GM Will Use OnStar To Zap Coupons Into Your Car

(DebMomOf3)

OnStar is General Motors’ in-car information service that does everything for you from call for help when it detects an accident to offering the kind of information and directions that most people now get from our smartphones. Now GM has a new offering to tempt new GM owners to subscribe to OnStar: special location-based coupons beamed right to their vehicles.

Wait…doesn’t that sound more like a marketing effort than an OnStar perk? Well, OnStar already lets drivers know about active recalls for their vehicles, so coffee coupons are almost as useful. The company has signed early deals for the service with Dunkin’ Donuts and, more importantly, Priceline, which allows the user to make reservations directly using the OnStar system.

Dunkin’ Donuts, which will offer coupons to customers who are already headed to a Dunkin’ Donuts, having selected it in the car’s navigation system. We can’t think of a more exciting and targeted way to connect with our guests than when they are in their vehicles looking for a Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant,” a Dunkin’ Donuts executive is quoted saying in GM’s announcement. “We’ll bring value to GM drivers while driving those consumers to our stores with instant incentives.” Weren’t those customers already driving to a Dunkin’ Donuts store?

It’s the Priceline partnership that’s the most interesting, since it’s designed to get the business of traveling OnStar users who are looking for a hotel. Priceline says that customers making same-day reservations from their cars while driving is a growing segment of their business.

GM will demonstrate the service at CES in Vegas later this week, and the service will roll out to users in real life early this year.

With GM’s AtYourService, cars are now rolling billboards [The Verge]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist