EXPERIENCE

HBR.ORG

Case Study
A theme park operator considers whether the boost in ticket sales is worth the trouble. by Marco Bertini, Luc Wathieu, Betsy Page Sigman, and Michael I. Norton

The Experts

Gideon Lask is the founder of BuyaPowa, a UK-based social commerce business.

Do Social Deal Sites Really Work?
T
he sales reps from DailyDilly had just finished their rollicking video presentation, and the laughter in the meeting room was starting to subside. Ruth Davison, the marketing director of Flanagan Theme Parks, was still smiling when she finally spoke. “I’m thoroughly impressed,” she said. “This would give us the marketing capabilities we’ve always wanted.” Will Eastman, Flanagan’s operations director, was beaming. He had suggested doing the promotion with DailyDilly, a fast-growing Australian social-couponing company similar to Groupon and LivingSocial. “Then I think we’re ready to make a decision,” he said. Everyone looked at Allie James, a consultant decades younger than Will and Ruth. Allie had been working with Flanagan for just over a month. She knew she had to kill the DailyDilly initiative but was reluctant to do it with the reps present. “Let’s discuss this off-line,” she said. Will slapped the table. “Come on,” he demanded. “We’re here now.” The DailyDilly reps became wide-eyed. Allie took a deep breath. If Will was going to push her, she’d be blunt. “No, then,” Allie said. “It’s not on.” Will pushed his chair back and walked out of the room. The reps started to review their presentation, but Allie stopped them with a wave of her hand. Ruth, no longer smiling, told them all she was sorry and stood up to escort everyone out. Allie knew she had just made some enemies. Half an hour later, Ruth stopped her in the corridor. “So you’re still not convinced?” “Roddy asked me to weigh in on DailyDilly for a reason,” Allie said. Roddy