Valassis and AOL Team Up on Coupon Offers

Media and marketing services company Valassis, Livonia, Mich., has formed a strategic relationship with AOL Inc. to create a nationwide paperless digital coupon footprint that includes more than 7,500 grocery stores.

The agreement also enables the sharing of digital coupon offer content across each other's online and mobile networks. Offers will be live on AOL's Shortcuts.com, on Valassis' online properties, and across the participating retailer websites in the RedPlum Digital Network and AOL's network of web and mobile sites.

"Our goal is to provide our advertisers with a digital reach for their brand promotions like no other while providing consumers with valued content no matter where or how they seek savings," said John Lieblang, president of Valassis Digital Media. "Valassis and AOL are enhancing both the advertiser and consumer shopping and saving experience by leveraging the strength of our combined network reach and breadth of our digital offerings."

This joint effort provides advertisers with a distribution channel capable of reaching 127 million frequent shopper cardholders across the country on a weekly basis, according to the two companies. The coupons will be delivered via electronic downloads to participating retailer frequent shopper cards and loyalty program IDs. According to research conducted by Valassis and NRF’s BIGresearch, 80 percent of shoppers subscribe to grocery/drug frequent shopper programs and two out of three of these consumers have expressed an interest in saving coupons from the Internet directly to their frequent shopper cards/IDs.

The partnership will enable shoppers to browse, select, and save their preferred coupons in real time, or to download offers to their loyalty card or ID from participating retailer websites, AOL's Shortcuts.com, Valassis' web properties or a mobile device. The coupons are ready for redemption as soon as they are downloaded. At the checkout, eligible savings are automatically subtracted from the total cost at participating grocers.

Valassis' DigitalOfferExpert is the proprietary engine that manages coupon distribution across the RedPlum Network, pairing deals with tech-savvy shoppers. The Shortcuts Digital Couponing System manages content and coupon distribution across the AOL Network.

"This new, high growth channel provides simplified savings that appeal to a broad base of consumers which in turn delivers tremendous value to our consumer packaged goods (CPG) and retail partners," said Tara Trocki, GM of AOL's Shortcuts.com.

With the new partnership, Valassis now offers advertisers the ability to deliver a blended solution incorporating print and digital offerings in a campaign to reach shoppers across a variety of media platforms.