Canada’s YPG bought Redflagdeals earlier this year. And given the “heat” surrounding daily deals it only makes sense that the company would jump into the segment. That’s what it appears the directory publisher is about to do:
I’m aware that other directory publishers are contemplating similar things, although they’ll either be required to partner with an existing deals provider — a la McClatchy-Groupon — or sell the deals directly themselves. The latter scenario probably requires a different sales approach than simply using the YP reps to sell daily deals as part of a larger product bundle.
What do you think?
Do you think YP reps can sell daily deals (with their “customers not clicks” ethos) beside other more traditional and online ad products? Or do you think there’s some incompatibility there?
(Saw this via Seb’s tweet.)
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As an aside, deals aggregator Yipit says there are now more than 110 companies offering daily deals in 300 cities across the US market.
July 26th, 2010 at 1:15 pm
I think it’s a different deal entirely, not only for YPG but for their commission driven sales reps as well. Additionally, I would add that YPs, in general, don’t have a strong promotion driven mentality like radio, newspapers and to a lessor extent television.
My hope is that YPG (a company I really like) not only uses the technology they acquired from Redflagdeals but also the mentality and sales capability that made Redflagdeals successful.
If they take this approach, and use solid brand equity that YPG has in the market, I definitely think they can get meaningful traction.
July 26th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
They’re also in a market that’s somewhat less competitive than the US and are in a stronger position, arguably, to make this work vs. US IYPs.
August 23rd, 2010 at 5:32 pm
[...] was revealed a few weeks earlier, but YPG and its deals site RedFlagDeals today formally announced they were going to launch a deal [...]