Gravy just got a nice boost of confidence per its $7.6M Series A round led by new investors Gannett, MetTel and several optimistic existing investors. Gravy is a local-mobile data analytics firms that develops consumer behavioral signals for segmentation and targeting based on participation and interest in local events and activities. The theory Gravy pursues is that this type of profiling provides a new level of accuracy in targeting consumers with behavioral and location signals.

Founded in 2011, Gravy will use its funding round to build out its Gravy GOLD data platform that is driven by verified customer attendance at local events and places. Gravy told us that their clients have developed actionable data gathered from customers motivated to invest their free time to physically attend events and activities provides a strong set of intent signals useful to marketers.

Gravy says its GOLD platform, enables brand marketers to quickly uncover the interests and affinities of individual mobile customers as they live their daily lives and use that knowledge to predict buying intent, deliver personalized engagement, gain granular competitive insights and execute pinpoint, in-the-moment targeting.

The rise of data science, data platforms and marketing analytics is disruptive by changing how marketers and publishers are now transacting on audience inventory rather than media inventory. Gravy makes for an interesting opportunity as it brings a new type of data to the game. Consumer behaviors around events and activities on face value would appear to be useful signals for targeting specific creative messaging and appeals as well as developing a new segmentation strategy.

As programmatic, location and mobile converge around data management platforms and consumer signaling, Gravy could be upping its game at a very relevant point in the industry’s evolution.

The post Gannett, MetTel Back Gravy, Local-Mobile Data Analytics Firm, in $7.6M Series A Raise appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Key Ring is a mobile app that lets consumers electronically enter their loyalty card in in one digital location. In this regard, it is like Constant Contact’s Cardstar. What we’ve learned is that Gannett is using the App to drive targeted traffic to its big box and retail circular advertisers from ShopLocal, the sister G/O Digital brand.

CEO Chris Fagan tells us Key Ring, which has 15 full time employees, now provides circular content from 160 retailers. Of these, 90 are providing exclusive content via ShopLocal. Offers can be triggered on user cell phones by geo location or via in-store beacons. You might access “Here is what is on sale at Target” for instance. Consumers can use it to explore and discover what is nearby.

The ShopLocal ties makes it possible to scale all the merchant and brand relationships without having to deal with each merchant and brand – a major barrier for other companies, says Fagan. The app also incorporates 65,000 coupons a month from Clipper Magazine.

What Key Ring really brings to the table is enormous scale. Fagan says the App has a surprisingly high 11.1 million customers. Active users may access it five or six times a month, with the more steady users not only accessing circular content, but the site’s shopping lists. These consumers have really high retention and recurring usage, says Fagan.

Interestingly, the majority of the customers are driven organically by good consumer press and other sources, he says. For instance, the comapny recently got a good mention in Good Housekeeping Magazine that really drove usage. Gannett’s cross media ads in USA Today and on its TV stations have been helpful, but not especially critical.

The post Gannett's Key Ring: Integrating Circulars with Loyalty Programs appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Key Ring is a mobile app that lets consumers electronically enter their loyalty card in in one digital location. In this regard, it is like Constant Contact’s Cardstar. What we’ve learned is that Gannett is using the App to drive targeted traffic to its big box and retail circular advertisers from ShopLocal, the sister G/O Digital brand.

CEO Chris Fagan tells us Key Ring, which has 15 full time employees, now provides circular content from 160 retailers. Of these, 90 are providing exclusive content via ShopLocal. Offers can be triggered on user cell phones by geo location or via in-store beacons. You might access “Here is what is on sale at Target” for instance. Consumers can use it to explore and discover what is nearby.

The ShopLocal ties makes it possible to scale all the merchant and brand relationships without having to deal with each merchant and brand – a major barrier for other companies, says Fagan. The app also incorporates 65,000 coupons a month from Clipper Magazine.

What Key Ring really brings to the table is enormous scale. Fagan says the App has a surprisingly high 11.1 million customers. Active users may access it five or six times a month, with the more steady users not only accessing circular content, but the site’s shopping lists. These consumers have really high retention and recurring usage, says Fagan.

