Coffee Shop Advertising Via Its Free WiFi ID

from the today's-specials... dept

Over the years, we’ve had plenty of discussions over the pros and cons of free vs. fee-based WiFi in restaurants and coffee shops, and these days, for the most part, we’re happy to see that free has won out in most cases. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to experiment, and reader Jon, alerts us to a story of a cafe in Holland, called CoffeeCompany, who is constantly renaming its WiFi SSID name with gentle reminders to buy something. Among the names being rotated around:

OrderAnotherCoffeeAlready, BuyCoffeeForCuteGirlOverThere?, HaveYouTriedCoffeeCake?, BuyAnotherCupYouCheapskate, TodaysSpecialExpresso1.60Euro and BuyaLargeLatterGetBrownieForFree

It’s a cute, and probably somewhat effective way to get the folks hanging out in the coffee shop to feel good about buying something at the shop (though, the cheapskate claim might piss off some).

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Comments on “Coffee Shop Advertising Via Its Free WiFi ID”

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17 Comments
Michael Vilain says:

Buy another cup of coffee already

The local coffee places here in Palo Alto have a SSID and 60 minute non-peak login on the receipt you get when you buy something. During peak hours when table space is nil, I think that goes down to 15 minutes. Starbucks is free if you use the AT&T WiFi. And Peet’s (the progenitor of Starbucks) doesn’t have hardly any sitting space in their shops here.

Don’t they dispense coffee with an eyedropper in Europe?

IanK says:

I don’t mind them using the SSID to advertise specials, or for messages like “BuyCoffeeForCuteGirlOverThere?”. If they’re going to call someone a cheapskate, it’s probably best to add a 😉 to the end. Sarcasm gets lost in the text easily than through verbal communication, and you just know that 1 in 10 people are not going to get the joke.

another mike says:

people don't pay attention to SSID's

i’ve probably mentioned my free wifi AP i run. the one with the trap that give incoming connections a click-through, “this is slow, insecure, and i’ll turn it off at random for my own amusement.” the one that violates the ISP’s TOS. yeah, that one.

anyway, i named it ‘notlinksys’ to go with the six, count ’em six of the twelve recently sniffable, APs named ‘linksys’. i also name it things like ‘notthedroidsyourelookingfor’, ‘whiteandnerdy’, ‘obscuregeekreferencehere’, ‘cleverssid’.

when i put on wep i had names like ‘passwordiswarchalk’ and ‘kismetfindswepkeys’. i was still getting visitors connecting through it.

it’s a holiday weekend. i should go warchalk the neighborhood again.

Silver Lining ad supported WiFi (user link) says:

Silver Lining ad supported WiFi

Silver Lining Networks offers a simple and effective way for businesses like this coffee shop to make money on their WiFi. With Silver Lining businesses have complete control on how they monetize their WiFi. They can serve contextually targeted ads or charge a small amount for access (for instance many businesses charge just $1/hour.

Learn more at http://www.silverliningnetworks.com

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