

Groupon CEO: We Placed Too Much Trust in Agency for Super Bowl Ads - skbohra123
http://adage.com/article/news/groupon-ceo-relied-agency-bowl-ads/149498/

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hsmyers
Nonsense--- you placed to much trust on the idiot who okay-ed the damn
commercials in the first place. Dodge all you want, but the ad company didn't
make the decision, you did...

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alexqgb
Um, that's why Mason was apologizing here - it was his call. He was the idiot.
He knows that, and he's coming clean.

Keep in mind that an agency relationship is like any other where you're after
the (supposedly) superior understating and judgement possessed by whoever
you're hiring (e.g. doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.)

When these relationships work well, it's often because the client puts a lot
of trust in their partner. Kudos to Mason for swiftly realizing that his trust
was misplaced, that responsibility for that was his, and for responding
promptly. Also note his announcement that they'll be a lot more involved in
their brand management from here on.

In other words, it looks like this really was a hard, nasty shock that they're
taking seriously, and are responding to accordingly. That's very different
from simply canning one agency, and replacing them with another who will
continue to function in the same way as the first, which is far more common.

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noodle
"We learned that you can't rely on anyone else to control and maintain your
own brand."

doesn't sound quite like coming clean.

~~~
alexqgb
Consider that quote not from the perspective of a (briefly) outraged public,
but as a post mortem delivered to investors, who seriously want to know if
something similar is likely to happen again.

If these guys guys deflected all blame from themselves and tried to focus it
all on their partner, that would be a bad sign. But if they also blame
themselves for having selected a dicey partner, and have figured out what
errors led to that error, then I really think they're handling themselves -
and the situation - quite well.

~~~
noodle
certainly true, but they did pay a firm that was known to be edgy and envelope
pushers. when you ride that line, someone has to police it.

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forensic
I tend to suspect these "edgy" ads are really just ads for the ad agency, not
so much for the client.

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awakeasleep
The whole Tibet commercial was totally fucked from the start, on one side by
Groupon's attempt to expand into China, and on the other by the feelings of
the rest of the world. Trying to play the middle ground like they did? Crazy,
imo.

I'm surprised "Tibet" isn't a taboo word to Groupon like it is to the rest of
the international business community.

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robotkad
The TVC in question for those who have not seen it:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFT2yjk0A>

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ashearer
I thought Andrew Mason had said essentially the same thing in gentler terms
within days of the Super Bowl, when he apologized for the ad and said that
even though it was created by a professional agency, he shouldn't have
approved it.

The famous miscalculation in the ad was that it was too easy to misinterpret
as making light of Tibet rather than of Groupon, but another thing that felt
wrong was that the humor didn't quite match Groupon's voice. It was an
outsider trying to speak in it, and that rarely works out well.

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teyc
Ad agencies overemphasize creativity because their jobs depend on them
believing that it is important. If Groupon had a direct marketing background
it would have been clear that this ad needs to be tested before unleashing it.
I wonder how many signups they got from the ads?

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Skywing
I enjoyed the ads and thought they were rather clever.

~~~
plinkplonk
"I enjoyed the ads and thought they were rather clever."

Would you still have enjoyed them if they riffed off (say) the 9/11 attacks
[1] in an attempt to be "edgy"?

Imagine ...

"The Twin Towers were destroyed, five planes blown up or crashed with all on
board, 3000 Americans died ... but New Yorkers still make the best burgers..."

Would that be equally "clever and enjoyable" ? Or would you be outraged?

[1] I assume you are American. Feel free to replace with any atrocity you have
a resonance with. And fwiw I believe "edginess" is a poor excuse no matter
which specific incident of innocents being killed is used as background for
the "edge"

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bkudria
Gilt Groupe did a nice reprise of the whole spectacle:
<http://ben.kudria.net/post/3554995120/daily-coupon-deals>

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sunchild
Groupon CEO: You shouldn't trust my contractors or my instincts, because I
don't.

