Local Response, a social advertising platform that allows local businesses to respond to the “check-in” with marketing campaigns, is launching a pro version of its analytics and action platform for marketers.
LocalResponse’s DirectResponse product aggregates real-time social media check-‐ins from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram and dozens of other services to provide a simple interface for local businesses to directly respond to their most influential and valuable customers. What makes LocalResponse compelling is that it analyzes massive amounts of data in addition to check-ins from the Twitter firehose, photo sharing sites and more to find other forms of check-ins. These could be posting a picture on Instagram of a dish from a restaurant or Tweeting that you are visiting a particular bar.
LocalResponse’s proprietary technology collects and prioritizes social data both explicitly (i.e. check-ins on Foursquare) and implicitly (by analyzing natural language on Facebook, Twitter, etc.; e.g. “I’m headed to ShakeShack”).
For example, in a recent campaign, Walgreens used Direct Response to respond to customers in-store to disseminate store promotions, such as flu shots and HALLS coupons. Average click-through-rates for LocalResponse’s Direct Response product are greater than 50%, says the company.
Another LocalResponse product is Intent Retargeting allows marketers to deliver mobile display ads against various real-time intent data points. The product can serve ads to explicit check-ins, implicit check-ins, competitive check-ins, as well as relevant sentiment. For example, Intuit’s TurboTax uses Intent Retargeting to serve TurboTax banner ads to people who have expressed challenges in doing their taxes on Twitter. Average clickthrough-rates for LocalResponse’s Intent Retargeting are 1%.
The PRO Dashboard provides real-time analysis for brand’s and brand’s competitor’s consumer foot traffic, intent, and sentiment. The PRO version basically allows marketers to access this in-depth data and then activate contextual and targeted advertising easily.
To date, LocalResponse has worked with a number of high-profile advertisers including Audi, Coca-Cola, Dell, Estee Lauder, FedEx, General Electric, General Mills, General Motors, H&M, Hersheys, Kmart, Lowes, McDonald’s, NBC-Universal, Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Verizon, and Walgreens.
LocalResponse has raised $6.5 million Cava Capital, Vodafone Ventures, Progress Ventures, Verizon Ventures, Metamorphic Ventures, Extreme Venture Partners, Charles River Ventures, BOLDstart Ventures, Jim Pallotta, Greycroft Partners, and others. The startup also recently acquired social TV check-in and advertising platform Philo.
