Here’s why
MyVoucherCodes, part of Monitise Content, has acquired Happiour, a daily food & drink app created in 2015 by musical brothers and serial-entrepreneurs, Hal and Sam Stokes.
Happiour is used by over 100,000 users in central London and has partnered with over 150 businesses, from local independents to major chains, including LEON, Starbucks and Jamie’s Italian. The brothers aim for big expansion; MyVoucherCodes will help scale the business by promoting the app to its 7 million UK customers.
Hal and Sam were professional musicians for several years in Los Angeles in their band, ‘The Thieves’, as well as playing for Justin Hawkins (The Darkness lead singer). Their experience led them to becoming involved in the booming rise of social media.
Hal was Global Head of Music for UK network Bebo in 2007, before the brothers created Punktillo in 2009, one of the first social media agencies in the UK. Their clients included Pret, Moet Hennessy and YO! Sushi. The agency was acquired by Essence Digital (WPP) in 2011.
The app focuses on vendors creating exclusive, real-time, geo-located offers in order to drive local footfall and sales. It is designed with social interaction of customers in mind, through sharing and searching for relevant food & drink deals nearby.
Retailers have the opportunity to create exclusive offers directly on Happiour, which provides solutions to problems both independent and large food and beverage retailers face. For example, attracting new customers, promoting new or seasonal products, helping to shoulder peak hours, exploiting last minute opportunities (such as social and sporting events), reducing end of day waste, and creating more local awareness.
Hal Stokes, Co-Founder of Happiour, said: “We built Happiour to help F&B vendors increase sales and enable consumers to enjoy a sense of discovery and reward.
“The average commuter spends over £10 a day on food and snacks, so we created a way of giving them great discounts and making their ‘everyday’ better. We are very excited to be working with the MyVoucherCodes team, and with their help we’ll scale effectively across the UK.
We always thought that some of the best grass roots marketers are musicians, which is what led us here. We toured all over the US and were early adopters of social media, using digital tools to build a fan-base, so we know how to engage people online.”
Chris Reilly, Managing Director, Monitise Content said: “Happiour is a dynamic and innovative platform that gives users what they want, when they want it.
”’‘Local’ is the big nut that high-street merchants are trying to crack and Happiour provides a genuine solution to this problem. We are looking forward to working with the entire Happiour team to grow the business and build on its success.”
Monitise Content will provide Happiour with resource to grow their consumer and merchant audience ahead of Happiour’s re-launch in the New Year. Simultaneously, Happiour’s team will offer the group the latest strategic insight into social/local brand awareness and user engagement.
Happiour investors include serial entrepreneur and Bebo founder Michael Birch, Downing Ventures and Mark Sheehan, guitarist for world-famous band The Script.
Leave a Comment