Mobile deals and discounts aggregator Shooger is streamlining merchants’ coupon campaigns with location-based applications and opt-in SMS options.

Shooger claims to provide more than 100,000 coupon offers from more than 50,000 merchants. The platform’s reporting console lets advertisers organize and track national or local couponing campaigns that can be modified in real time to move inventory or increase sales.

“[Our strategy is] based on the rising use of mobile phones and consumers’ increased interest in connecting with relevant, local deals while on the go,” said Matt Myers, chief marketing officer at Shooger, Coral Gables, FL. “Shooger executives linked their mobile and local advertising experience with their product innovation expertise to create Shooger, a mobile coupon provider.”

Shooger http://www.shooger.com is a privately funded mobile development company. Its founders also created ClickForward, a local search engine and Internet marketing platform that was purchased by Yellow Book in 2006.

How Shooger works
Consumers can access Shooger’s service either through its mobile application – compatible with the iPhone and Android operating system – or using SMS messaging.

Here is a screen grab of the Shooger application as it acquires its user’s location:

Using a tool bar on the bottom of the page, users can locate nearby coupon offers, browse for coupons, find favorite businesses and coupons they have clipped and adjust the application settings.

The application gives consumers access to national, local and online bargains, and lets them search by proximity, through vertical categories (such as Restaurants, Shoes & Apparel and Travel) and using keyword searches.

“Shooger’s coupons and deals can help enhance ads across websites, email campaigns, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, Yellow Pages, billboards, radio and more as businesses can include their Shooger keyword in all media,” Mr. Myers said. “Including a mobile keyword is the next evolution of merchant contact info – similar to an 800 number or website address– to give consumers a way to connect with them.

“Shooger gives businesses a simple and cost-effective, performance-based mobile marketing option, allowing them to send instant offers directly to customers,” he said.

Consumers can click on coupons to access maps, and the platform can use a handset’s location-based technology to generate driving directions.

Coupons also link to merchants’ Web sites and feature click-to-call functionality.

And, for consumers without supported smartphones, Shooger offers an opt-in SMS option which it claims is compatible with 99 percent of mobile devices.

Redemption is also simple.

“Consumers redeem coupons by showing a merchant the coupon on their mobile phone,” Mr. Myers said. “A real-time reporting console allows advertisers to quickly set up a national or local deal and track the success of the program through customer opt-ins and promotion codes.”

Business parks
The Shooger platform facilitates coupon campaigns for businesses large and small, and tailors its campaigns to each participant’s objectives.

“Businesses can sign up for a mobile coupon subscription with a monthly spending cap at http://www.shooger.com,” Mr. Myers said. “Coupon templates are provided to advertisers making the process simple and easy to use. 

“Shooger provides advertisers with a personalized keyword that they can use in all advertising,” he said. “Fees are based on the number of consumers that follow a business, clip a coupon or subscribe to a business’s offers via SMS.”

The platform has attracted a wide variety of businesses.

“Shooger has direct relationships with local merchants and content partnerships with large traditional coupon companies like Valpak and others,” Mr. Myers said. “As such, users will find deals on Shooger for a small local restaurant like Bimini Boatyard in Ft. Lauderdale, FL – as well as deals from large national brands like Kmart, Apple, Domino’s and Subway.

“Coupons have always been an effective tool for businesses and have successfully migrated to the Web over the last several years,” he said. “Mobile is a natural next step.”

Mobile Commerce Daily’s Peter Finocchiaro gives a demonstration of the Shooger mobile coupon application for the iPhone. Here is the video: