The operative question is how do you activate and bring to life a brand’s strength? asked Spolan. It doesn’t always include a deal. In many cases, email, Facebook and Twitter can target local customers with messages — in fact, Living Social regularly achieves 12 percent coverage in given markets using the wide range of social media and commerce tools at its disposal.

The company is mostly focused on providing an “integrated experience” that tie brands to Living Social customers. For instance, Living Social provides local specific experiences as part of its brand promotion deal with Miller Coors’ Redd Apple Ale — and “Miller Coors is not selling its products on Living Social,” said Spolan. Consumers are also not going to be buying a Hyundai Santa Fe on Living Social — but Hyndair finds real value in working with Living Social.

Living Social “experiences” that are sponsored by brands include a kayaking adventure in Denver, a pirate cruise in San Francisco, a Blues and BBQ part in Atlanta; urban biking in Philadelphia and emerging artist festivals in Washington DC.

The company’s base of customers are often larger than brands can achieve on their own, added Spolan. A campaign with a restaurant chain such as Outback will be marketed to larger group than Outback would otherwise have. If brands do want to do a deal or sell an item, however. The volume is potentially huge — or in Living Social parlance, a “Stampede.” Bed Bath & Beyond, for instance, recently sold 378,000 vouchers for an in-store deal.

The post At Leading in Local: The National Impact: Living Social Looks Beyond Deals in Its Brand Partnerships 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 two short years, LivingSocial has blossomed from a Facebook application development shop into a leading group buying platform in 230 markets and 12 countries. But the question du jour in deal a day isn’t “what have you done?” but “what’s next?” At ILM East, LivingSocial Chief Operating Officer Eric Eichmann mapped a diversified plan that includes instant deals, new verticals and increased segmentation.

LivingSocial is currently testing Instant Deals in its hometown of Washington, D.C. Flash sales are uploaded onto a mobile app and allow merchants to push specific goods or services in time-sensitive windows (e.g., “half off lunch for the next three hours”). Instant utilizes all four of the company’s “pillars of success”: local, mobile, social and commerce.

Eichmann shared social statistics that are particularly striking. For instance, during LivingSocial’s highly successful national deal with Amazon, 40 percent of purchases were a byproduct of link sharing. There were 185,000 shares on Facebook alone.

Moving forward, Eichmann and team think they can continue to leverage “discovery and surprise” to delight customers. Notably, this is manifesting itself  in Escapes, a higher-touch, more considered set of experiences that grow out of the company’s acquisition of Urban Escapes.

Also, look for LivingSocial to continue to segment deals geographically, burrowing into smaller districts and neighborhoods based on customer propensity to shop close to home. It’s already experimenting with sub-metro segmentation in markets such as D.C. and New York.

The post ILM East: LivingSocial Moves Forward … in a Flash appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Last year, a deal-a-day panel at SxSW Interactive might have been relegated to a satellite campus (read: off-the-beaten-path Austin hotel). Two years ago, it may not have existed at all. But in 2011, group buying is a $1.2 billion market (according to us), and attendees packed a convention center ballroom to explore how the deals ecosystem would evolve next.

Much of the business interest in group buying gathers around the inviting notion that barriers to entry are virtually nonexistent. While that may be true for product launch, growth and sustenance are another story. Yipit cofounder Jim Moran framed it this way: “The barriers to scale are high, and that increases the virtuous cycle among the large players.” That’s exactly why some consolidation among destination sites is both necessary and inevitable.

A profitable deals concept can be cultivated, but not capriciously. Jonty Kelt, CEO of white-label Group Commerce, advised the audience that deals must be positioned as an extension of brand content. Treating deals as blunt ad units can disrupt brand consistency and dilute customer receptiveness.

DailyCandy, the trendy, female-focused urban newsletter, is an instructive case in how to stitch a deals offering with the brand fabric. Across its 12 metro properties, DailyCandy Deals has enlisted more than 3 million subscribers. GM Tricia Han credits an established brand relationship with its audience. “We have 10 years of experience in curating local businesses and experiences. People trust us.”

Interestingly, Moran pointed out that Han is a product manager rather than a sales executive. He then noted that this is true for many of the biggest publisher success stories (Travelzoo, Thrillist, The San Diego Union-Tribune).

Where deals companies have caught the most grief is in merchant care, with Groupon, LivingSocial, et al, fighting doubts about their ability to grow into customer retention channels that establish them as long-term SMB partners. LivingSocial cofounder Aaron Batalion refuted that notion. “We’re hiring people to help the merchant, to even teach them about their own business. We want to learn about their average ticket price and receipt value” so that the right deal is created.

Moran showed perhaps the most interesting slide, a visual representation of the numerous layers that are now stacking onto the original deals sites. The result is a more complicated, but potentially opportunity-rich ecosystem.

Beyond destination sites, white-label providers, publishers, vertical sites and aggregators, Moran also highlighted merchant services (Genbook, SinglePlatform, Closely), consumer services (CityPockets) and emerging bid-based offer exchanges (Adility’s OffersDB). In addition to aggregation, Yipit also runs a healthy data business. In other words: it’s a much bigger playground than just Groupon and LivingSocial, with diverse opportunities to participate.

