Groupon | Marketing Designer
Clicky the Clickable Value-Wheel visual design
Groupon is the local e-commerce marketplace where consumers go to buy services and experiences that make life more interesting. I started at Groupon in 2010, the week they became the fastest startup to reach a valuation of $1B.
As a marketing designer on Groupon’s humor team, I was approached by product, marketing, and editorial leadership to design a unique virtual spin-and-win wheel that had the potential to go viral. Thus Clicky the Clickable Value-Wheel was born. My team also collaborated on a campaign that included engaging social messaging, a press release, and a behind-the-scenes video to expand Clicky’s ‘appeal.’
The face
I was emailed a branded vector wheel by Groupon’s Editor-in-Chief and told to, “make it sad, with world-weary eyes.” 10 minutes later, Groupon’s Humor Manager dropped a sketch on my desk, and the creative brief was complete.
To increase our chances of going viral, Clicky was designed to resonate with Groupon’s young, active, and creative audience. In both design and implementation, Clicky was intended to be shareable and emotionally engaging. Our bet was that a pensive stare with glassy eyes and an upside down mouth would do the trick.
Much of Groupon’s early copywriting and marketing materials featured absurd, vivid, and surreal descriptions of otherwise fairly common experiences. Clicky was no different.
Gamification
To spin, users had to first sign in to their Facebook account through the Clicky landing page. If it was a losing spin, mere participation would grant users access to exclusive offers, and the 24-hour clock would reset on when Clicky could be spun again.
However, the product was designed to foster continued engagement in a couple ways. Losing users were presented with the option to earn more spins if they shared Clicky on their Facebook page. Additionally, because of the Facebook integration, users could spin Clicky to win savings on a friends’ behalf — and perhaps that friend would be willing to return the favor.
Press release
Clicky’s press release was written in Groupon’s characteristic tongue-in-cheek style. The honest descriptions of the game’s programming and marketing intentions poked fun at the ‘world-changing’ ambitions of startup peers at the time, while lending sincere and unexpected transparency to the product.
"We designed the wheel to spin in a way that appears random — like you could potentially win on any given spin — but it's not actually random, it's programmatically predestined to ‘win’ 1 out of 1,000 times. As with many online computer games, the win ratio was determined to ensure that the lifetime value of the new customers attracted to Groupon by Clicky the Clickable Value-Wheel will be greater than the total cost of the program, thus making the program a practical and sustainable investment for Groupon.”
The story behind Clicky video
A promotional video offered a spoof behind-the-scenes look at the making of Clicky. This video was featured on Clicky’s landing page and promoted on social media. The deadpan tone led many viewers to speculate in social comments and Reddit threads whether it was ‘real,’ and, if so, why Groupon would fund such an absurd imagination team and their ‘imagination vacations.’
I created several unique assets for the video, including sketches and wireframes of Clicky, and make a cameo, beginning at 1:51, as one of the teenage wizards not content with having the previous generation’s win-wheel.
Clicky goes viral
Clicky’s reception exceeded our expectations. Major media outlets, including Time, Mashable, Business Insider, TechCrunch, and CNN covered the release and editorialized about Clicky’s uncommon visage. Now, over 12 years since Clicky’s release, a hefty virtual paper trail still exists.
Clicky premiered at an inflection point for Groupon, as they were transitioning from an exciting pre-IPO unicorn, to a divisive post-IPO fledgling. In the spirit of Groupon’s early marketing successes, such as Grouponicus and Grouspawn, Clicky the Clickable Value-Wheel may be the final campaign true to the original culture and vision that initially propelled the company to the fastest $1B valuation in startup history.