When I first saw Groupon coming up, it reminded me of a program I implemented at a Clear Channel Radio radio market.
Clear Channel Radio corporate was pushing this "weekly deals" idea to push online ad revenue. The whole idea was remarkably similar to Groupon and this article.
Our sales team would make deals with clients to provide something like 100 $50 gift certificates. The group of radio stations would then advertise and promote the deal using a combination of promotional and advertising airtime on the stations for an entire week until the deal was "on" at a certain day and time. When the deal was "on" station listeners could buy the $50 gift certificates for $25.
We had some spas, some restaurants, etc. It never ended up working out all that well as the businesses realized they were loosing money as they were buying a very short advertising campaign that would have limited reach and impact.
The idea of Groupon isn't new. They just had the genius idea of bringing it all online and with massive reach.
