Disruptive Gifting

Trying to grab consumer attention is hard enough for marketers, so why not try and add value through an advertisement that directly translates into a deal for the consumer? Newly-branded All Star Deals, now called Gift Connect, is attempting to do just that.

All Star Deals, which followed a Groupon-esque style to promote brand discounts for celebrities, athletes and music stars, launched three years ago. Turns out that particular clientele didn’t like being associated with discount brands, so the company has re-branded and re-envisioned its concept under Gift Connect.

“The reason we call it a gift, as opposed to a discount, is that we don’t require any other purchase,” founder Mark Levin told TechCrunch. “It’s a gift, free and clear. It’s not a coupon.”

Here’s how it works, TechCrunch explains: “The service acts like any other advertising platform, with brands looking to advertise and publishers who send those ads out to their audiences. However, the ads themselves are actually gifts from brands, and the publishers are sports teams, musical artists, or other affinity groups. …The platform works on a performance-basis, where the publisher gets paid on every redemption or action that’s taken.”

This gives a company the chance to target an advertising campaign with a deal through it, like giving $10 off a pizza to all fans at a specific sporting event or concert. That way, it directly targets consumers and puts a deal into their hands. It can offers the opportunity for consumers to share that deal via social media.

“The Flyers can send out a link with the gift to their Facebook or Twitter followers, and they have control over whether or not the link is active for followers only or can be re-shared from that audience to their friends, followers, etc,” Techcrunch explained.

When the company launched three years ago, it jumped into the crowded daily-deals space, but this new name comes with new investors and a new concept. The new model offers giveaways to consumers through advertisements. It’s also raised a $5.1 million Series B round to fund the new gambit from Hubert Burda Media. Previously, the company had raised $1.7 million for All Star Deals.

Gift Connect brands itself under the motto of the “first and largest performance-based advertising network centered around branded gifts.” The concept makes the service the middleman between marketers and publishing websites needing to market a brand. But unlike a daily-deal concept, the coupon offers a no-strings attached discount.

“It’s new and people have to digest it,” Levin said.