Analog Analytics

General FAQ

• Complaint Policy Statement

  Analog Analytics is committed to providing quality products and services to our customers. To do this, Analog Analytics seeks opportunities to make lives simpler for our customers, provide avenues for our customers to report any form of dissatisfaction that they may have, and establish complaints principles that aim to:

  • Ensure that all customers are treated fairly, effectively and promptly.
  • Embed our complaints principles and standardize how complaints are reviewed across the organization.
  • Ensure that staff uses their judgment and the standards to reach suitable, consistent and timely decisions.
  • Ensure that complainants are kept up to date on complaint status and resolution.
  • Certify all staff on our Complaints policy and principles.

  Analog Analytics complainants can expect the following specific standards:

  • Commitment: All Analog Analytics staff will provide an efficient and fair resolution of complaints at all levels.
  • Fairness: Analog Analytics complaints-handling policy recognizes the need to be fair to the complainant. All facts will be reviewed in order to form a cohesive picture of the customer’s circumstances and the case as a whole and weighted according to relevance. Analog Analytics will ensure that each complaint is reviewed on its individual merit and that a full and fair outcome is delivered to the customer.

  Analog Analytics staff will fully explain the resolution and any actions that will be undertaken with the customer, check they understand, are satisfied and that they are aware the complaint is considered resolved / closed.

  • Resources: All Analog Analytics staff are educated on the Complaint policy and receive yearly training that is applicable to their business area.
  • Access: Analog Analytics complaints-handling avenues are readily available to the general public and are flexible, free and easy to use.
  • Assistance: Staff will assist customers and non-customers in accessing the complaints-handling process and will assist with the formulation of the complaint. Staff will also provide assistance to those individuals who may have special needs.
  • Responsiveness: Analog Analytics deals with complaints promptly and courteously.

  What if I am unhappy?

  Analog Analytics strives to make it easy for your voice to be heard. If you are unhappy and would like to submit a complaint, you can do so either by email or by phone. Our contact details are listed below.

  By Email: bbdsupport@analoganalytics.com

  By phone: 877-898-4114

  What you need to provide:

  • Your name and address
  • A day time telephone number where we can contact you
  • A clear description of your concern or problem

  We aim to resolve your complaint as quickly as possible; however, at times, additional research may be warranted and it may take longer to resolve your complaint. In cases such as this, we will:

  • Respond to you within five working days
  • Keep you updated with our progress
  • Provide you with final resolution

  Finally, we value your feedback. Please help us to get it right every time, for every customer.

• Why Analog Analytics?

  Analog Analytics is the leading provider of advertising solutions for more than 850 publications nationwide and is rapidly expanding to markets in Europe, South America, and Asia.

  Our clients include: Wick, LANG, MediaNews Group, Journal Register, McClatchy, Freedom Interactive, Village Voice Media, local.com, The Austin Chronicle, New York Daily News, Advance.Net, Entertainment.com, Newsday, to name a few.

• What is special and unique about the Analog Analytics advertising platform and software?

  Analog Analytics offers coupons, gift certificates, and a Groupon alternative called Bigger Better Deal to local publishers and advertisers in any media. Our products are:

  1. Massively Scalable. We can simultaneously support thousands of publishers and millions of advertisers.
  2. Fault Tolerant. In the event of a server failure or outage our software continues uninterrupted, so business processes and e-commerce transactions can continue as usual.
  3. Completely Self-Serve. Our software can be used by publishers, advertisers, and our account managers to quickly create and edit any form of advertising content. Also provided is a robust API.
  4. Accountable. With our robust analytics and reporting, publishers and advertisers can track the continuity of their campaigns and associated revenue.
  5. Mobile Integrated into our software is a complete mobile platform, including SEM/SEO. We will also be launching an iPhone application in the fourth quarter of 2010.
  6. Integrated With a nationwide footprint of nearly 1,000 publishers, Analog Analytics will be supporting Bigger Better Deal syndication, in the form of side deals, across the entire network.

• How does this compare to what Groupon has to offer?

  Groupon operates by eliminating the role of publications through its direct-to-consumer “group buying” model. This eliminates the publisher from the traditional advertising model.

  In many cases, Groupon is signing local SMB’s to premium exclusivity contracts, which precludes the advertiser from doing a deal of the day with anyone else for the term of the agreement.

  In short, if you are a TV, radio, or news publisher, Groupon is stealing your advertising customers and signing them to premium, long-term contracts. This is the most significant threat to publishing since Google.

  Analog Analytics has created targeted software, business practices, and traffic management to empower publishers to compete directly with the Groupon model and maintain their key source of revenue.

• Why not use a competing Groupon-alternative software platform or technology?

  Analog Analytics has nearly 1,000 publishers in its network. Our software is quickly becoming the standard platform for coupons, gift certificates, and Bigger Better Deals both nationwide and across the globe

  Not only do we provide the software necessary to launch our interactive products, we also provide the tools to maximize their utility. We offer a series of regularly updated “Best Practices” guides, from “How to do accounting and revenue recognition for CFOs” to guides designed to train sales teams to launch process documents for operations. In addition, Analog Analytics has proven traffic generation technologies for SEM/SEO, affiliate marketing, email campaigns, and social networking.

