D.C. It has plans to expand to 25 cities by the end of June and eventually serve 50 to 80 cities.

Founder Angie Hicks tells us that the company sees group buying as a direct descendant of other marketing the company provides, including advertising, coupons, direct mail, etc. The key Angie’s List differentiator is that every service provider will be certified as high quality by its member ratings.

Another differentiator is that Angie’s List is going to go hyperlocal with the offers. “We are used to targeting down to the neighborhood level,” she says. “We can get down to the level of a section of a ZIP code. It is of real interest to us. Dog walkers can take advantage of this. Otherwise, it would only be limited to large companies.” Hicks also says the company is not being confined to specific thresholds for group buys. Each offer will be different.

Typical offer categories might include dentistry, massage therapy, carpet cleaning deals and roofing deals. “There may be real opportunities there,” says Hicks. “We’ve got 500 categories that we’ve collected reviews on.”

The service expects to offer one deal a week per city. Some offers will be marketed on a non-local basis, so members might see five deals in a week. Hicks adds that participating service providers will be providing Angie’s List with commissions from sales. But it won’t be as high as the 30 percent to 50 percent that other deal-a-day providers are getting. “For us, it is an added revenue stream, but it is not our sole stream,” she says.

An added benefit of providing the service is its viral nature. Non-members can participate and learn more about Angie’s List, perhaps joining the service, which costs up to $67 per year. Hicks says the service currently has more than 500,000 active household accounts — including paid and free trial accounts — and over 1 million members.

The post Angie’s List Adds Groupon-like Group Buying appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Citysearch has debuted “cityseries,” a new digital “best of” magazine for the iPad that allows users in key cities to quickly find “best” bars, shopping, spas, breakfast and other top categories.

The attractive online magazine, which will be promoted on other iPad sites, relies on Citysearch’s editorial staff and combines reviews with business profile information. Initial monthly editions have been launched in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Seattle.

What’s especially unique is that Citysearch combs its coupons database and presents “popover” coupons that appear when the iPad is held horizontally, below the text. Users can either save the coupons to their photo albums or fling away the coupons with their fingers — iPad/iPhone/iPod touch style — before continuing. Currently, there are five on a page. There are no additional charges to advertisers for inclusion.

It isn’t really clear what users will do if they save the coupons. Show it to the merchant? Confirm discounts via word of mouth? E-mail it to themselves and print it out? But they do represent a unique touch screen advertising option we hadn’t seen before.

Note: This post has been updated to reflect Citysearch’s fix of the coupons.

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Groupon has a roaring head start in the deals of the day category for groups, with more than a million users. We’ll hear all about Groupon from CEO Andrew Mason at next week’s Marketplaces conference in San Diego, where he is keynoting. But there are now countless imitators adding their own deals.

New York-based 8Coupons.com, which aggregates coupons from content partners such as Valpak, Money Mailer and RedPlum’s SuperCoups, has now put them all together in one spot (great idea). 8Coupons launched the top 10 U.S. cities last month, and now has 55 different Group Buying “Deals of the Day” Web sites in 100 cities. Based on what we are hearing around the industry, many more sites are likely to enter the space soon.

The post Group-Based 'Deals of the Day' Sites: 55 and Counting appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Groupon has a roaring head start in the deals of the day category for groups, with more than a million users. We’ll hear all about Groupon from CEO Andrew Mason at next week’s Marketplaces conference in San Diego, where he is keynoting. But there are now countless imitators adding their own deals.

New York-based 8Coupons.com, which aggregates coupons from content partners such as Valpak, Money Mailer and RedPlum’s SuperCoups, has now put them all together in one spot (great idea). 8Coupons launched the top 10 U.S. cities last month, and now has 55 different Group Buying “Deals of the Day” Web sites in 100 cities. Based on what we are hearing around the industry, many more sites are likely to enter the space soon.

The post Group-Based ‘Deals of the Day’ Sites: 55 and Counting appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

The “Flash e-commerce” space got hotter today, as Washington, D.C.-based LivingSocial announced a new $30 million round led by U.S. Venture Partners. Grotech Ventures and Revolution (Steve Case’s company) are also participating.

The funding will be used to launch deal-a-day coupon sites in Chicago, Denver/Boulder, Raleigh-Durham and San Diego. These cities are actually live today, along with Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

LivingSocial got its start with Visual Bookshelf on Facebook, and has launched some additional applications since then (i.e., “Find a Happy Hour,” “Pick Your Five”). The company appears mostly focused, however, on the hot Deal a Day space, where it competes with Groupon, which has raised a total of $34.7 million, as well as a host of similarly themed providers (and many more on the way).

Last August, CEO and cofounder Tim O’Shaughnessy told us he sees the LivingSocial deals as “a huge opportunity” to market to customers based on their pronounced online preferences, and to take those preferences offline.

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