Faster mobile connections and the establishment of geo-location technology has taken popular social media sites and iPhone applications to a whole new level.
Will Tesch, president and chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Tesch Global, knew that kind of technology was coming and would eventually catch up to his ideas. In August 2009, Tesch formed SuperSaver.com LLC, and subsequently the SuperSaver.com website and iPhone application.
“SuperSaver really brings the technology associated with geo-location, smart phone application development and social media together,” he said.
SuperSaver.com allows for businesses of any size and industry to sign up for an account, log on and create their own promotions, Tesch said.
“It gives the power back to the people,” he said. “And it’s a very green way to present savings to consumers.”
According to Tesch, businesses like restaurants, bars, clubs, gas stations, convenient stores, department stores, even the service industry can sign up on SuperSaver.com and create promotional advertisements and coupons for consumers in the area.
“Consumers then have the capability to access SuperSaver via the iPhone application,” Tesch said. “The geo-location technology will pull up participating SuperSaver organizations in the consumer’s area. It will separate which businesses currently have deals or promotions in the system and give the consumer the choice on where to go.”
The application is also integrated with Yahoo and Google maps which allow the user to view where each location is in comparison to his or her location, Tesch said.
Currently the application is only available on the iPhone, however anyone can access the deals directly on SuperSaver.com.
The technology behind SuperSaver.com was developed entirely in house by Tesch Global’s 12 member team. The application is expected to be available in the Apple store sometime in March.
“We are launching the application with businesses in Milwaukee and the Austin, Texas area,” Tesch said. “By the time the application is launched we expect to have somewhere around 200 businesses participating.”
Companies can sign up at www.supersaver.com, Tesch said. The company will then pay a specified amount for each deal created at each location. The cost is usually between $20 and $50 per month, Tesch said.
“It gives a lot of power to the brick and mortar business,” Tesch said. “It allows them to essentially develop their own mobile advertising campaign for a fraction of what it would normally cost.”
SuperSaver also has established a founder’s pricing model for businesses in the area willing to help launch the product.
The application and the website were developed with large scale possibilities in mind, Tesch said.
“The back engine on the website and the application is where the real work happens,” he said. “It has the capabilities to host millions of business promotions and locations.”
Tesch and his employees are already talking to large national retailers and they plan to launch the application in a number of different vacation destinations in the coming months.
There are also plans to integrate “shout out” social media components to the application, which would give the user the ability to become a company’s brand ambassador by promoting where the good deals are through his or her social networks.
Launching the application internationally is a goal Tesch and the rest of the company have plans for. They’ve already begun the leg work to make that happen, Tesch said.
“We’ve already started making progress towards making the platform international,” Tesch said. “After the initial launch that’s the next big priority for us.” n
