Tippr expands daily deal reach for publishers

It's tough to keep up with the frenzy of activity in the daily deals space. The market may be poised for a shakeout, but the opportunities for publishers continue to grow.

Today, a startup called Tippr is extending its white label platform for publishers with an affiliate network designed to give local or niche publishers more scale from their deal services. Tippr’s Affiliate Network helps publishers using the company’s PoweredByTippr platform earn incremental revenue – as much as 10-15% more – from daily deal services, said Tippr CEO Martin Tobias.

About 100 publishers use the Tippr platform, and the company has already signed approximately 1,200 affiliates to syndicate deals across the Tippr network, Tobias said.

White label platforms are emerging as an appealing alternative to partnering with commercial deal services such as Groupon. Mediaspectrum, for example, recently launched a self-service deals platform that allows merchants to order their own daily deals and publishers to manage daily deals alongside other advertising inventory.  Group Commerce offers a platform used by Boston.com and Hearst Magazines, among others. Tippr’s customers include Belo, NBC, Fox and Univision, Tobias said.

These platforms and services will help publishers compete for what’s expected to be a sizeable revenue pie. BIA/Kelsey last week upgraded its forecast for the U.S. daily deals industry, targeting U.S. consumer spending on deals to grow from $873 million in 2010 to more than $4 billion in 2015, a compound annual growth rate of 36.7 percent.

Daily deals can provide another important benefit to publishers: an opportunity to expand their audience base. The key will be getting those one-and-done deal redeemers to come back for more. To that end, Tippr is working on tools to help publishers and merchants integrate loyalty programs and other features into their daily deal offerings.

“The affiliate network helps you get your brand out there,” said Tobias. “By building loyalty on top of that, you can get them to come back after they transact.”