Interestingly, the majority of the customers are driven organically by good consumer press and other sources, he says. For instance, the comapny recently got a good mention in Good Housekeeping Magazine that really drove usage. Gannett’s cross media ads in USA Today and on its TV stations have been helpful, but not especially critical.

The post Gannett’s Key Ring: Integrating Circulars with Loyalty Programs 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.

Big media brands like Gannett, Living Social, Weather.com and YP will take center stage next month at BIA/Kelsey’s Leading in Local: The National Impact conference in Atlanta.

We asked BIA/Kelsey Managing Director Rick Ducey to talk about the messages big media brands will have for national brands looking to localize their marketing efforts. One element that stands out is media brands’ ability to generate compelling local content.

“National marketers have become very enamored with this notion of of native or content advertising,” Ducey said. “If you can get content that is sourced locally and targeted to a local venue, that is very engaging from a consumer perspective.”

Watch the video below to hear Rick talk about the role of national media brands at the conference, which takes place May 7-9 in Atlanta.

Next week we will dig deeper into big media brands, interviewing Curt Hecht, Chief Global Revenue Officer at the Weather Company, which operates The Weather Channel and weather.com. Hecht will be the Day 2 morning keynote speaker at Leading in Local: The National Impact.

BIA/Kelsey’s Mike Boland riffed on Weather.com’s local nature in a recent Local Media Watch blog post.

The post Big Media Brands Take Center Stage at Leading in Local: The National Impact appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

BIA/Kelsey senior analysts Peter Krasilovsky and Abid Chaudhry batted around these two hot topics today on the latest in our ongoing Analyst Roundtable series.

“Newspapers need money,” Krasilovsky said, answering the basic questions of why Classified Ventures (a consortium of five newspaper groups) would sell the No. 2 auto site.

Krasilovsky then posed the bigger question, “Who would buy this property?” The property could potentially be sold from anywhere from $2.8 billion to $3.6 billion — a level accessible only to the biggest media and technology players. Peter suggested Gannett and Google could be potential buyers, with Autotrader, the No. 1 player, being a potential dark horse.

Next, Chaudhry shared his insights on the recent Yahoo-Yelp partnership.

“This is a pretty big development,” Chaudhry said. “It provides more fuel to the fire to all the speculation that Marissa Mayer and her intentions to rebuild Yahoo’s search engine business.”

The big question is how will Yahoo compete with Google? Chaudhry doesn’t see Yahoo taking Google on directly. Instead, he expects Yahoo to carve out a niche for itself in the mobile search market. He highlighted Yahoo’s efforts to incorporate more native and streaming advertising from Yahoo’s Gemini platform.

Click on this video to enjoy today’s Analyst Roundtable in its entirety.

The post Analyst Roundtable: A Week in Review appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

BIA/Kelsey, forecasting $52.9 Billion in national local spending by 2017, has unveiled its new Leading in Local: The National Impact conference, which will take place in Atlanta May 7-9.

The 2.5 Day event is expected to be the largest gathering of national brands and local marketing players that has ever taken place. Brands, franchises, multi-location stores and others will be the focus.

We’re ready with national local’s top leaders, including Weather Company Global Revenue Officer Curt Hecht; Gannett/G/O Digital SVP Mark Marinacci; Foursquare VP of Sales Rob Wilks; Living Social SVP Mitch Spolan; AutoTrader Founder Chip Perry; YP EVP & GM of Digital Markets David Lebow; ReachLocal SVP John Gould; Yodle VP Corey O’Donnell; MediaVest EVP Maribeth Papuga; and many other leading innovators.

A number of speakers will be accompanied by top brands they are working with. The list already includes marketing leaders at brands such as Scion, Two Men and a Truck, Genghis Grill, and PostNet. BIA/Kelsey is also holding The GOLOCAL Awards for brands, which will include an on stage presentation.

This isn’t your typical “local” event. It’s all new, it’s all important. And it’s all here. Register.

The post ‘National Brands, Local Marketing': BIA/Kelsey’s Spring Event is May 7-9 in Atlanta appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.