Digital First Ventures Signs Strategic Partnership With TapClassifieds Auto to Drive Local Automotive Advertising

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwired – Jan 9, 2014) –  Digital First Ventures, the venture capital arm of Digital First Media, announced today a strategic partnership with TapClicks Inc., subsidiary TapClassifieds Auto, the leading dealer-focused digital automotive inventory promotion platform. Digital First Media will use TapClassifieds Auto to expand the Company’s product offerings for automotive dealers.

Digital First Media has already launched TapClassifieds Auto in California, Pennsylvania, Texas and New Mexico, and plans to roll it out to all markets in 2014.

TapClassifieds Auto (www.TapClassifieds.com) distributes auto-dealer inventory across multiple digital-marketing channels, driving car buyers to the dealership through dedicated landing pages for every car, mobile-friendly sites, QR codes, call tracking and photo galleries.

“Car buyers are spending more time online researching their purchase. Digital First Venture’s partnership with TapClassifieds gives us another way to ensure our automotive advertisers are reaching potential customers online and via mobile devices,” said John Paton, Chief Executive Officer of Digital First Ventures. “TapClassifieds’ multi-platform auto-marketing approach, added to our existing portfolio of targeted digital advertising, provides a comprehensive marketing solution that is designed to deliver measureable results for our car dealer clients.”

Founded in 2009 and based in Cupertino, California, TapClassifieds Auto focuses on ease-of-use for the dealer while delivering a robust, digital solution that includes:

• Inventory Management
• Turnkey inventory posting that easily integrates with dealer CRMs
• Custom landing pages for each listing that reflects the dealership’s online branding
• Mobile-optimized landing pages with QR codes to connect consumers with the cars they like
• SEO-friendly inventory listings designed to boost dealership search results
• Sales lead capture and analysis via the TapClassifieds Auto dashboard to ensure optimal conversion of sales leads
• On-going dealer support and quality control services

“The average car buyer spends more than 30 days searching across many different sources before making a purchase. TapClassifieds Auto ensures that buyers will quickly find the dealer’s inventory online,” said Babak Hedayati, CEO and founder of TapClicks. “We ensure a comprehensive digital presence for dealer inventories that spins off extensive leads to dealers, with complete analytics around customer engagement. TapClassifieds combined with Digital First Media’s huge presence in local markets achieves the ultimate solution connecting buyers with local auto dealers.”

About Digital First Ventures
Digital First Ventures (DFV) is focused on helping entrepreneurs incubate, validate and accelerate businesses in the digital media space. As a division of Digital First Media — which operates more than 800 media products serving 67 million customers each month and generates annual revenues of more than $1.4 billion — DFV is ideally suited to accelerate value creation for seed, early and growth stage digital media companies.

About TapClicks Inc.
TapClassifieds is a subsidiary of TapClicks Inc., providing digital classifieds and merchandising solutions for local companies doing business online. TapClassifieds differentiates its offerings by generating and tracking leads and other consumer interactions in unprecedented detail. TapClicks, Inc. is a digital presence company with a focus on digital marketing and performance analytics for agencies and enterprises. Founded in 2009, TapClicks Inc. operates out of offices in Silicon Valley, Canada, India and Mexico.