Recommendation Engine Bizzy Couples Check-outs With Foursquare Check-ins
ReachLocal subsidiary Bizzy has released an update to their recommendation application this morning that integrates Foursquare check-ins with their trademark rating feature, the “check-out.” Like SpotOn, Bizzy allows users to rate and share their opinions of local businesses with followers and friends as well as discover cafes, bars, and restaurants through personalized recommendations that draw on users social graphs and previous ratings…
CityPockets Acquires DealBurner for Location-Based Deal Alerts
Citypockets, the site that began as a niche tool for deal hounds to manage and track purchased deals, has taken a big step towards becoming a full-service offers provider, acquiring Dealburner – an application that alerts users of nearby deals via SMS – in an all-stock transaction yesterday…
Paycloud Brings Merchant Loyalty Cards to Your Phone
Earlier this month, Sparkbase launched its new mobile rewards application Paycloud, which allows small and medium-sized merchants to offer and track mobile loyalty programs to customers in the vicinity of their shop. The company’s CEO Doug Hardman talks about scaling local merchant acquisition and why the company’s recent move into the mobile wallet space may have a year or two headstart on the competition…
LocalVox Launches White-Label Local Marketing Tool
LocalVox, the local marketing platform built by hyperlocal publisher Nearsay, has launched a white-label advertorial publishing tool. The widget will allow larger hyperlocals and vertical niche publishers with existing sales and marketing teams to host and syndicate advertorial content from their clients across the LocalVox publishing network — and will help them push that content to social media outlets…
Placecast Launches Self-Serve Mobile Marketing Platform
Placecast, the company that began as a data management partner of Navteq, launched a stripped down version of their real-time location-based marketing tool ShopAlerts this morning. ShopAlerts Self-Service will allow brands, advertisers, and SMBs to create, deliver, and track mobile promotions.
As Mobile Takes Off, Hyperlocal Evolves
As smartphone usage increases in the U.S, mobile is finally making the transition from perennial “future star” to emerging powerhouse. Street Fight checked-in at IAB’s Mobile Marketplace conference earlier this week to find out more about how hyperlocal will fit into the mobile equation. A lot of stats were thrown around to demonstrate mobiles massive growth but here are a few that stood out…
Boston.com Experiments in the Deals Space
In late May, Boston.com launched Boston Deals, becoming the latest in a long line of online publishers venturing into the white-hot daily deals space. Street Fight caught up with Boston.com’s executive director of digital advertising, Mike Wallace, to talk about how publishers can build their brands through ecommerce, and the implications of these kinds of projects for the future of digital advertising…
Making Deals More Relevant
In considering the future of daily deals and group buying, one theme that keeps coming up is the idea that increasingly sophisticated targeting (and thus relevance) will, over time, make the deals proposition better for both merchants and consumers. As with traditional advertising, the better targeted a deal is for a consumer’s preferences and geo-location, the better value the promotion is for the merchant who runs it…
TIPPR: Quality of Audience Is What Matters in the Deals Space
In the wake of Groupon’s recent S1 and the subsequent wave of criticism that has been aimed at the daily deals giant, deals platform and technology providers like Tippr are stepping in to the fray with new models to power group buying. Street Fight caught up with Tippr’s COO Samy Aboel-Nil at DIGIDAY: LOCAL last week to discuss how the company’s Powered by Tippr is hoping to change the game…
Is the Local Deals Industry Heading for Segmentation?
Some companies are betting on a major specialization of the deals market. Signpost CEO Stuart Wall believes that the “stack” — a term used to describe the spectrum of companies in a single industry — is dividing into three major segments: distribution, exchanges, and merchant specialists…