Chinook Book goes mobile with iPhone app

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Celilo Group Media, the company behind the annual Chinook Book, a coupon book for environmentally conscious consumers, announced Monday that it has launched a mobile coupon application for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices.

Portland-based Celilo Group funded the mobile launch by expanding its Series A venture capital round that was originally closed in October 2008 to raise an additional $645,000 from existing investors and the Sustainability Investment Fund LLP.

"Everyone was asking us when we were going to do something with mobile or online," said Nik Blosser, president of Celilo Group. "This is the future of coupons."

Celilo worked with local companies Small Society, ISITE Design and Plus QA Testing to develop, design and test the application. The coding for the app was done by developers in Russia.

The iPhone-version of the Chinook Book, available initially only in the Portland and Seattle markets, is $16, compared to $20 for the print version. The manufacturers coupons available in the print edition, 90 of them in all, are not available in digital form. In all, more than 500 businesses are participating with mobile coupons.

Blosser said that while people often forget to bring a paper coupon, they always have their phone with them.

Among the features of the iPhone Chinook Book is a map that shows nearby coupon-accepting merchants, a calculator that tallies savings, and a way to highlight "favorite" coupons. A "redeem" button is hit in view of the cashier when the coupon is used.

Celilo adheres to strict criteria in selecting the merchants in Chinook Book, which was first launched in 2000. The Chinook book is now available in Denver and Silicon Valley and Celilo Group hopes to add more new markets next year.

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