Dillard?s, Hooters and Papa John?s Pizza are among the brands and retailers offering mobile coupons and promoting special events via the new application from The St. Petersburg Times and its Web site, TampaBay.com.

Haneke Design created TampaBay.com?s Things To Do application, which delivers consumers deals, mobile coupons, event listings and other offers from local businesses straight to their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch devices. To support adoption of the application, the St. Petersburg Times is putting QR codes in their print ads with a call-to-action asking readers to download the application. 

?Our goal is to lead the industry with a mobile application strategy that is more than just repurposing existing content,? said Maryann Balbo, digital sales manager for the St. Petersburg Times and TampaBay.com, St. Petersburg, FL. ?We are the experts when it comes to all things local in the Tampa Bay market, but we wanted to merge that content with a local mobile advertising solution, including mobile couponing, for advertisers.

?Plus, we wanted to leverage our multi-platform solutions?print, digital and mobile?because each drives the other,? she said. ?The mobile app is an evolution of our Web site tampabay.com/things-to-do that launched this past spring.

?Again, we took our rich database of local restaurants, venues, concerts and events and made it available in one place with a click of the button?it?s about finding everything local to do and special deals while on the run?and in one place.?

The St. Petersburg Times is Florida?s largest newspaper with an average circulation of 377,235 Sunday and 239,684 daily, according to the ABC publisher?s statement on Sept. 26.

The Times is produced by the Times Publishing Co., which also publishes TampaBay.com, Tampa Bay?s largest local news Web site with nearly than 1.3 million unique visitors each month, according to Nielsen.

Additionally, the company publishes the free daily tbt* Tampa Bay Times and the Web site PolitiFact.com.

Haneke Design is a multidisciplinary design firm focused on delivering graphic, interactive and mobile products that produce positive business results. It specializes in helping companies mobilize their applications and Web services.

Chains and local businesses tap mobile coupons
Available now as a free download from the iTunes store or in the quick links section of the tampabay.com/things-to-do site, the application?s home screen affords access to all the major sections and features of the application.

The Home Screen includes icons with links such as Events, Destinations, Near Me (location based Events & Destinations), My Favorites (favorite Destinations), Deals (the user?s announcements and coupons), Featured (currently featured businesses) and a locator box that tells users where to find copies of the St. Petersburg Times or tbt* Tampa Bay Times.

The application includes push notifications for offers and deals the consumers can set up based on their preferences, mobile couponing and a ?Near Me? feature that lets users find out what is going on, as well as available deals in the neighborhood they happen to be in at the moment.

Dillard?s is leveraging the application to drive consumers in store with time-sensitive text messages.

One Dillard?s text message issued the following call-to-action: ?Customize your Uggs when buying a pair on 11/20 from 12-3 only.?

Hooters is courting its target demographic of males by offering mobile coupons via the TampaBay.com application.

Examples of Hooters mobile offers include 99-cent pints of Bud Light and half-price select appetizers.

In addition to Hooters and Papa John?s Pizza, brands and retailers offering mobile coupons via the application include Lexus of Clearwater, the National Hockey League?s Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa?s Lowry Park Zoo, Bealls, The Dalí, Glazer Children?s Museum, Hyde Park Village, Mazzaro, Straz Center, International Plaza and Bay Street.

Some of the other mobile coupons that have already been distributed include Ferg's Restaurant offering $5 off a $25 lunch and Fitzgerald Automotive offering a free lunch, car wash and multi-point inspection with a $24.95 oil change.

Gigi?s Restaurant is offering two entrees for $20 and a free appetizer, while Catches Waterfront is offering 20 bottles of wine for $20 each.

?We want to target busy adults who need an easy way to find local things to do and benefit from special offers,? Ms. Balbo said. ?They are relying heavily on digital products to find this information, but they had to get it from multiple sites.

?Our research showed the Tampa Bay market needed one-stop shopping for everything local to do in the Tampa Bay area,? she said.

Appetizing mobile platform
Haneke Design helped invent a new profit center for the newspaper industry by creating this application in collaboration with the St. Petersburg Times and TampaBay.com.

Not only do advertisers have a detailed profile page with their overview, offers, events and contact information, they have the ability to author their own offers in the form of announcements and coupon offers through the advertiser Web application.

Advertisers have access to a self-serve portal so they can communicate to their consumers in real-time, as well as react to current business situations immediately.

?For example, if I am a restaurant owner and at 4 p.m. I notice that dinner reservations for tonight are slow, then I can send out a push notification to all those who have favored my business to come in for a free appetizer with a reservation for tonight only,? Ms. Balbo said.

?This helps me drive business immediately,? she said.

In turn, the Times helps the advertiser promote itself on the application. It gives advertisers point-of-purchase signage, window clings, table tents and ?best of mobile? tips to help them promote their brand on the application.

It allows the advertiser to play in the mobile coupon arena without having to invest large dollars in development and marketing.

Instead, they can use the Times? existing application and benefit from the media company?s marketing power to grow their business. 

?Most newspapers to date have simply found mobile vendors to provide one-off solutions for local advertisers,? said Jody Haneke, president of Haneke Design, Denver. ?What we proposed was a new business model where advertisers could self-replenish and purchase credits to send mobile offers through an application managed by the St. Petersburg Times.

?This centralized the user base through a single app providing the newspaper with a true asset in the mobile space, not just mobile advertiser services,? he said. ?As the base of users grows, so does the value of this new asset.?

Final Take
Dan Butcher, associate editor, Mobile Marketer

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