An Exclusive Interview with the Actor-Activist Some celebrities create clothing lines. Others sponsor colognes. Greg Grunberg has created an eco-friendly iPhone app.
Greg, who plays the mind-reading cop Matt Parkman on Heroes, has started a mobile couponing application called Yowza!!. He took time out of his day to chat with Green & Save about his current projects and future plans.Quite simply, Yowza!! is replacing the printed coupon. Although many retailers jumpstart ad campaigns by creating paper advertisements, coupons, and flyers, Yowza!! provides a more targeted, effective way to reach consumers—without all the paper waste. Instead of spreading the word through cardboard signs or window decals, Yowza!!’s first approach is to reach consumers through emails, texts, and social media outlets.
Yowza!! uses GPS technology to find retail locations within a certain mile radius—stores are listed with locations, contact information, and three money-saving offers. To access the deals, users either show a coupon code to the cashier or pull up a scannable barcode directly on their phone screens. Retailers are no longer at the mercy of paper advertisements floating around with outdated information because Yowza!! enables them to make changes and distribute new deals within minutes.
As altruistic as it may be to help both the environment and people’s wallets, the business plan makes sense. The product is free on the user’s end, whereas retailers pay to feature their special deals.
What, you ask, would inspire Greg to create this?
The idea began one day when he and his family went to Bed Bath & Beyond but left their coupon at home. Greg immediately started brainstorming for ways to change the whole system. “My character on Felicity [an entrepreneur who invents items ranging from edible marzipan boxers to a sleep mask/alarm clock combination] was kind of written for me,” Greg laughed, “and it was basically me. I’ve always been business-minded, and my father’s always had different businesses. I always try and come up with a new idea, the next big thing, that’s just how I’m built, how I’m wired… This is gonna be a global company. There’s nothing that’s gonna stop us from going all over the world, and it’s exciting!”
A self-proclaimed control freak, Greg is the sort of person who has trouble sitting by when there’s something to be done. “People look at what I’m doing, and they’re like, ‘When does that guy have a moment to sleep? How does he take his kids to school?’”
For the record, he does, in fact, take his kids to school.
One of his key aims is to convey his environmental consciousness to his children. “I’ve been paid over the years by different companies to do different things,” Greg said. “I don’t do it unless I’m passionate about it.” He points to a series of commercials for the Honda Insight Hybrid. “That was something that I could easily talk about,” he remembered. “We have solar panels on the roof and we recycle. And, you know, we watch our gas consumption and our carbon footprint… We’re trying to teach our kids.”
Greg’s message is one of empowerment. Whether that means pursuing environmental goals, starting a business, or supporting a meaningful cause, his message to his children and others is, “Just do one thing.”
When his oldest son Jake started suffering from epileptic seizures six years ago, Greg jumped to action by working with the National Epilepsy Foundation. “I have the ability to do a major, major thing and affect the whole world, really, by creating talkaboutit.org [an epilepsy awareness campaign],” he said. He also started a rock band called Band from TV to raise money for charity. Band members include Hugh Laurie and Jesse Spencer from House, Teri Hatcher and James Denton from Desperate Housewives, Bob Guiney from The Bachelor, and Heroes costar Adrian Pasdar. The band donates all proceeds to various charities and they have raised over $2 million for charities ranging from the Epilepsy Foundation to the Conservation Fund over the past three years.
From the aptly-named Band from TV to Yowza!!, the success of these endeavors hinges upon Greg’s celebrity, and he’s not ashamed to admit it. “Yowza!! is absolutely a bulletproof, incredibly intuitive, easy-to-use app for the consumer and also for the retailer, but it’s also got a celebrity attached…Across the board I’ve used my celebrity, and I’m proud to do it because I’m passionate about it.” He has accessed a huge audience via Twitter alone. He recalls his wife laughing at him, “Why do you care to tell people that you’re eating pasta right now?” Now, however, nearly a million people follow him personally, not to mention those following Yowza!! on Twitter.
How does he balance his never-ending projects? “I’m just kind of saying yes to everything and seeing how the chips fall. There are times when I… can’t go to a certain event, I can’t do certain things… Heroes obviously comes first, I have to shoot when the schedule comes up, but I just try and make it work. I have two great partners with the business, and I have the greatest partner in the world at home… But, you know, it’s just like anything else… You take it day by day.”
In the end, I couldn’t help but ask: Can we expect to see Matt Parkman shopping with canvas bags or being green in other subtle ways?
“You know what, I actually never even thought of mentioning that to the producers! I’m gonna do that, I’ll definitely say, why don’t we show that? It doesn’t have to be a story point, but no, that’s a really good idea… Saving the world and saving the world!” -greenandsave
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