'Surkus' App Pays Users To Line Up Outside New Restaurants (chicagotribune.com)

A new app called Surkus allows restaurants to manufacture their ideal crowd and pay people to stand in place like extras on a movie set. The app reportedly uses "an algorithmic casting agent of sorts" to hand-pick people according to age, location, style and Facebook "likes." All of this is done to create the illusion that a restaurant is busy and worthy of your hard-earned money. Chicago Tribune reports: They may look excited, but that could also be part of the production. Acting disengaged while they idle in line could tarnish their "reputation score," an identifier that influences whether they'll be "cast" again. Nobody is forcing the participants to stay, of course, but if they leave, they won't be paid -- their movements are being tracked with geolocation. Welcome to the new world of "crowdcasting." Surkus raises new questions about the future of advertising and promotion. At a time when it has become commonplace for individuals to broadcast polished versions of their lives on social media, does Surkus give businesses a formidable tool to do the same, renting beautiful people and blending them with advertising in a way that makes reality nearly indiscernible? Or have marketers found a new tool that offers them a far more efficient way to link brands with potential customers, allowing individuals to turn themselves into living extensions of the share economy using a structured, mutually beneficial transaction? The answer depends on whom you ask.

Comments

Yeah, right

[Snotnose]

This may work in New Yawk, San Fran, or LA, where people care about getting into the "hottest" restruants and posting social media shit for assholes who care. I live in a normal town, I'll make a reservation for a special occasion. Can't get in, no problemo? I'll just try someone else.

I make a reservation then can't get in (has never happened). You'll get a 0 star rating on yelp.

Re:Really?

[DarkOx]

I don't quite get this one either. I *might* choose to approach what looks to be a long wait for a specific restaurant that I

1) already have patronized, but really like or am really in the mood for. I'll probably be annoyed there is a long line and think they are bit a silly when I find out the line is fake. I might just think better of it and move along and than they will have lost a *real* potentiality customer that day.

2) already have heard of because its famous or something or been highly recommended by a trusted source. I'll think "well I guess I gota try it any way"

Mostly thought I'd just keep on going, without a strong enough reason to put up with what looks like a longer wait time, I usually avoid a crowd. If i have a reason to put up with one It would have been a good enough reason to go anyway.

Are other people such sheep that they would actually choose a place just because its busy without any other information?

Agreed.... dumb idea

[King_TJ]

I could see this working better for a nightclub, where part of the draw is knowing you paid to get into a place that's full of lots of attractive people.

But a restaurant? The new ones that opened out by me and had lines just made me decide to hold off a few days before visiting them. (After all, most new restaurants really don't have their food preparation or service down yet, so you tend to get a less than ideal experience.)

As someone else on here pointed out too; won't people realize something's not quite right if the place isn't totally full on the inside? If I saw a long line and empty tables inside, that would tell me the restaurant is short-handed and service will be really poor. That would make me leave.

If you want to generate a buzz and a big line for the sake of photo ops and media coverage, it's a far better investment to give away free food to people. Krispy Kreme doughnut shops do that all the time when opening new locations. First day, you get a free one with each visit.