lastminute.com and discount firm VouChaCha have announced the launch of snaffle, an iPhone application that provides discounts from shops to users’ iPhones. The app is currently on trial in the Covent Garden area of London and includes deals for restaurants, pubs, shops and beauty salons.
“We believe the best way of providing targeted discounts as an integrated part of your marketing strategy while protecting your brand is through the use of coupons, delivered directly to a user’s mobile phone based on their location,” says VouChaCha CEO, Ben Brown. “The number of people actively searching for discounts during 2009 has grown by 30%. VouChaCha are very excited to be working with the lastminute.com labs team as this trend grows into 2010, using our technology to power the snaffle iPhone app.”
snaffle is available now as a free download from the Apple App Store.
“We believe the best way of providing targeted discounts as an integrated part of your marketing strategy while protecting your brand is through the use of coupons, delivered directly to a user’s mobile phone based on their location,” says VouChaCha CEO, Ben Brown. “The number of people actively searching for discounts during 2009 has grown by 30%. VouChaCha are very excited to be working with the lastminute.com labs team as this trend grows into 2010, using our technology to power the snaffle iPhone app.”
snaffle is available now as a free download from the Apple App Store.
The only person to lose out in the last comment would be the coupon distributer, as they will not track the coupon and as a result not get paid by the retailer. The retailer will still make their sale but this is mostly irrelevent at this stage in the emergence of this market.
I have been watching this space with interest and it appears that all companies including the one mentioned above doing digital coupons have their own authentication or anti fraud measures. Location based services and digital coupons are certainly generating a lot of interest. Coming from a digital agency perspective I can see these solutions offering major value to retailers, even if they are not quite perfect yet. Lets not forget that in its current form the market is still embryonic.
Posted by: Digidave | February 12, 2010 at 12:27 PM
Am I the only one who sees the hole in this - a digital coupon on an iPhone - screen grab it put it on Facebook and let everyone have the same offer - the retailer will never know the difference. Free stuff for the world.
Without retailer integration and hence authentication there is no control and no audit capability. It is no better than sending a text saying please come in today.
I would be highly surprised if any major retailer is going to do serious campaigns and offers when there is no control. Does anyone else remember the Hoover / Air Miles fiasco.
Posted by: The Sceptic | February 02, 2010 at 12:50 AM