When I first saw Groupon coming up, it reminded me of a program I implemented at a Clear Channel Radio radio market.<p>Clear Channel Radio corporate was pushing this "weekly deals" idea to push online ad revenue. The whole idea was remarkably similar to Groupon and this article.<p>Our sales team would make deals with clients to provide something like 100 $50 gift certificates. The group of radio stations would then advertise and promote the deal using a combination of promotional and advertising airtime on the stations for an entire week until the deal was "on" at a certain day and time. When the deal was "on" station listeners could buy the $50 gift certificates for $25.<p>We had some spas, some restaurants, etc. It never ended up working out all that well as the businesses realized they were loosing money as they were buying a very short advertising campaign that would have limited reach and impact.<p>The idea of Groupon isn't new. They just had the genius idea of bringing it all online and with massive reach.