Groupon and foursquare deal makes sense

Location-based coupons are new, but in theory are as old as the hills. A prospective deal between Groupon’s ‘Now’ deals and social network foursquare makes perfect sense.
The great irony of the Digital Age is that the more technologically ‘social’ we become, the traditional ways of doing business come to the fore.
The more immersed we become in the ‘real time’ discourse of the mobile web, the more basic digital marketing becomes.
The great success stories of the social & mobile web are the daily deal platforms. In essence these are couponing services.
How basic is the concept of the coupon, the buy one get one free (BOGOF), the loyalty point? As basic and as ancient as retailing itself. Now, after messing around with urban hipsters and fine-tuning what they can do in big cities, services like Groupon and Living Social say their next big venture will be the pursuit of hyper-local ad dollars. They are going after the small guys – the millions of corner shops, delis, chippers, Chinese restaurants, hairdressers, dentists and car repair shops all over the planet. They can do what the Yellow Pages could only ever dream of, they can deliver local deals to mobile phones in real time.
There are reports that foursquare will bring the Groupon Now deals to its platform. Groupon Now deals are when business owners post deals during slow periods to drive sales immediately. A partnership with foursquare would mean an established market that Groupon users and businesses could tap into (see video below).
The buzz words of the Daily Deals market are ‘local’ and ‘targeted’. Location-based coupons – they’re new and effective but in theory as old as the hills.