Groupon Ads Running on New York Times' OOH Screens

It’s well-known that Groupon has leveraged an affiliate program to push its daily deals as far and wide as the Internet allows. But the Chicago-based company is leaving no stone unturned, as its local offers have also appeared via The New York Times’ digital out-of-home screens in major cities since May 16.

The full-screen ads have been seen in pizza parlors, delis, coffee shops, and convenience stores. Groupon’s offers are being targeted at the zip code level in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston. An example: ClickZ News spotted a Groupon ad for Brooklyn Boulders on a screen at Giardini’s Pizzeria in Brooklyn, NY, on Thursday. Brooklyn Boulders and Giardini’s are less than one mile apart.

Viewers of the ads can input a short-code text, which, if they have a web-enabled cell phone, will bring up a Groupon web page where they can purchase a discount voucher. The ads are being distributed via the Times’ network by OOH provider RMG to the tune of 75,000 screens. The Groupon offers are in heavy rotation, appearing every 3.5 minutes, according to San Francisco-based RMG.

The company has a traditional online affiliate partnership with Groupon, even though the impressions occur offline. David Bruce, RMG’s EVP of media products, said individual retail locations average between 300 and 400 mobile purchases a month.

“It’s not a huge amount of traffic,” Bruce explained, speaking with ClickZ. “But that is generally what we see from the short-code perspective.”