ILM East 2012 took place last week in Boston and is now one for the history books. It was definitely a fun show that really showcased the fast moving local innovations that BIA/Kelsey focuses on.
There are many learnings we can focus on as takeaways, but in the interest of good reading, how about a top …

Ted Leonsis, Groupon vice chair, American Express board member and Internet pioneer, emphasized the importance of scaling for local in a global economy during a keynote at ILM East yesterday. “Indiana really matters. India matters more,” said Leonsis, pointing out that for larger companies, most growth will come from outside the U.S.
The way …

Long before daily deals surged, and now after they’ve peaked and pivoted, loyalty and rewards programs stand as beachheads in the evolving online promotions/commerce ecosystem. At ILM East 2012, three leaders in loyalty discussed how advertising and commerce are quickly colliding, and how “big data” is shaping the new merchant/consumer relationship.
Next Jump CEO Charlie Kim …

Here’s what we’ve been waiting to announce: Google Offers’ head Nitin Mangtani will join our great list of keynoters at ILM East March 26-28 in Boston. We believe Mangtani’s appearance marks one of the first public debuts of Google Offers, which is playing a major role in Google’s vital local strategy, along with Google Places, …

The giants of American commerce are now diving into the “local” space. American Express, MasterCard, Citibank are just some of the big brands entering local via SMB and national retailer relationships. FirstData, which processes secure transactions for 7,000 financial institutions and more than 4 million U.S. merchants — 50 percent of U.S. merchants — has …

Until recently, the European deal market was basically a year behind the U.S. But NimbleCommerce CEO Prashant Nedungadi argues that “they are beginning to catch up.” Nedungadi says they’ve graduated to more advanced platforms, and are more committed to driving revenues.
Some European newspaper publishers, for instance, are outpacing local Groupon and LivingSocial results. European …

It is a given in some circles that the next era of promotions will be driven by electronic wallets that perform transactions, manage deals and coupons, and target and engage loyal consumers. Google, American Express, MasterCard, LivingSocial, Groupon, AT&T, Microsoft and Square are just some of the companies that are purported to be developing …

Local businesses don’t have their own loyalty programs but can now benefit from tapping into bank programs. “Local is the key to our strategy,” says Jim Douglass, SVP at Cartera, a Lexington, Massachusetts-based company that manages loyalty programs for many top banks and credit card companies. Douglass sees 5 million SMBs potentially seeking to extend …

ILM East keynoter Ted Leonsis, in a BIA/Kelsey pre-conference webinar, proclaimed a “new generation and reinvigoration of local products.” The new opportunity in local is “where social, video and mobile intersect,” Leonsis said.
What surprises Leonsis, who currently serves as Groupon’s vice chair and a board member of AmEx, is that VCs and entrepreneurs are correctly …

The deals culture is shifting from customer acquisition to customer loyalty by necessity. Why? Deals have begun losing high-income women. That’s the view of Next Jump CEO Charlie Kim, a featured speaker at ILM East in Boston March 26-28.
“Daily deals had an initial surge then quickly lost flavor on a key customer segment — …

We’re seeing more vertical players trying to leverage their brands with deal offerings and advertising. The latest one is Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Twenty-two Blue Cross state organizations around the U.S. are working with Analog Analytics to launch Blue365, a deal program offering health and fitness discounts, as well as adjacencies like tax prep. …

LivingSocial, in a battle with Groupon and other deal providers to gain (and keep) market share, lost an eye popping $558 million beyond its $245 million in net earnings, according to a regulatory filing by Amazon.com, which owns 31 percent of the company. The filing was written about in today’s Washington Post.
The Post article notes …

Gilt Groupe confirmed today that it is eliminating 10 percent of its staff, including Gilt City chief Nathan Richardson and Park and Bond CEO John Auerbach.
The luxury-but-discounted goods provider will close several Gilt Groupe offices, including Atlanta, Seattle and Dallas, and several Gilt City offices inherited from last fall’s BuyWithMe acquisition, including San Diego, Houston …

ILM East is coming back to Boston March 26-28 with a lineup of doers and innovators who are transforming and redefining the local space. Highlights include a featured keynote from industry legend Ted Leonsis (Groupon vice chair/AmEx board member/sports team owner/AOL mastermind), along with keynotes/interviews from Jason Calacanis, Leslie Berland, Jay Herratti, Michael Zimbalist and …

Local Corp. has branched out in several directions in an effort to leverage its local platform. It has recently acquired Krillion (retail and product search) and Rovion (rich media platform and integration). Another major effort is its development of Spreebird, a deals company being built on top of its acquisition of Southern California’s Screamin’ Deals.
Spreebird …

More vertical deals are being introduced, as vertical publishers with specific audiences seek to tie deals to existing content, and prove to have better conversion than watered down, one-size-fits-all approaches.
A few weeks ago, we wrote about Local Offer Network’s B2B efforts with Cardinal Health. Now, NimbleCommerce has been pushing on the vertical space, …

Dan Hess, CEO of deals aggregator and research company Local Offer Network, played mythbuster at ILM West, using data to set the record straight on where the market is moving…and where it isn’t.
Hess is convinced that there is still ample room for “specialization” across geography, demography and interests…rather than the doomsday consolidation/roll-up  scenarios forecast by …

How many small businesses have done a deal at this point? Twelve percent, according to a new survey of 2,500 SMBs by MerchantCircle. That’s about a third higher than MerchantCircle’s June survey.
The survey also found a lot of Facebook ad usage. About 23 percent of local merchants report having tried Facebook Ads to date, …

Companies are beginning to focus on loyalty programs for existing customers, rather than simply using deal a day to acquire new customers. Closely and WildFire App are both pursuing loyalty programs.
A loyalty start-up we like is Punchcard, which launches today. The brainchild of MerchEngines founder Andy Steuer, Punchcard is a smartphone app that provides a …

Amazon’s a sleeper bet to really shake up local commerce. But what does that look like? For sure, we see the pieces being assembled…the focus on Amazon Stores, the $175 million LivingSocial investment, the Kindle Fire rollout, the expansion of Amazon Prime to include access to a range of content, the build-up of Amazon Transactions. …