At October 17 Media we’ve been harping on making your web site mobile accessible for a while now. This company has taken it one step further and allows you to really capitalize on advertising to customers with iphones. They’ve developed a really neat application called ‘Clip Mobile’ for the iphone that allows you to post coupons and deals available to those who download the free application. We’ve asked the developers a few interview questions we think advertisers would like to know about getting their coupons onto the clip mobile network.
How many people have downloaded the clip mobile coupon application so far? And, what type of growth has your company seen over the last year?
[clip mobile] Launched on iPhone & iPod Touch January 25th, 2010
Month – 1 Snapshot:
• 1600 Users
• 57 merchants
• Clip Mobile Coupons accepted at over 250 locations across Canada
• Android app was launched on Feb 10
We see that in early 2010 you’re going to include Blackberry devices. Can you tell us how soon advertisers can expect this?
• Blackberry Beta to be delivered in March, 2010.
What coupons types have seen the most in terms of successful redemption? What type of businesses have seen the highest redemption rate so far? Is it just restaurants and stores? What other types of businesses could benefit from using clip mobile?
Given that we are just a little over a month old, its a bit tough to say definitively but Quick Service Restaurants and Casual Dining Restaurants have taken the early lead on the Clip Mobile Coupon network. Certainly we are seeing a correlation between high-frequency purchases, such as a coupon for a sub and a greater number of redemptions. You buy lunch out a couple of times a week and are likely to open the app as you step out of the office at lunch to find a deal near you.
For higher value items our spending habits are different because we don’t go to the mall every day…or most of us don’t at least. We had a great coupon by Nike for 25% off at their 8 locations across Ontario in February. This was probably our leading offer in terms of gross impressions and unique users – those are the 2 metrics we collect on our Coupon Management System. We work with our merchant partners to track redemption on the POS, but we haven’t gotten those final numbers back yet. What we do know from each mobile coupon campaign is exactly how many “qualified customers” or unique users have looked at a particular offer for each particular location. For our Nike campaign, nearly 1/3 of all users had viewed a Nike offer which, compared with other forms of direct marketing – email and direct mail most notably, that is an impressive statistic.
Can you reveal anything about your pricing model? A flat fee? Is it pay per click oriented or pay per redemption? Is there bulk purchasing discounts available?
Till the end of March, we are offering the service absolutely free for 3-months for merchants to try out location-based mobile coupons. This trial opportunity is available for businesses big and small. Our commitment to our merchant partners is that we will not monetize until we are creating a commensurate amount of value for our partners. Seems fair, doesn’t it?
Are we locked into a long term contract once we do place our coupons in your data base?
We followed the KISS approach for our pricing structure too!
1-10 locations is $50/month per location. Merchants can create, manage and analyze an unlimited number of coupons at each location. A minimum 6-month campaign is required and if merchant signs-up to use service for full year, they save 20%
10+ locations is $30/month per location Merchants can create, manage and analyze an unlimited number of coupons at each location. A minimum 6-month campaign is required and if merchant signs-up to use service for full year, they save 20%
How long does it get to get our coupons listed once we decide to get started?
Everything happens in real time! Merchants are able to Log-on to the Clip Coupon Management System to add offers and customize them to a particular geographic area or location. The system functions in real-time, so merchants create and manage offers on the fly as well as track performance over any period of time.
For example: As the manager of a local sports bar and eatery, you want to fill the place up when the home team is playing in the championship game. You can log-on to the Clip CMS and create a special offer promoting you are showing the game, and all appetizers are half-priced! The offer will automatically remove itself when it expires or you can deactivate the offer when the seats are full.
Is it possible to offer different deals at different business locations?
Yes, each offer can be associated to one or many locations and you can drill down see coupon analytics on a per coupon, per location basis.
But to expand on that …
One of things that is proving to be very valuable to our merchant partners is that we have different levels of access. “Affiliate” access allows a marketer overseeing access to manage multiple accounts. This is very valuable for our agency partners who manage media for their accounts as well as our affiliate networks who are using our platform to leverage their existing relationships by offering them a mobile coupon channel- an example of this is our relationship with dine.to and their huge network of restaurant partners.
Get it on Apple’s App Store: Clip Mobile
Want to learn more?
Check out a few of their videos:
Clip Mobile Coupon Application from Clip Mobile on Vimeo.
Clip Mobile Geo-Trend InfoGraphics – Feb 2010 from Clip Mobile on Vimeo.
Tags: Branding, iphone, iphone applications, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, Online Marketing Strategy, Online PR Management, Self Promotion, Web Site Accessibility
