Digital Marketing

By Gian Genovesi, Briteskies

When it comes to interactive marketing, too many retailers myopically focus on site visits, hits, or traffic. SEO and SEM are the most popular areas of focus, and I equate this to sports teams’ exclusive focus on scoring as many points as possible. Increasing the points your team scores, similarly to the traffic your site obtains, is a factor of success, but in no way the end-all-be-all in e-commerce success. After all, of the top 10 scoring offenses in NFL history, only one has won the Super Bowl.

Ebates has enlisted Epsilon, an Alliance Data (ADS) company, to help the leading online cash back shopping platform enhance its global email marketing services.

Per the multiyear agreement, Epsilon will provide robust, targeted email marketing services focused on driving sales and creating a more personalized experience for customers across Ebates' suite of websites and rewards programs including Ebates.com, Ebates.ca, Ebates Korea, FatWallet.com and Pushpins.

Chicago – Sixty percent of Millennials would be willing to provide details about their personal preferences and habits to marketers, whereas Baby Boomers are much more protective of their personal information. According to a new study from Mintel, even for the most private of information, at least 30% of Millennials who claimed they would not provide it said they would do so after receiving an incentive offer (i.e., a $10-off coupon toward their next purchase), whereas for Baby Boomers only 13% could be swayed by these same type of incentives.

Coupons.com has gone public. The digital promotional platform has priced its initial public offering of 10,500,000 shares of common stock at $16 per share, which is above the reported expected range of $12 to $14.

Coupons.com has also granted the underwriters an option to purchase up to an additional 1,575,000 shares. Shares are expected to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today under ticker symbol "COUP."

Goldman, Sachs & Co., Allen & Company LLC, BofA Merrill Lynch and RBC Capital Markets LLC are acting as bookrunners.

Irvine, Calif. -- Auction.com,  the world’s largest online real estate marketplace, has received a $50 million investment from Google Capital. As part of the investment, one representative from Google Capital will join the company’s board of directors and another will take a board observer position.

Oscar Mayer is giving bacon lovers a reason to wake up early. The brand has unveiled the first-ever iOS device that wakes people up with the smell of bacon. The device, called Wake Up & Smell the Bacon, syncs with the Oscar Mayer Wake Up & Smell the Bacon iPhone app to emit the scent and sound of sizzling bacon when the rooster crows.

Snack manufacturer Mondelez International has entered into a global strategic partnership with Facebook, as the company continues to shift more media spending to digital, especially social and mobile, across the entire consumer journey.

Livonia, Mich. – A large majority of consumers consider themselves value seekers, and they are increasingly using the Internet, social media and mobile devices to obtain value. According to the new Valassis Shopper Marketing Report, nearly eight in 10 consumers consider themselves value seekers, self-described as promotion sensitive or price conscious.

Deerfield Park, Ill. - Walgreens and Roush Fenway Racing have launched a partnership to stage "The Race Around America" interactive promotion, presented by Balance Financial Prepaid MasterCard from Walgreens. By registering their cards for the promotion, Balance financial card cardholders will be entered in the sweepstakes portion of the omni-channel promotion.  

Thief River Falls, Minn. – Powersports brand Arctic Cat has expanded its e-commerce business by launching an EBay store using the Shopatron Marketplace ship-from-store application. The SaaS solution provides EBay customers with access to a range of official Arctic Cat gear and merchandise and expands inventory to include goods located in stores.