The post SxSW Interactive: Evolutions in Deal-a-Day Are Just Beginning appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

LivingSocial created a stir when an e-mail circulated from the group buying site informing deal-a-day aggregators that they would be dropped as affiliates. However, as 8coupons cofounder Landy Ung and The Dealmap CEO Jennifer Dulski reminded the ILM:10 audience last month, not all aggregators are created equal. As such, they are not all being treated equally by LivingSocial.

Pure daily deal aggregators — those featuring “a collection of daily deals as its primary content” (via the e-mail) — will be excluded. These include Yipit and Dealsurf, as reported. Others, including 8coupons and The Dealmap, will continue as active LivingSocial affiliates, taking a share of revenues for referring customers. Both companies serve an array of offers beyond just daily deals, meaning less head butting with destination sites.

There are several plausible reasons for why LivingSocial would selectively pull the plug. While Dulski and Ung stressed at ILM that aggregators play a complementary, and not a competitive, role in the larger deals ecosystem, those that barter singularly in DOD could pose a threat. As pure-play aggregators build their e-mail lists, some subscribers may be tempted to abandon the swarm of destination sites and simply hook on with an offer network. In those cases, 8coupons’ Matt Moskowitz told BIA/Kelsey that “LivingSocial doesn’t want to subsidize their entire business model.”

Also, some aggregators bid for and buy Google AdWords and other SEM campaigns for LivingSocial keywords. Essentially, Moskowitz said, they are “making money from LivingSocial, then reinvesting it to compete with them.”

With new deal-a-day sites surfacing constantly (several hundred now) and more white-label providers recruiting publishers to “get in the game,” the noise level will only rise. As a result, the role of the aggregator becomes more pronounced. For second tier and niche sites, having access to an aggregator’s network is crucial. For top dogs such as Groupon and LivingSocial, the competitive tension heightens.

The post Getting to the Bottom of LivingSocial’s Aggregator Snub appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Group buying platform LivingSocial has taken another important step in differentiating itself as more than just another deal a day, building on its recent acquisition of social adventures company UrbanEscapes to unveil LivingSocial Espcapes. The new travel-focused offering segments getaways into three distinct categories: urban (in town), nearby and destination.

Escapes works much like LivingSocial’s standard daily deals, with substantial savings for buyers (usually 50 percent or more) and a tipping point that must be met for a deal to go live. E-mail subscribers receive a weekly alert, and because these are more ambitious purchases that require longer planning, LivingSocial is keeping deals active for seven days. Deals can be capped.

Thus far, Escapes seems to be off to a hot start. For example, a “Culinary Adventure in Virginia Wine Country” sold out — 435 at 55 percent savings — in just three days.

This is just the latest diversification for Washington, D.C.-based LivingSocial, which also now serves daily deals at a sub-metro level in certain market, creating better geotargeting for participating businesses and more locally relevant offers for potential buyers.

Meanwhile, TV station group Belo has jumped in the deal-a-day game, working with white label provider Tippr to introduce a group discount site across its local TV properties — Yollar.com. Consumers can sign up for deals-and-discounts e-mail alerts through the Yollar destination site, Belo station sites or dedicated Yollar Facebook pages.

The site was already live in selected Belo markets, including its Dallas/Ft. Worth headquarters, but is now launching in four additional markets: Boise, Charlotte, Hampton/Norfolk (VA) and Portland.

This is just the latest initiative from the TV company to seek out new ways to connect with local advertisers. In several markets, most notably Seattle, it has also hatched beLOCAL Ad Network, part of belocalmedia.com, to aggregate local media (traditional and community bloggers/contributors) to create a more attractive scaled buy for mid-market clients and regional agencies.

Finally, AOL has taken its deals platform — WOW! — live in three cities: Boston, Philadelphia and Washington. Though AOL isn’t exactly new to the DOD game, it is banking on inherent advantages in brand awareness and distribution, while potentially piggybacking on its content assets (highly trafficked portal home page, a growing fleet of blogs that now includes TechCrunch, 500 community Patch sites) to limit upfront costs and reach previously untapped deal-a-day segments.

Its broad content portfolio and deep e-mail database also open the possibility of national deals, similar to the one Groupon and Gap partnered on in August. This would run against the grain of most deal a days, which are SMB-focused, bottom-up and usually DMA-specific.

The post Wheelin’ and Dealin': Daily Deal Dish From LivingSocial, AOL and Belo appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

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 Urban Escapes to position itself as a “local activity discovery engine,” not simply a deals provider.

Rather than deals, Urban Escapes offers group getaways and social excursions. It is operable in only four U.S. cities, but according to LivingSocial CEO Tim O’Shaughnessy, the company is already reaping seven-figure revenues and fields a staff of 35.

LivingSocial plans to build out Urban Escapes in additional domestic markets and will consider international expansion as well. Moving forward, the sites will be integrated into the LivingSocial brand so that subscribers to daily deals can also be exposed to group adventures.

Both LivingSocial and Groupon are making concerted efforts to target and differentiate their products within the increasingly congested market. Last month, LivingSocial began serving deals at the neighborhood, or sub-metro level. Groupon, meanwhile, began its personalization program in July, which gives users greater control over the types of deals they receive based on their geography, demography and interests. Both efforts create additional inventory, which the companies need to recruit new local clients.

The post LivingSocial Continues to Differentiate With Purchase of Urban Escapes appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.