Kansas City, KS-based Zave Networks, an online and mobile marketing platform, has partnered with Stockholm-based Didmo, a mobile content creator and distributor, to enhance mobile advertising and increase digital coupon usage for clients.
The platform combines Didmo’s Magmito tool for custom mobile apps and Zave Networks’ Zavers incentive platform. The Magmito tool allows marketers to create, publish and share content for any Web-enabled mobile device. This can be in the form of an application or within a mobile browser. Polls and quizzes can also be implemented, allowing feedback from consumers.
The tool is aimed at agencies, manufacturers and retailers who can offer manufacturer-sponsored or store-specific deals to consumers via mobile devices.
To access coupons, user must register at Zavers.com. Once the user finds and clicks on a coupon, they then save it to their free Zavers account. At the point of sale, the consumer either swipes their loyalty card or provides their mobile phone number to receive the discount.
Zavers then captures the redemption data and reports it to the retailer and/or product manufacturer.
Bruce Pryor, VP of marketing at Zavers, said this partnership will help marketers “close the loop” by being able to track marketing efforts from the time the promotion is created, to when consumers see it on their online or mobile devices, to when an in-store purchase is made.
He said the coupons are being promoted in numerous digital spaces. “We want Zavers to be where the consumer is as opposed to being a destination,” Pryor explained. “The retailer or manufacturer could send the coupons via e-mail, on their Web and mobile sites, through banner ads, SMS or mobile applications like those produced by Didmo.”
Retailers don’t need to purchase new point-of-sale hardware or develop software to use the mobile coupon platform. It is entirely Web-based.
The tool will be available to existing and prospective clients as early as January 2010.
“The growth happening in mobile advertising is huge at this point,” Pryor said. “As retailers begin to execute their 2010 advertising, mobile is going to be a big part of that. This partnership positions us well as that mobile growth is accelerating.”
Current Zavers clients include A&P, Pathmark and The Food Emporium. Manufacturers include Unilever, Quaker Oats, Del Monte, Gatorade and Perdue.
Zavers also has a relationship with Scanbuy, which provides the company with 2-D barcode capabilities.
Pryor said because Zavers is a private company, he couldn’t disclose the revenue model of the partnership.
A request for comment from Didmo was not returned by press time.
