10 best practices

for digital coupon promotions

Experiencing strong growth the number of people using digital
coupons rose 58% from 2010-2014 (to over 61 million consumers).*
This points to an opportunity and mandate for marketers. You need a strategy
that combines print and digital coupons. Fact is: 95% of digital coupon users
seek coupons from traditional print and in-store as well.
In particular, digital offers help manufacturers engage millennials and gen X
households (18 - 44 year olds) and expand geographic reach to those who may
not be receiving the cooperative free standing insert (FSI), which is delivered via
newspaper and mail. Take note:

Millennials Coupon Redemption**

54% cut 44% print 24% scan 23% download

coupons from them out from them on mobile coupons to frequent
advertising inserts a website device at checkout shopper cards

How should you distribute, integrate and design secure digital offers to reach
and activate more consumers, especially younger, affluent consumers?

Learn how and make the most of Valassis delivery options: Clip2Card (C2C)
and Print@Home. These best practices are designed to help drive success for
your digital coupon promotions.

Sources:
*
Scarborough Multi-Market 2014 Release
**
Prosper Insights & Analytics MBI Survey, Jan 2014
 STRATEGY TIP #1:
Keep offers simple
Promoting multiple products within a single digital offer can create consumer
and coupon settlement confusion. There is limited space both on the coupon
and within the barcode to showcase the featured product(s), so to maximize
consumer engagement consider creating multiple offers for your promotion if
multiple products are involved.

OFFER 1 OFFER 2 OFFER 3

on any ONE (1) Savvy on any ONE (1) Savvy on any ONE (1) Savvy
Advertiser Brand Product Advertiser Brand Product Advertiser Brand Product

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 STRATEGY TIP #2:
Consider using unique offer values
Rather than creating promotions for print and digital using the same offer
value, consider a different digital offer value that complements your print offer
to incorporate multi-channel testing. In general, offer codes/barcodes for
digital must always be unique and not the same as a print promotion.

OFFER 2
on any TWO (2) Savvy
Advertiser Brand Products

OFFER 1
on any ONE (1)
Savvy Advertiser
Brand Product

Print promotion Digital promotion

Offer 1 example: Offer 2 example:
Save $1 on any ONE Save $2 on any TWO
(1) Savvy Advertiser (2) Savvy Advertiser
product products

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 STRATEGY TIP #3:
Avoid high value and free offers
Coupons for free products or for high values ($5 or more) are not
recommended for Print@Home distribution. If a campaign includes these
kinds of promotions, alternative distribution methods that offer additional
fraud controls should be considered. See promotion security for more
information, page 11. Note: Complex offers are currently not supported
for C2C promotions (i.e. Buy X, Get Y, Free or BOGO)

High value
and free offers:
Additional fraud controls
are required

FREE OFFER Not recommended:

on any ONE (1) Savvy - Free products
Advertiser Brand Product - Values over $5

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 TIMING TIP #4:
Set expiration dates carefully
To motivate timely consumer activation consider using an expiration date
that is limited to 21-30 days for your online coupon. Also, avoid hard-coding
an expiration date into the barcode. Doing so will cause extra work and
additional set up fees if you want to extend the promotion.

Consumer activation

21 days 30 days

Barcodes: OFFER
Avoid hard-codingon any ONE (1) Savvy
expiration datesAdvertiser Brand Product

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 TIMING TIP #5:
Consider social sharing
Viral sharing functionality that enables consumers to share links to
digital coupons via email, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are great for
branding and consumer engagement, but need to be planned for. Social
sharing buttons are available on redplum.com and across Valassis coupon
galleries and landing pages.

OFFER
on any ONE (1) Savvy
Advertiser Brand Product

DIGITAL SOCIAL
40%

71%START
30%

SEARCH

2K12 2K13
Consumers who look online for a coupon +10% UP FROM 2K12
after hearing about it on social media*
More and more consumers share and trade
coupons on social media websites*

Source: *2K14 Valassis Shopper Marketing Report

(Base: Searches the Internet for coupons on food, over-the-counter
medications, paper products and health & beauty care products)

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 TIMING TIP #6:
Promote your shopper marketing programs
Take advantage of opportunities to integrate retailer co-branding in your
campaign and promote new product introductions in key retailer markets.
Additionally, include specific retailer Clip2Card opportunities to ensure
youre driving brand sales at key retailers.

