Last night, at LaunchUp, I was able to learn a little about Tweetbooty — an online coupon provider. I was skeptical about the business even before hearing what they did because of all the hype around twitter these days. With a name like tweetbooty and a little bird as their mascot it’s not hard to tell that they are in some way linked with twitter. It turns out I was mistaken, and Tweetbooty is actually a very cool company that extends beyond twitter.
Tweetbooty allows advertisers to pinpoint direct demographics through tweetbooty’s online and mobile advertising services. They use services such as sms, facebook, and twitter to reach certain demographics. The service allows advertisers to focus on demographics they know work, and it provides consumers the ability to get free stuff and discounts on products they actually want. During tweetbooty’s presentation they gave away a set of Skull Candy headphones using the their service, and they seem to be giving away a Love Sac right now.
They focus on “groups” of people and that currently seems to be university students. They have a separate twitter feed for each college in the area and are able to offer discounts specifically for that area. This seems a little like direct mail marketing, but with the ability to get these discounts while your out and not have to carry coupons. The companies that advertise through tweetbooty also seem to be way cooler than your regular direct mail companies.
Tweetbooty has some lofty goals, and some big hurdles to overcome. In their presentation at LaunchUp they said they were hoping to reach a 25% adoption rate of the top 200 universities to help them reach a 100 million dollars in revenue(I think?). I know they will reach people outside the universities and some in other schools, but a 25% adoption rate in those top 200 universities is a really high goal. They used the example of facebook’s 80% adoption rate in universities, but facebook is not about coupons. Facebook has a larger social aspect than tweetbooty does, and I don’t know if they can overcome that. Also, they have to beat out all the other social applications for the attention of the users. Despire that, I do think it’s a great idea to market to college kids because they are always looking for great deals and free stuff. I guess everyone is, but college kids are suckers for it. (I’m still in college) Do those college kids really have money? Are the advertisers going to choose to advertise through tweetbooty instead of going straight to facebook or twitter and doing their own advertising? As they grow and try to reach critical mass all that could change, but I see their adoption goals as a huge hurdle for tweetbooty to overcome.
The sms service which is probably the most useful of their offered services seems to be a little difficulty to sign up. If they made the signup for sms service easier then I think they would earn a lot more followers to their service. It should be simple such as texting the sms short cut code with a join message or even just filling your number in on the website. I do understand the want the rest of this information, but often times it’s better to get less information and get the customer.
Even with these problems, I think tweetbooty is an awesome idea and company. From their demo of the advertisers control panel, it looks very simple to use their service and get the news out to the right audiences. They seem to know what they are doing, and I wish the best to them. I’ve signed up for their twitter feed and looking forward to some discounts.