Image courtesy of: www.tammycamp.com and http://www.groupon.com/

While the daily-deal juggernaut Groupon continues to expand its impressive empire, some believe its business model is broken. One such critic is Tammy Camp, a US-based entrepreneur described by Forbes magazine as the “Lara Croft of the web”.

“Today, it is the fastest growing company in the world, valued at $25 Billion,” explained Tammy during her key-note address at The Next Web 2011 conference in Amsterdam. “In 5 years, it’s going to be worth half that.”

The crux of criticism directed at Groupon revolves around its service offering attracting one-time buyers rather than loyal consumers who are likely to conduct repeat business as their relationship grows with a brand.

“These business owners might gain some exposure, but they’re running the deal at a loss,” Tammy stated. “To them Groupon is a one-trick pony that offers no chance at repeat business. That means that the Groupon system is broken.”

“Broken” may be an amplified description, but the company certainly took some heat when it recently filed to go public in the US. After all, its current revenue stream looks about as healthy as Mick Jagger. The company’s revenue was $644.7 million in this year's first quarter, but it spent a truck-load to stay ahead of its competitors. The result? A $413.4 million loss last year coupled by a further $113.9 million loss in the first quarter of 2011.

Groupon is no doubt hoping to emulate LinkedIn’s triumphant IPO, and its Chief Executive Andrew Mason recently told The Wall Street Journal's D9: All Things Digital conference, that Groupon's success was "largely due to the relationships that we have with local merchants, and it is a difficult thing to replicate”.

So has the Groupon gravy train ended? Will it be usurped by Google and Facebook, both of which are dabbling in the space? Such questions remain unanswered, yet one thing is certain: Groupon’s 50-90% off deals are damn good… just grab them while you can.

Roghan

Bullseye and Sitecore celebrating Sitecore winning the 'Excellence in New Media" Award at the CeBIT awards in Sydney recently. Well done, guys!

Sydney, May 13 2010– Blackmores, Australia’s leading natural health brand, has been named the Sitecore Site of the Year. Working with Sitecore partner and digital services agency, Bullseye, Blackmores was chosen from contenders around the world. They have been recognised for creating more effective business processes and advancing their online strategies. Bullseye worked with the natural health brand to implement Sitecore CMS software and Online Marketing Suite (OMS) solutions to build a digital platform that connects more personally with its customers. The new website is personalised to each individual who joins, and is designed to inspire, inform and educate Australians to achieve better health. “We were thoroughly impressed with how Blackmores and Bullseye have built a website with Sitecore’s technology that has engaged their audiences by offering dynamic content and Enterprise 2.0 features and functionality,” said Kim Elsass, Chief Information Officer, Sitecore. “By creating such a strong and attractive community, Blackmores has become one of the top websites in Australia and New Zealand. We are proud to recognise and congratulate them.” According to Jason Davey, Managing Director at Bullseye, “Consumers have little patience for irrelevant content, and everyone’s health and fitness outlook and experience is different. Using the intuitive features of leading edge technology, we have built a website for Blackmores that offers a totally personalised experience. It’s slick, clever and designed entirely to delight each individual visitor.” Sitecore’s Site of the Year contest recognises customers who have leveraged Sitecore’s technology to develop the most outstanding websites. The Sitecore judges considered creativity, integration with rich data sources and applications, overall user experience and the ability to educate, inform and motivate an action.

Jason Davey has been recognised for outstanding participation in technical communities and sharing CMS expertise by Sitecore, the leading provider of .NET Web Content Management System (CMS) software. The MVP program recognises exceptional technical community leaders who encourage free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing their real-world Web CMS expertise. For 2009, twelve individuals from around the world were selected to be members of the program and honored with a Sitecore Most Valuable (MVP) Award. We're particularly chuffed that Jason was the only Aussie selcted to join the elite group, including: Guillaume Buat-Ménard/Aqueduct, Sebastian Winslow/Codehouse, Stefan van Dockum/Colours, Kern Herskind Hansen/Consultant, Vincent van Middendorp/Evident Interactive, Sean Kearney/Hedgehog Development, Andreas Bergström/Metamatrix, Jens Mikkelsen/Pentia, Matt Hovany/The Revere Group, Aren Cambre/Southern Methodist University and Gabriel Boys/Velir and, of course, Jason Davey/Bullseye, Congratulations Jason!

