The Forkfly business model of forming partnerships with publishers to increase advertising revenue and consumer spending through the use of social deals catches the eye of discerning tech media insiders.
Local Media Insider’s Alisa Cromer writes, “Don’t cede your DMA to GrouponNow (or GoogleOffers) in the locational deal store/coupon space. The locational coupon and certificate store space is still up for grabs. Forkfly, can, at least conceivably, be launched in 30 days, because most of the technology is already built. It also has a nascent national network, which is better than launching alone.”
Forkfly’s locational mobile coupon platform offers a wholesale platform for publishers to sell space to merchants in their own local community. Advertisers use Forkfly as a fully integrated measurement dashboard to manage their print, digital and social media buys.
Publishers are able to offer Forkfly to local merchants as an added advertising bonus, with a recommended merchant charge of about $100 a month. The package comes with built in Facebook and Twitter audiences, custom pages, and technical support. The Forkfly business model allows publishers to utilize their own sales team and existing merchant relations.
“We love what Forkfly is doing for us!” stated Mark Cohen, COO/VP of Operations, Pioneer Newspapers. “Forkfly has invented the killer app for publishers,” added Mark Dobie, Director of Sales and Marketing, Skagit Publishing.
Merchants can set hundreds of every day deals for end users, with each advertiser able to create up to four deals at any one time. They can also give special incentives for end users to “favorite” their perks, run special deals, and invitations to exclusive events.
Unlike the Groupon model that forces merchants to give away a large share of the business revenue, merchants can set their own deals that make the most sense for them and track coupons through an online interface, plus launch deals quickly. “Forkfly has helped us experience a whole new marketing media and expand our customer base,” says Kenny Stachovich, owner of the nightclub Vault Martini. “Forkfly attracts a lot of buzz and pretty much always exceeds our expectations.”
From 2006 to 2009, the proportion of digital coupons among all coupons redeemed increased from 1% to 10%, while newspaper coupons fell from 63% to 50%, according to data from NCH Marketing Services. With digital coupons on the rise, customers are looking for a fully integrated digital solution, and who better to offer them that than the publishers.
Forkfly currently has deployed in 20 markets and are in active talks with over 60 more. They are projecting 80 by year-end, with more than 200 signed on by year-end 2012. Publishers get exclusive rights to the Forkfly platform in their DMA.
“We want our publishers and merchants to succeed in the digital coupon space, and we’ve found real time measurement to be a huge plus for them,” explains Forkfly CMO Stephanie Hooper. “The publishers help merchants with their deal strategies, while we guide the publishers on best practices for merchants. It’s really a win-win for everyone involved, but most importantly, for the end user.”
Forkfly also offers a robust social network capability and built in customer loyalty program with smart phone redemption for both Android and iPhone.
About Forkfly
Forkfly is a marketing and promotional platform for publishers that benefit customers and merchants. Merchants can leverage social media networks, mobile technologies, and a creative distribution strategy to find new customers, engage customers, and build brand loyalty. Customers use Forkfly to find and redeem deals, perks, rewards, and other incentives from hundreds of merchants “on the fly.” For more information, visit www.forkfly.com.
Contact:
Stephanie Hooper
Forkfly
stephanie@forkfly.com
503-961-2519
