Direct Marketing

According to a recent online study conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Offers.com, more than nine in ten (94%) Americans over the age of 18 are making purchases online, including 7% who report making online purchases more than once a week. More than one in ten say that they are making online purchases weekly (14%), and another two in five do this on a monthly basis (36%) or again at least a few times a year (37%). In contrast, only 6% of Americans over the age of 18 say that they never make online purchases.

According to the report, while the face values of print coupons distributed through Free Standing Inserts, SmartSource Coupon Machines and Consumer Magazines was higher than that of digital coupons distributed through Network and Retailer websites, the gap is narrowing.

A recent study by Valassis found that 92 percent of Hispanic consumers use coupons (vs. 90 percent of all consumers) and over 80 percent decide where to shop based on those print and digital offers.

Roots Media Inc. announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with EFTR, Inc., operator of a network of 22,000+ catering and food trucks in 18+ states, to exclusively offer advertising on their vehicles.

Consumers were offered more than $515 billion in consumer incentives through Free Standing Insert (FSI) coupons in 2015, an increase of 3.7 percent compared to the previous year, according to Kantar Media.

Traditional marketing methods continue to have a strong influence over deal-seeking supermarket shoppers.

US advertisers will collectively spend upward of $50 billion on digital advertising in 2014, according to new figures from eMarketer. This represents the fifth year in a row of torrid growth, reflecting broad economic and advertising industry trends that have driven nonstop, double-digit gains across virtually all industries since the trough of the Great Recession in 2009.

Residents of Orlando shine when it comes to saving money, as the Florida city took the number one ranking on the ‘Most Frugal U.S. Cities’ list, according to the 2013 Coupons.com Savings Index1 released by Coupons.com Incorporated. Orlando overtook Atlanta, which had held the top spot for four years running. Tampa landed the number two position, with Washington D.C., Nashville and Charlotte rounding out the top five.

Valassis announced results of its Shopper Marketing Report with data marketers can tap into to influence a specific shopper with added focus on digital, social and mobile trends; millennials; and Hispanic shoppers.

Kantar Media reports that more than 287 billion Free Standing Insert (FSI) coupons were distributed in 2013,  a 4.5 percent increase in activity  compared to 2012. This represented a distribution of $467 billion in consumer incentives, an 11.2 percent increase over the prior year. Average Face Value also increased to an all-time high of $1.63, representing a 6.4 percent increase over a year ago.

Many US consumers adopted a frugal mindset during the recession, stretching their dollars with coupons found online as well as in newspapers and magazines. Print coupons still dominate, but digital coupons have quickly gained mainstream acceptance.

  With newspaper as their number one source for coupons and deals, these promotion-sensitive millennials are getting their savings the same way as all other consumers across age groups and income levels with 51 percent indicating this print source is their first choice for savings. The top five places all respondents most often get their coupons and deals from are the newspaper; emails/coupon alerts; Internet searches; mailbox; and retail circulars. For millennials, in-store exceeds their use of retail circulars by 4 percentage points to rank fifth. 

A new GfK report, based on over 120 campaigns run by Coupons.com in 2012, shows that digital coupon users spend 42% more per year at supermarkets than the average shopper – a differential of $1,029. This reflects a 7% increase compared to 2011.

The question is not whether Ethnic Consumers that are lumped for diversity purposes into the MULTICULTURAL BUCKET offer opportunities for marketers.  We all know the answer to that question. The question is whether there is a need or a purpose for having one agency that implements all aspects of a campaign that can then be called a MULTICULTURAL approach.