Groupon, the rapidly-growing, Chicago-based shopping website, has retained Euro RSCG/Chicago as a strategic counsel. The agency will support Groupon with customer relationship marketing strategies, among other services. A Euro spokesman said the shop's relationship with Groupon is not that of an agency of record. Groupon has been much in the news of late, having been a rumored takeover target by Google. But that deal appears to have been rejected by Groupon, at least for now. Groupon currently has 35 million subscribers in 31 countries.

The addition of Groupon to its client roster is a bit of good news for Euro RSCG, which has been rocked in recent months by a couple of key client defections on its consumer advertising side, as well as a shakeup in its creative department. Chief creative officer Steffan Postaer was moved upstairs to the post of chairman, and Jason Peterson arrived last week as new chief creative officer. But Peterson is not expected to have much contact with the Groupon business, which will be more of a below-the-line effort.

"We are pleased to work with Euro RSCG on our customer marketing efforts," said John Becvar, director of marketing at Groupon. "We know their experience in this space will prove beneficial to us as we test different programs with our growing base of Groupon subscribers, Becvar added.