CHICAGO–Consumers who use Coupons Inc.’s Web site to download offers will be able to view video coupons starting next month.
Coupons president/chief operating officer Jeffrey Weitzman said yesterday that marketers will be able to allow their customers to view a 15- or 30-second video advertisement on Coupons’ Digital FSI distribution platform and receive a cents-off coupon for the product once it’s completed.
Weitzman would not name the company launching the video coupon.
The Mountain View, CA-based company offers couponing, customer acquisition and e-mail marketing services. A network of hundreds of consumer Web sites uses its services, as well as consumer packaged goods and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Clients and licensees include Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, Kimberly-Clark, Masterfoods, Pfizer, Wyeth, Valassis and News Corp.'s News America Marketing.
“We see the merging of rich media with couponing to be a trend,” said Weitzman, who is speaking at this week’s Summer 2005 National Center for Database Marketing Conference about how couponing can be used as a database marketing tool. “It offers a powerful branding tool with the proven effectiveness of coupons.”
A key factor driving the trend is broadband, he said, with 50 percent of households having access to a form of broadband communication.
The company’s CouponBar, a toolbar installed into Web browsers that features an updated list of available offers, is proving to be popular with clients, Weitzman said. That service launched last year. He also said more companies are increasing their distribution budgets with Coupons.
“In 2006, for many of our biggest clients, 10 percent of their total coupon budget is going toward our Digital FSI platform,” he said.
The reason for this is a combination of things: the increase in households online; the decrease in Sunday newspaper circulation where traditional paper-based coupons appear; and the fact that online couponing allows a client to track whether a coupon was downloaded and redeemed.
