Super Coups, the cooperative-mail division of coupon distributor Advo Inc., Windsor, CT, this week is launching a test with online coupon venture CoolSavings Inc., Chicago, which will provide CoolSavings with more locally based content and give Super Coups a more sophisticated Internet vehicle to offer its advertisers.
The two companies, which had been working together to develop the partnership since last fall, are offering a co-branded site that will allow CoolSavings’ registered users in the Boston market to download or print coupons from Super Coups’ local merchants and CoolSavings’ national coupon-provider base. The companies said they expect to test the project for about two months before rolling it out nationally, possibly in mid-June.
Although Super Coups currently offers thousands of coupons through the Internet at its own web site (www.supercoups.com), the alliance with CoolSavings should give Super Coups’ merchant-advertisers more targeted exposure to consumers, the companies said.
“We haven’t had the traffic that we feel is essential to give our merchants adequate visibility,” said Don McKenzie, president and chief executive of Super Coups. “We want to leverage CoolSavings’ traffic capabilities. The issue is that we didn’t have the exceptional targeting and trafficking we get as part of the CoolSavings product.”
CoolSavings, which collects demographic data on each of its registered users in order to provide targeted coupon offers and opt-in e-mail announcements, in turn will have the ability to tap into the local-market expertise of Super Coups’ national network of 80 franchise owners.
By providing a profile of each visitor who “clips” a coupon from the site, CoolSavings also permits merchants to test the responsiveness of their offers among different groups.
“It allows our merchants to design offers and promotions that are more effective, and allows them to design promotions that target the right audience,” said McKenzie.
The partnership with CoolSavings, combined with the company’s local television advertising program, also gives Super Coups’ franchisees the opportunity to offer advertisers a more integrated media package. In addition to offering direct mail, Super Coups recently began merchandising local television spots.
“This allows them to go in and work as more of a consultant to sales strategy with local merchants,” said McKenzie. “It allows them to leverage the strength of direct mail, and incorporate that with the Internet and local TV.”
