One of our key demographics at the railroad museum is 30something with kids. I am writing as an individual who is 26yrs old just came back from a day of snowtubing with my wife because the snowtubing company was on groupon and had a good deal. So whenever I hear our marketing people talk about the need to reach the 30something demographic and the need to increase ridership I always say that we need to use Groupon, and Living social, as I know these outfits are very relevant to younger people looking for something new to do. Each time I say this it is always greeted by much skepticism especially by our 60something demographic. Maybe Groupon/Livingsocial hasn't caught on at that age level yet but it is one of the hottest things amongst people of my age group.

The way it works is you offer a deal, I think we should do it on the hardest to fill trains, not the prime times, then you have them sell the seat for you and give them a cut. Those who want seats during the prime time will likely visit our website and purchase tickets. I know since I have been with my wife I have been on enough random deals (glass blowing) new restaurants all of which would not have been discovered if it weren't for Groupon. At the same time we have also sometimes even looked at the times the deals were offered and just gone to the vendor's website and purchased tickets, or what ever at full price as the deals time wasn't convenient for us. The result was the vendor got the business with out having to pay the commission.

Each time the need to boost ridership comes up and I recommend groupon I am always surprised the level of skepticism, and negativity. I have heard horror stories from a few of them about the lady in NYC who offered a free cupcake coupon and didn't limit the number of offers and almost went bankrupt but I don't think that is a good reason not to try using these sites. Some how I think more 30somethings with kids are looking at those two websites today than say the state's tourism website but maybe I could be wrong. So I was wondering if other groups have been using these websites to boost ridership and if so how has it been working, is it successful? I am not sure what the commission rate they take from you is however. I realize it isn't 100% a railroad preservation related question but I do think we as a group need to be selling ourselves and staying relevant to the times.

I believe the Wilmington & Western folks had a Groupon/LivingSocial deal that they ran (I remember seeing it...or maybe it was New Hope & Ivyland), you may want to give them a shout to see if they did it and how it went...

Mike can tell you real numbers, but New Hope Valley has done well in certain circumstances with Groupon. My sense is - from a distance - that the strategy of the offer needs to be considered relative to the need to put butts in specific trains seats, unless all your trains have a lot of excess capacity.

dave

We used a local service called CertifiKid. We sold over 200 offers and have yet to see them redeemed in any landslide quantity. The good news is we got our payment up front. Groupon would not take an offer that made economic sense to us.

Wesley