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- Future Tense becomes Marketplace Tech Report
09/17/10 06:12 PM
Hi everyone. John Moe here. Starting Monday, September 20th, Future Tense will be going by the (more...) - Google and competition
09/17/10 02:40 PM
On Thursday, a House subcommittee heard testimony about Google and the issues of competition and (more...) - Bronado is the new Double Rainbow
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There was some heavy weather in Brooklyn yesterday. A tornado? A funnel cloud? Regardless, these (more...) - Best Buy CEO: iPads are murdering laptops
09/17/10 12:02 PM
Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal as the holiday shopping season approaches. People (more...) - New marketing: getting it right, getting it wrong
09/17/10 11:16 AM
Right: McDonald’s increased foot traffic in its stores by 33% in one day by using FourSquare. (more...) - CROWS USE TOOLS, EAT HEALTH FOOD
09/17/10 11:09 AM
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That’s the dollar estimate in the first 24 hours in the US and Europe. That’s compared to 170 (more...) - Oakley to release 3D eyewear
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If 3D is going to take over our lives, at least we don’t have to look like total dorkwads in the (more...) - Internet Explorer 9 beta launches
09/15/10 05:49 PM
I think we need a new story category on this blog: Geek Chow. Stories that probably don’t (more...) - Google to take baby steps toward social networking
09/15/10 05:49 PM
We’ve been waiting for the alleged “Google Me” project to surface for a while (more...) - What all the hipster cyborgs are wearing this year
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09/15/10 11:12 AM
Google has fired engineer David Barksdale for accessing private information from users’ Google (more...) - Walmart gets into wireless business
09/14/10 05:34 PM
Walmart will begin offering their own branded wireless service (partnered through T-Mobile) (more...) - Weezer tries to go viral by lending themselves to people who have
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The rock band Weezer has a new album out and they’re approaching promotion of it in a kind of (more...)
New marketing: getting it right, getting it wrong
by John Moe // Posted: 09/17/10 11:16 AM
Right:
McDonald’s increased foot traffic in its stores by 33% in one day by using FourSquare. This according to the company’s head of social media Rick Wion, talking at a conference yesterday. It was a pretty simple trick, really. They placed 100 gift cards for $5 or $10 on FourSquare as check in bait. So if you checked in at McDonald’s, you have a chance to eat for free. And if you don’t win the gift card, hey, might as well grab something to eat. Check in McNuggets! You were also eligible for the cards if you followed/fanned the company on social media sites, which 600,000 people did. Total cost of the operation? $1000. Wion said that several people in the company’s marketing department had never heard of FourSquare. They have now.
Update: Read Write Web says that, contrary to the Mashable report linked to above, it was a 33% increase in FourSquare check ins, not in feet at the restaurants.
Wrong:
But then there’s the case of Posie’s Café in Portland, Oregon. The proprietor, Jessie Burke, wanted to drive a little traffic to her place by using a Groupon discount. She offered a $13 credit for $6, intending to keep the $6. But Groupon wanted a big cut, 50%, so she was left with the $3, which didn’t allow her to break even. The Groupon was a hit but that just made things worse as she would lose money on each sale until she was $8000 in the hole, unable to make payroll or rent, and dipping into personal savings.
Over the six months that the Groupon is valid, we met many, many wonderful new customers, and were so happy to have them join the Posies family. At the same time we met many, many terrible Groupon customers… customers that didn’t follow the Groupon rules and used multiple Groupons for single transactions, and argued with you about it with disgusted looks on their faces or who tipped based on what they owed.
Most of the customers never came back once they had their discount.
PLEASE NOTE: I am not saying that the success of the McDonald’s campaign is good for society. I’m merely saying that in terms of people accomplishing a goal in a given area, in this case marketing, they were very successful.
today's show
What will we do with all this "white space"?
09/26/10 11:15 AM
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ITUNESThere’s a vote coming up this week in Washington that will have a big impact on how you use the internet, what’s available to you, how much faster you’ll be able to get things online. On Thursday, the FCC is expected to open up unused parts of the broadcast spectrum, a lot of people call it “white space”. This is space that was positioned to be something of a buffer between television stations but such padding is proving less essential since the conversion to digital TV.
On today’s show, we talk to Glenn Fleishman from Wi-Fi Networking News and The Economist about how the spectrum works and what kind of new space we’re talking about. We also check in with Tim Wu from Columbia Law School about the companies that will look to use the space and what it all might mean for you and me as internet consumers.
Previous Episodes
- Can social networks help prevent the flu?
09/20/10 02:43 AM - The Wikipedia entry on the Iraq War in 12 handy bound volumes
09/17/10 01:02 AM - Free public domain classical music on the way
09/16/10 06:00 AM - Microsoft and political repression in Russia
09/15/10 06:00 AM
