Startup ChoozOn Allows Consumers to Create Their Own Personal Deal Networks, Signs on Leading Brands to Deliver More Rewarding Shopping Experiences
BELLEVUE, Wash.–Yahoo! veterans and leading on-line marketing experts Nick Weir, Usama Fayyad and Hunter Madsen announced today the formation of ChoozOn, a company that will enable its members to create their own personal deal networks™ comprising their favorite stores and brands, product categories, loyalty programs, and shopping pals. Operating at the nexus of social, mobile, loyalty, and deals services, ChoozOn’s mission is to connect brands and their customers in new and enduring ways. Much as Facebook helps people manage their social network, and LinkedIn helps them get more from their professional network, ChoozOn will help people get the most from their consumer network.
“Marrying the excitement of deal discovery, the science of personalization and marketing, and the fun of social media into a platform that brands and consumers benefit from is what ChoozOn is all about.”
The world has become more complicated for shoppers in recent years, and the explosion in deals-of-the-day, online savings, social shopping, and micro-targeting has left many feeling overwhelmed. According to a recent study, two of every three American adults agree that, although there are thousands of deals and discounts available these days, the process of discovering and picking out the most relevant offers is too difficult*. The same study found that more than eighty percent of Americans would welcome an online service that makes it easier for them to find relevant deals from the brands and product categories that really interest them. ChoozOn helps consumers gain a new measure of control over today’s deal chaos, by allowing them to selectively discover and share deals within their personal deal network of relevant offers, shopping friends and favorite brands.
Empowering Consumers with Choice, Control and Confidence
Powered by sophisticated personalization algorithms and technologies, ChoozOn will offer consumers a convenient, personalized service for discovering relevant offers and hunting with their friends for good deals. The service will give consumers unprecedented opportunities to:
- Connect with the brands they choose, share their shopping preferences with them, and receive personalized offers matched to their interests;
- Take control of the current blizzard of deals and loyalty programs and start receiving selective alerts about the best opportunities based on their individual preferences;
- Have confidence that they are getting the best, most relevant offers thanks to ChoozOn’s personalized search agents;
- Sign up for the customer loyalty programs of brands they like, then start receiving timely alerts about the programs’ special offers;
- Share the excitement, fun and rewards of deal discovery with friends and like-minded shoppers.
Deepening Brands’ Relationships with Consumers
As consumers are inundated by advertising messages, offers, and loyalty programs, a growing “deal” mentality threatens to commoditize brands while pressing them to give away value without deepening customer loyalty. As consumers create their own personal deal networks on ChoozOn and formally “chooz” selected brands for inclusion, ChoozOn enables these brands to engage more directly and personally with consumers in more relevant ways and to provide additional rewards for brand advocates, all of which builds consumer satisfaction and loyalty. Moreover, as a social network designed specifically to accelerate buzz about good deals from preferred brands, ChoozOn gives brand champions powerful new tools, such as ChoozOn Deal Clubs, to reach out and influence other shoppers.
Although partnering discussions have just begun, over 300 leading brands have already signed on to distribute their offers through ChoozOn when the service launches this summer.
Marketing and Advertising Trailblazers
ChoozOn is founded by a team of Web entrepreneurs, who have driven marketing and consumer services innovation for companies such as Yahoo!, Microsoft, Wired, and J. Walter Thompson.
- Nick Weir, Ph.D., CEO – Expert in data software development, predictive modeling, Internet services, and online advertising; recipient of the 2011 Service Excellence Award from the Interactive Advertising Bureau for his work in educating the industry on data usage and policies.
Prior to ChoozOn, Nick was Yahoo!’s Vice President of Data Strategy, responsible for identifying and developing new data monetization opportunities, driving the development of the company’s data policy, and the Data Governance team. Nick has held executive roles in leading companies, including Goldman Sachs and Strategy.com, where he led the development of first-generation personalized information services used by hundreds of thousands of consumers across the Web and on mobile.
- Usama Fayyad, Ph.D., Chairman and CTO – Data mining pioneer and entrepreneur.
Before co-founding ChoozOn, Usama was the founder and CEO of Open Insights, a data strategy, technology and consulting firm and was Yahoo!’s Chief Data Officer and Executive Vice President of Research and Strategic Data Solutions, driving global data strategy. His data mining expertise contributed to the success of many prominent companies, including the DMX Group (acquired by Yahoo! in 2004) and Audience Science, which he co-founded after leaving his leadership role at Microsoft in 2000. He continues to be actively involved as a board member with some of the most innovative advertising companies today. He is a leader of the data mining and predictive analytics community, being Chairman of the ACM SIGKDD, and is a recipient of many prestigious applied and scientific awards including a U.S. Government medal from NASA.
- Hunter Madsen, Ph.D., CMO – Marketing expert with diverse experience driving solutions online and offline for Fortune 500 clients.
As a senior partner at advertising giant J. Walter Thompson, Hunter directed successful marketing programs for clients including Kodak, Unilever, and Chesebrough-Ponds, then co-founded the agency’s digital marketing practice to pioneer seminal online initiatives for Sprint, the State of California, and others, before tackling marketing and commercial strategy for Wired magazine and its online properties. At Yahoo!, Hunter established the product marketing unit of Yahoo! Worldwide Sales, where he led go-to-market for the company’s behavioral targeting systems, online promotions, and other advanced advertising services.
“We have Facebook to manage our social network and LinkedIn to manage our professional contacts. With ChoozOn, we finally have a personal network to help us connect with brands and shopping pals, so that we can sort out, enjoy, and share the wealth of deals and special shopping experiences available today,” said Nick Weir, CEO of ChoozOn. “Marrying the excitement of deal discovery, the science of personalization and marketing, and the fun of social media into a platform that brands and consumers benefit from is what ChoozOn is all about.”
[*Source: “Web Deals & Discounts Study,” Research Now, April 2011]
About ChoozOn
Founded by recognized Web innovators, ChoozOn enables its members to create the world’s first personal deal networks, designed exclusively for the discovery and sharing of relevant deals and connecting with favorite brands. The company’s unique approach to establishing new and deeper relationships between brands and consumers creates new business opportunities for advertisers and rewarding experiences for consumers. For more information visit www.choozon.com.
Source: Business Wire / PDF