If you're heading to ad:tech this year and you're trying to work out which sessions to go to, our resident crowd favourite, Jason, will be on the 'Creative – Strategy – Data: What Should Drive Your Digital Marketing Most?' panel on March 16. Also.... we've been offered a 20% discount on conference passes to extend to our friends. Just type in ATSPC when you're signing up to redeem the discount. Hope to see you there! Sarah

By Mark Nicklin

There was a lot of hype and expectation around the American Chamber of Commerce lunch with new Telstra CEO, David Thodey, and for many it was the first time we had the opportunity to hear his perspectives first hand. There is no doubt that David has to mend many bridges with customers, shareholders, industry, partners and government, as Telstra and its Exec team have been renowned for their arrogance. David seems to bring some humility into the Exec team. My overall summary was that David skirted around the big issues, and was not keen to tackle any highly sensitive matters, but at the same time we got an insight in to his make up and passions.

Key take out points for me were:

• Thodey is very passionate about technology and its advancements as an enabler for business opportunity realisation
• Technology is NOT the panacea, but part of the solution
• Technology should be part of government policy
• Customer service is the number one focus for Telstra, and they are committed to being number 1 in customer service in 3 years' time
• Telstra has transformed from a cable business to value adding in software and applications (60% of Telstra capital now invested in software and applications)
• Telstra is on a mission to increase broadband capacity. Thodey cited examples with schools and recent deployment of 100mbps in Melbourne city
• Thodey could not discuss the NBN or Telstra's role

Overall, the presentation was an informative, centering on the technology opportunities now and in the future, and how government and business can take advantage by starting to think strategically.

Jim took a few moments to discuss the premise around Bullseye whitepaper, business@100Mbps: A View of the Firm of the Future with SkyNews journalist Richard Gonclaves on October 13. The First Thoughts edition of the whitepaper can be downloaded from the business@100Mbps microsite where visitors are also asked to contribute to the discussion blogs. Have your say about this topic that will impact us all.

The Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) has released its 2009 AIMIA Digital Services Index™ online survey report and it indicates that companies intend to increase their use of digital advertising this year. AIMIA considered this report to be a crucial update to the inaugural report that was released in November 2008, considering the current economic climate. 145 responses were gathered from a cross section of organisations and government bodies. The report's findings included:

• That most organisations intend to increase their level of investment in digital in 2009. This is particularly the case with larger organisations.
• The shift to digital is at the expense of other traditional advertising, with more than half (54%) of organisations surveyed saying they will increase the share of their total marketing spend allocated to digital in 2009.
• To achieve this, most organisations intend to increase their use of external suppliers of digital services, with only 9% of respondents intending to decrease their external spending on digital services.

The 2009 AIMIA Digital Services Index™ report is released by the AIMIA, in conjunction with Hyro Limited and IBM Australia. You can find out more about the report by visiting aimia.com.au

AIMIA are conducting a short online survey for the AIMIA Digital Services Index to get some interim insights into attitudes and intentions regarding Digital Services in 2009.

The economy has changed since the first DSI results were published late last year and AIMIA are keen to give the digital media industry as much current info about the state of the market as possible. The government also has a great interest in getting as much data on digital activity as possible in light of the recent announcement about the National Broadband Network.

As with the main DSI research, the online survey is about gathering data on broad industry digital activity (e.g. Australian media, telco, banking, finance, retail, government agencies and the like) rather than from within the digital media industry itself. Where it's appropriate they'd like to encourage us to forward details of the survey to as many relevant clients as you can and ask them to contribute. The data is all aggregated and there will be nothing to identify individual companies contributing to the survey. The more digital services clients that contribute to the survey, the more insight the entire digital media industry will have into the current market for digital services.

The survey can be completed here, it will only take a few minutes and contributors go into the draw to win a $250 Coles Myer Gift Voucher. The survey closes on April 30th with results released in late May.

Creative Review magazine has a showcase of UK Creative Circle award winners on their website. Here are the ones that stood out for us: Best Art Direction Title: Inner Child Client: Museum of Childhood Agency: AMV BBDO Best Charity Commercial Title: Break The Cycle Client: Barnardo’s Agency: BBH Best TV Commercial Title: Go On Lad Product: Hovis Client: Premier Foods Agency: Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy