Facebook are finally rolling out Deals across five EU countries today after an apparently successful few of months live in the US.
At a conference this morning, Facebook announced that the service will be live in the UK imminently and that a number of large chain stores like Starbucks are already on board – celebrating by giving away 30,000 cups of coffee today. That isn’t that surprising considering the geographical origin of the service but it does stand as good testament to how much more trusting UK brands are of Facebook and it’s reach than they have been of foursquare in many, many instances.
(via the awesome ReFace.Me)
However, more surprisingly, the UK branch of Mazda has already announced a 20% discount on all Mazda MX-5s and, further still, the chance to win a Mazda MX-5 special edition for five months.
The entry mechanic is predictably simple; check in at a Mazda dealership using Facebook Places and then present the 20% voucher to the dealer before purchasing or enter further personal information in order to qualify for the competition.
Obviously it is still very early days and a bit unfair to predict the response of the British consumer but we expect this will have a definite negative affect on foursquare’s [so far loyal] user-base and, depending on how quickly independent retailers have the initiative to start using Places Deals off their own back, it may also begin to eat into Groupon’s huge audience.
Facebook were very clear this morning, they have no intention of killing off Groupon, claiming a healthy working relationship to date, but that is also what they said about foursquare when they originally launched Places back in the summer.
So, whilst it is very clear as to how high street retail and eatery brands will very quickly benefit from the incentivised footfall from 20% off this or that, we’re excited to see what more premium brands do with Places Deals – how brave will they be and how quick to react?
