Digital incentive and information management company Zave Networks and mobile service provider Didmo are teaming up to help advertisers deploy mobile applications and coupons.

The partnership combines Didmo’s Magmito tool for the creation of custom mobile applications and Zave Networks’ Zavers incentive platform and is geared toward addressing the growth of the mobile advertising and digital coupon markets. 

 “Mobile is an increasingly important medium for advertisers and retailers,” said Anita Newton, chief marketing officer of Zavers, Kansas City, KS. “Zavers and Didmo work together to solve three key problems for the advertiser and retailer: WAP site creation, engagement and measurement, and capitalizing on mobile in-store.”

Zavers’ mission is to transform the experience of developing, using and measuring promotions for the manufacturers who create them, the retailers where they are redeemed, the consumers who use them and for partners who want to expand the use of promotions beyond the limitations of traditional delivery vehicles.

Zavers has built a promotions platform that can be used by manufacturers and retailers in any retail category to deliver promotions and engage consumers in their digital lifestyle

Didmo AB offers services for cross-compatible mobile content creation and distribution. The company was founded in 2006 as a mobile gaming service offering free games from publishers subsidized by advertising.

With the launch of the Magmito user-generated mobile content creation service, the company evolved into the burgeoning mobile application software space.

“Zavers and Didmo are both leaders in their respective areas with proven, innovative technologies,” said Angelo Biasi, vice president of business development at Didmo, Stockholm, Sweden. “Rather than reinvent the wheel, we chose to come together to create a powerful, all-in-one mobile marketing solution for advertisers and retailers.

“Zavers’ incentive platform is plugged into the incentive and content distribution mobile marketing space, providing digital offers that are instantly tracked from delivery to redemption,” he said.

“Didmo’s Magmito software puts the icing on the cake by providing a fast and easy way for advertisers to create compelling and engaging applications that reach virtually every phone on the market today.”

Mobile coupons, mobile apps
Zavers claims that its promotions platform enables retailers and advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts, including which digital promotions actually lead to a sale in a physical store.

This is designed to digitally close the loop by measuring an offer from the time it is created by the advertiser to the moment it is downloaded by the consumer to the actual retail sale.

With Zavers, retailers can enhance their customer loyalty programs without having to purchase new point-of-sale hardware or develop software, and consumers can save money without having to clip or remember to carry paper coupons.

Didmo’s Magmito allows anyone to create, publish and share content for virtually any mobile device.

With Magmito’s templates, customized content can be created and viewed as an application or within a mobile browser distributed to any mobile phone.

The service also includes the ability to implement polls, quizzes and forms, letting consumer brands solicit feedback from customers.

The combination of Zavers’ promotions platform and Magmito’s ability to reach all mobile phones, regardless of make or model, creates a platform for North American retailers and advertisers seeking to reach consumers on their mobile devices.

The joint solution will be introduced to existing and prospective clients as early as January 2010.

How it works
An advertiser or retailer develops an application using the Magmito tool, which allows them to include data important to consumers such as product information, store locations, hours, maps and customer surveys.

The retailer adds an existing manufacturer-sponsored offer for a product sold at their store or a new store-specific offer.

Next, the application is distributed to consumers and is accessible on virtually all mobile phones.

The consumer clicks on the coupon from the mobile application to save it to their free Zavers account.

At the register of the participating retail store, consumers swipe their loyalty card or provide their mobile phone number to automatically receive the discount.

Zavers captures and reports the redemption data to the retailer and product manufacturer, allowing them to understand the effectiveness of their promotion and optimize their marketing investment.

Zavers has designed an intelligent incentive and coupon platform that links online and mobile incentive placement with in store redemption at point of sale.

“Our vision is to enable consumers to discover any kind of incentive—coupons, rewards, loyalty points—in any IP-enabled medium—online, mobile, SMS, short code, even interactive TV—at any retailer across any point-of-sale system,” Ms. Newton said. “Didmo’s Magmito is a cross-platform mobile content creation tool that empowers anyone to easily create compelling mobile applications.

“Applications feature text, photos and maps, as well as incorporate feedback functionality such as polls, forms and quizzes,” she said.

Applications will be compatible with virtually all handsets on the market. For iPhone and Android users, applications will currently be accessed via a WAP page until such time as native support is available.

For iPhone users, the Web application is optimized and detects screen orientation.

“By wrapping Zavers’ incentive platform within Magmito mobile applications, retailers and advertisers can provide consumers with attractive and informative offers and gain unprecedented access to consumer data, from buying behavior to demographics and more,” Ms. Newton said.

“We expect to see some exciting mobile campaigns result from this partnership,” she said.