THE GROUPON CHAMPION: JOE CASSITY, ALARMS, ETC
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There are more than 15 billion reasons why on- line daily deals portal Groupon is a big deal. The reasons are dollars, as in the dollar value of the market capitalization reached by the Chicago-based firm once it went public several months ago. As far as 12-volt industry goes, however, Groupon is the new kid on the block. While most retailers are still unsure whether online deals make sense for them, at least one has taken advantage of the platform. Mobile Electronics checked in with Joe Cassity, sales and operations manager at Alarms, ETC in Florida, to discuss the topic.
Q: You’ve described the use of Groupon as Living
Social.com
advertising boom during the next five years. Economic chal- lenges notwithstanding, geo-targeted social media projects alone fetched $400 million in 2010 revenues alone, and that figure will climb to $2.3 billion in 2015 — a whopping 33 per- cent increase, according to Virginia-based research firm BIA/ Kelsey. Overall, U.S. social media ad revenues are expected to quadruple from $2.1 billion in 2010 to $8.3 billion in 2015. BIA/Kelsey bases its forecast on anticipation that small busi- nesses will indeed adapt to online advertising. The success of the much-ballyhooed Groupon IPO is lending credence to that forecast, but Groupon is just the tip of the iceberg. Firms such as Yowza!! are actively seeking partnerships with merchants to go after mobile consumers. So what’s the bottom line? “We expect social local ad spend-
ing to steadily increase through 2015, especially as smaller businesses learn how to leverage targeting features to opti- mize results,” said Jed Williams, analyst and program director at BIA/Kelsey’s Social Local Media practice.
a strategic promotion as part of your overall sales goals. How long have you been doing this? A: We’ve done a lot of Internet advertising over the years and Groupon seems to be the one service that yields the most instant return results.
Q: How did you first find out about Groupon,
and why did you choose it over other daily deal services? A: We first found out about Groupon from one of our sales reps, out of a casual conversation. He was telling us about this website that his wife fre- quents all the time and that he has been using to get some good deals for local merchants. He told us we should look into it. I looked into Groupon, LivingSocial and a couple of other competitors. The general consensus was that they do not handle businesses within our industry.
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