Deals 3D: Deals Everywhere

There are already many types of deals and a plethora of deal providers. And all signs point to even more growth and variety.

To peer a year or two ahead, moderator Matt Booth led a discussion with four seasoned players in the deal space on Tuesday afternoon. He asked them for their predictions of the key developments in the deal space over the next couple of years. A summary of their comments:

* Charles Dyer, Director of Business Development, Advertising Publishing Solutions, Microsoft Advertising. Dyer predicted improvements in deal payment systems, better CRM solutions and better targeting.

* Nancy Law, Director, Local Advertising, NAVTEQ. She said “location and opportunity” (i.e., meeting immediate consumer needs) will take on a greater importance in the deal space.

* Terry Kukle, VP Business Development, Metroland Media (a traditional media company in Canada with some 600 sales reps). Kukle opined that having a variety of deal types will be a key to success.

* Samuel Yam, Founder and CEO, ChompOn, a white-label deal platform. Notwithstanding ChompOn’s focus on platform and technology, Yam believes there still needs to be “a level of curation” to selecting deals for distribution. (An intriguing sidebar: Yam has modeled the value of designations on Facebook. He has determined that the average value of a Facebook “like” is around $8, and the average value of a Facebook “share” is around $14. Of course, these values vary considerably by category. Also, his analysis indicates that a “share” on Facebook converts at three times the rate of a tweet, by way of comparison.)