Every brand is trying to connect with local audiences, and local coupon and savings websites and mobile apps have exploded in popularity over the course of the past year. Groupon leads the buzz, but a failed buyout attempt by Google last year left the doors wide open for the industry to expand.
Microsoft is attempting to seize the opportunity by going in a different direction than Google (who is rumored to now be looking to launch its own program called Google Offers). This week, Microsoft announced it is partnering with Dealmap, an online deal aggregator, to offer localized deals through Microsoft’s Bing search engine to U.S. users. The video below appeared on the Bing blog with all the details.
The new partnership between Bing and Dealmap brings over 200,000 deals in over 14,000 U.S. cities via both the web and a mobile app for both iPhone and Android devices. Deals come from well-known sources such as Groupon, Restaurant.com, and Living Social. Users can browse for deals by location, business name, keyword, or category. They can also save deals that they find and like, or they can email deals to friends. Of course, they can also claim deals with the deal provider.
Ironically, the new Microsoft and Dealmap service only works on HTML5-enabled mobile devices. That means people who own devices that use Microsoft’s own Windows Phone 7 won’t be able to use it. Microsoft claims that Windows Phone 7 should support HTML5 by the end of 2011.
Now, the ball is in Google’s court. We’ll have to wait and see how Google responds, because you know they won’t leave the localized deal platform launched by Microsoft and Dealmap unanswered. If the rumor reported on Mashable in January about Google Offers is accurate, we might not have to wait very long to see the next stage of this story unfold.
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