  And, because of our nationwide footprint of nearly 1,000 publishers, in the fourth quarter 2010 we will be launching side deal syndications where publications can choose to syndicate their main deal on other publisher’s websites as a side or secondary deal to their main offering. This will enable publications to dramatically increase revenue through a diversification of audience beyond the demographic profile of their own publication.

  Our progressive, new media-centered approach, coupled with robust technologies and sheer scale, makes Analog Analytics the #1 provider of advertising solutions for publishers today. Field tested and proven, these business practices translate into immediate 30-40% revenue increases for our publisher clients.

• What are some of the unique features of the Daily Bigger Better Deal Groupon alternative?

  • There is generally only one offer per day.
  • The offer is a genuine and real discount, usually 50% or more.
  • The offer is time dependent, and the Bigger Better Deal page features a countdown clock until the deal is over.
  • In some cases, consumers see how many Bigger Better Deals have been sold in real time.
  • The offer is heavily promoted using email lists, SEM, and SEO, and is leveraged through the publishers existing channels, including circulation and page views.
  • The offer is tightly integrated with social networks via email, Twitter, and Facebook.
  • The consumer is given an incentive to pass the offer along to his friends through a discount on their immediate purchase.
  • The offer can be gifted to other friends so that they can use it.
  • The offer is tied to the local community. It is often fun, whimsical, and always interesting.

The Daily & Monthly Bigger Better Deal™ General FAQ

• What’s in it for the advertiser?

  The advertiser is given a no-risk alternative to traditional advertising. There is no cost to the advertiser, only immediate revenue, which is usually received within 30-60 days after the offer is purchased.

  Importantly, the advertiser is getting pre-paid for products and services that are not delivered until some time in the not-too-distant future.

  The advertiser also gets a wave of new customers and a huge increase in volume in addition to great exposure, multi-media buzz and almost always an up-sell opportunity.

• What are the disadvantages to the advertiser?

  Some advertisers might argue that they are giving up margin. This is true, but they are getting pre-paid for the products and services with a dramatic increase in revenue. Furthermore, the advertiser is getting a dramatic increase in new customers and exposure as well as an up-sell for additional products or services that the advertiser offers. Most advertisers embrace the experience and can’t wait to repeat.

• What if advertisers want their money immediately?

  Industry best practice is to schedule payment over 30-60 days. This helps ensure that advertisers will honor deals. If you receive pushback, remind the advertiser that you are covering all upfront costs and promotion and they incur neither cash or inventory charges until someone comes in and uses a voucher, nor does traditional advertising offer a shorter payment schedule. For companies selling hard goods from inventory it may be prudent to contract the payment cycle to address their actual cost of goods sold. Companies that provide services can usually tolerate longer payment cycles as it generally takes longer to provide services sold.

• What are some of the best practices for the publisher using the Daily Bigger Better Deal?

  The Bigger Better Deal promotes community synthesis, integrating local businesses, publishers, and consumers. To keep up consumer interests publishers should try to offer not only restaurant, spa, and entertainment deals but also quirky city-specific deals for things like sky diving, museums, music and concerts, walking tours, parrot singing, whatever your city has to offer!

  Savvy publishers represent advertisers well-regarded by the community. Well-reviewed advertisers from Yelp and other rating resources build consumer trust that their great deals are from great businesses, which is good for everyone from the advertiser to the publisher.

  If you have more questions, we can forward you our full best practices presentation.

• What resources must the publisher provide during implementation and after launch of either Bigger Better Deal program?

  After the kickoff meeting, we will require a point person to own the product launch, and operations and IT people who can help with web access, email, and queuing up advertisers.

  The marketing team should also provide resources to help refine our standard process of targeting consumers and advertisers. Also, the sales team will need to build two to three weeks of inventory before launch. On an ongoing basis, you will need one person to monitor the daily deals and your sales team to continually search for new advertisers.

• How far in advance do you take the Daily Bigger Better Deal to market?

  At launch, you should have 2-3 weeks of advertisers, or 15-20 ads, in inventory. At launch you will need to collect all required information from advertisers (as laid out in our advertiser requirements document).

  This usually requires 2-3 weeks of work from your sales team, so at least a segment of your team should begin work almost immediately after launch.

• What happens if an advertiser wants a particular day of the week for the Daily Bigger Better Deal?

  While we generally slot advertisers into a given week to maintain flexibility, we will work with advertisers who have a compelling reason to launch on a certain day.

• What makes up the transaction service fees for both the Daily and Monthly Bigger Better Deal?

  Transaction & service fees cover merchant banking and payment gateway costs, security software for payment and authentication, telephony costs, refunds/returns/charge-backs, telephone and email support and other operational expenses.

• I’ve noticed that some of your publishers appear to have little traction. What’s wrong?

