Trinity Mirror launches daily deals service

Trinity Mirror, the publisher of the Daily Mirror, is to launch a daily deals service as it looks to drive revenues from sources other than its newspaper business.

Happli

The launch of the service, dubbed Happli, will be supported by a £10m investment over the next two years, which will include a marketing campaign across the rest of the Trinity Mirror portfolio under the tagline “Live life. Live happli”.

Trinity Mirror forecasts Happli will deliver revenues of £20m by 2014 when it will be available in more than 50 cities.

The publisher today (15 March) reported a 2% drop in revenues to £747m for the full-year in 2011. Operating profit slumped 40% to £92.4m.

The publisher hopes Happli will also strengthen its relationship with SME advertisers and it will offer those businesses the opportunity to advertise on the daily deals service as part of its digital portfolio of advertising opportunities.

Consumers visiting Happli.co.uk will be shown a selection of handpicked deals and will be encouraged to check prices, read reviews and share recommendations via Facebook.

The daily deals market has become increasingly crowded, with several other brands including Gumtree, eBay and BP launching similar offers. The sector is forecast to be valued at £1bn by 2016, Trinity Mirror claims.

Chris Ellis, managing director of Trinity Mirror digital, says: “We are launching a well thought out proposition that works for consumers and retailers alike.

“We’ll be leveraging Trinity Mirror’s existing portfolio and customer relationships, as well as building new digital marketing capabilities and ultimately opening up direct-to-consumer sales on a large scale.”

Separately, Marketing Week understands rival newspaper publisher Associated Newspapers could be preparing to launch an online price comparison service under the guise MailCompare as it also looks to diversify its revenue streams.

One of its newspapers, The Evening Standard, is also launching a daily deals service following the relaunch of its website earlier this week.

Recommended

lynx

Pandas get the ‘Lynx Effect’

Rosie Baker

Lynx has taken the unusual step of sponsoring the panda mating programme at Edinburgh Zoo, as part of its ongoing campaign to support the launch of its Lynx Attract variant for women.