Web Simple

Huh????? That’s the only way to describe this. Forget getting a deal on an iPod or a vacation. Now you can get one for having a baby. Groupon, the popular coupon company that gives deals based on group participation, has a whole new way to get customers: they’re asking you to breed them.

Groupon has launched Groupspawn, an online dating site with a twist. They will offer you scholarships for breeding “Groupon Babies.” Jennfer Van Grove, from Mashable, describes it as “Groupon will give out up to two college scholarship grants — of undisclosed sums — per year to babies who were conceived as a result of a little Groupon action on the first date.” Huh? First date?

According to the Groupspawn FAQ “You and your co-spawner must have used a Groupon on your first date and must prove it with a multitude of evidence: a photo taken with a newspaper with a date on it, testimonials, credit-card statements, blogs, etc.” They also start out by saying “Unlike the moon landing, Grouspawn is for real. It’s really real. For real.”

If you aren’t sharing your grand Groupspawn plan with your date, they helpfully provide you a handy list of white lies to get photo evidence your potential future mate. They recommend such lines as “I’m on a scavenger hunt and I need to take a photo with an extremely attractive person” or “I take photos because I lost my short term memory saving orphans from a rollercoaster accident.”

This definitely takes the cake for PR stunts. Even as a PR stunt, you know that there are people who are going to rush out and create little Groupon Groopies.

What some people will do to get a deal…

New Definiton of a Family Discount

If you have heard of any other weird stunts for online services (legal ones only please), leave a comment.

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A client in the financial services sector recently asked me for my thoughts on how trends in social media will affect the way their sales force engages and closes a deal with a new customer.  After pondering the question, I offered the following scenario:

It is just as likely the customer-agent meeting will take place at a local coffee house as a traditional office. The potential customer will have done some comparative shopping of products, looked at comments or recommendations your current customers or competitors have posted on the web, and will have searched the virtual fingerprint of the agent via LinkedIn, Facebook,  Google, etc.

Sitting down to a fully-personalized beverage (I get to have it exactly as I want it, all life should be that way!), the customer will be connected to the internet via a handheld device and able to confirm, refute or clarify their own info, and the inputs or comments from the agent, within moments of the need to do so. The customer may even provide a running commentary about the meeting live to friends and family—via Twitter, Foursquare or Facebook—or record it in a public forum like Yelp.

Bottom-line: the engagement will be on neutral turf; the customer will be armed with information that may or may not be your messaging; and, the customer’s take-aways from the encounter have the potential to be shared with an un-calculable audience in seconds. (more…)

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