OFFER
on any ONE (1) Savvy
Advertiser Brand Product

DESIGN TIP #7:

Leverage your space
To make a great first impression, use only one product image rather
than multiple that may be confusing or too busy for the eye when
viewed online.

One large product

Multiple products makes the offer stand
view much smaller out and is very clear
due to size restraints;
making the offer OFFER 1 OFFER 2
confusing on any ONE (1) Savvy on any ONE (1) Savvy
Advertiser Brand Product Advertiser Brand Product

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 DESIGN TIP #8:
Reinforce branding
Better brand recognition will inspire more clips as well as sharing. Brand
your Print@Home coupon with a retailer or brand logo within the additional
branding area, beneath the main product image on the coupon template.
All media channels should support each other and collectively build greater
brand awareness in an integrated fashion. 90% of advertisers believe
consistency across their brands engagement points has an effect
on customer loyalty. 92% say that consistency has an impact on
consumers tendency to spend.*

90%
say brand consistency
92%
say brand consistency
effects customer loyalty impacts consumer
spend

Source: *Infosys Rethinking Retail, 2014

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 DISTRIBUTION TIP #9:
Select your desired level of targeting
National: Distribute across Valassis entire digital coupon network.
Recommended selection to maximize exposure and support retailer
relationships. Note: retailers will not accept offers when they dont carry
the product on their shelves.

Print@Home distribution Clip2Card distribution

1,700+ deal & lifestyle sites 17,600+ retailer locations

50MM+ shopper reach 145MM+ shopper reach
14.9% average redemption rate** 15MM+ mobile user reach
8.3% average redemption rate**

Geo-targeted: Should only be considered for Print@Home offers. Secure

printable coupons can be distributed surrounding store locations via ZIP
Code targeting to support shopper marketing programs or to reach high
penetration areas for your consumer audience.

Retailer specific: Distribute Clip2Card offers via specific retailer websites

participating in our retailer network.

National Geo-targeted Retailer specific

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 DISTRIBUTION TIP #10:
Integrate print & digital offers effectively
Print integration: Consider running a FSI or other print campaign in
combination with digital to give your promotion a mass-market splash.
Watch both your print and digital campaigns drive overall engagement
and response. Based on a case study, we found that only 3% of
households redeemed both the digital and FSI coupon, indicating
incremental reach.*
Coupon Redeemer Overlap

DIGITAL FSI
1,095 13,328

61%
incremental digital
redemptions
BOTH
MEDIA

Depending on your campaign objectives, test and learn whether it is better

to run print and digital together during the same timeframe, digital before
print, or print before digital.

Events: Create and expand print promotional events online utilizing custom
landing pages.

Source: *Valassis Frequent Shopper Card Studies

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 PROCEED WITH CONFIDENCE
In 2013, digital coupon media (print-at-home, download-to-card, mobile,
and social) continued to experience double-digit growth. While digital formats
accounted for less than 1% of all coupons distributed, they delivered slightly more
than 10% of the market redemption volume due to the consumer engagement that
occurs when marketers reach and activate purchases with digital coupons.

2014 Annual NCH Coupon Facts

Valassis promotion security

The Internet opens up great marketing opportunities. However, it is a channel
that must be effectively managed in order to limit your promotional liability.
Valassis technology uses distribution control to prevent fraud, over-delivery
and over-redemption. Without these control measures, you may find the viral
nature of the Internet to be very costly.

Valassis Digital Offers security features:

Global / offer clip limit
Device clip limit (1 for C2C and typically 2+ for Print@Home)
Crisp barcodes (ideally GS1)
Expiration date
Clear purchase requirements
Clear product / brand images
Watermarks behind savings value on Print@Home coupons
Complete retailer instructions

Additional measures provided by Valassis:
Offer registered with clearinghouse with accurate total clip limit
Safeguards to prevent usage of virtual printers / machines on
Print@Home coupons
Lock-down functionality options to limit access to a coupon to
a defined audience
Unique ID / serial numbers on Print@Home coupons
24/7/365 real-time system activity monitoring

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