  It takes time to build up a customer or subscription base, though there are a number of ways to hasten the process (these are laid out in our traffic generation presentation). For comparison, here are two early deals from Groupon:

  » Groupon 1
  » Groupon 2

  This is especially interesting, as they were already working from a large local user base built by their predecessor company (The Point). As you can see, lower sales are normal to start, but these numbers will increase as your product gains traction.

  By using our traffic generation platform from launch you should have strong traction immediately. The real goal, however, is to hit a critical mass of users. At that point, word of mouth and social networking make additional subscriber and revenue growth much easier.

Consumer FAQ

• What is the daily Bigger Better Deal?

  Each day one incredible deal is featured as the Bigger Better Deal for one of your local newspapers. The offer is only available for a limited time, so check back frequently so you don’t miss out! And don’t forget to share your favorite deals on Twitter, Facebook, and through email.

• How do I buy today’s Bigger Better deal?

  Click on the “Buy Now” button before midnight on the day the offer expires. If you like a deal tweet it, Facebook it, or text it to people you think might be interested.

• What happens after I buy a daily or monthly Bigger Better Deal?

  After you make a purchase, you’ll receive the Bigger Better Deal voucher to print via email.

  Take the Bigger Better Deal to the store or merchant (before the expiration date!) and enjoy!

• If my name is on the Bigger Better Deal voucher, can the merchant charge my account?

  No. The merchant does not have your account information. That is held by Analog Analytics, the software company that processes the transaction for the publisher.

• What if I want to use part of the Bigger Better Deal voucher and save the rest for later?

  You are going to have to use that sweet deal in just one visit — however, some merchants may be willing to work with you if this situation arises.

• Is the transaction safe for me to use?

  Absolutely. The transaction uses SSL and other industry standard security features to ensure that no one else has access to your PayPal or credit card information. Your satisfaction is our priority.

• When I gift the Bigger Better Deal to a friend, will they have access to my account information?

  No. The Bigger Better Deal voucher carries a record of the transaction, the purchaser’s name, the giftee’s name, and a unique 8-digit code. The payment information is secure on a site that no consumer has access to.

• Can I combine the Bigger Better Deal with other offers the merchant might have presented previously?

  No. Each Bigger Better Deal has its own terms.

• What if the merchant does not honor the offer?

  We go out of our way to vet each advertiser and make sure they meet our high standards. We often provide recent reviews and testimonials to help you get a better feel for what you are buying. On the rare occurrence that something happens and you’re not satisfied, we (through Analog Analytics) will refund the offer, no problem.

• What if I miss the expiration date?

  If you miss the expiration date on your deal, take heart — all is not lost! While the additional discounts are no longer available, you are still entitled to goods and services equal to the paid value of the voucher.

  For example, if you spend $25 to buy a $50 voucher for your new favorite restaurant, but are unable to get there before the expiration date, you will still be entitled to $25 of food, drink and good times. It’s a no-loss situation!

• What if I have more questions?

  Feel free to email bbdsupport@analoganalytics.com or call (877) 538-4617. The publisher and Analog Analytics teams will be more than happy to answer any additional questions you have.

Merchant or Advertiser FAQ

• What if someone makes dozens of copies of the Bigger Better Deal, am I on the hook to deliver?

  Each Bigger Better Deal has a unique 8 digit code on the voucher. The merchant calls a 1-800-number, punches in the unique security code and a voice response indicates that the Bigger Better Deal is valid. If the merchant prefers this can also be done via the web.

  As a practical matter many merchants simply print a list by the cash register and just check off each number as the purchase and redemption occurs.

• Apart from being paid immediately, what other advantages are there to the daily Bigger Better Deal?

  The Bigger Better Deal provides the advertiser with an immediate increase in physical traffic, new customers and great exposure to the thousands of people who see their offer. Almost every advertiser finds this to be an immediate boom to the their business.

• Can the merchant define the terms of the daily Bigger Better Deal?

  Yes, of course. This is usually done in concert with the sales team at the publisher. For example, the offer is limited by an expiration date. The key is to make the offer genuine and real.

  In some cases the merchant may choose to limit the maximum number of offers, or cap the deal.

  This is also an important issue for the publisher in order to maintain the reputation of the publication and advertiser. If the merchant has only one store and one person doing manicures it is going to be difficult to support 500 appointments, and as a result both merchant and publisher should agree on a reasonable cap. Communicate with us and your publisher to make sure your daily deal is the best fit for you. Better to serve a few people well than many poorly!

• Can the merchant choose the date of the Daily Bigger Better Deal offer?

  Generally, no. The publisher can usually commit to a particular month and then slot the offer as a function of dynamics occurring in the market. However, there is some flexibility if you have a compelling reason to launch a deal on a certain day.

• When does the merchant get paid?

  Usually within thirty days of the offer. In some cases the publisher will remit payments in three equal installments. The publisher cuts a check and sends it to the advertiser. These terms are to be negotiated between publisher and advertiser.