Valassis, the UK’s largest coupon and voucher services provider, has launched Cashback & Rewards, a new multi-channel promotional solution that facilitates direct payment between the brand and the promotion’s beneficiary, removing reliance on third parties to fulfil the promotion.

Valassis says cashback has significant and broad-reaching promotional applications – research has found that nearly 20% of shoppers made a purchase or spent more than planned because of a cashback offer. Cashback & Rewards can be implemented for any number of target audiences – shoppers, merchants or even staff, as an employee benefit – the company adds.

The Cashback & Rewards mechanic has been designed to be simple for the shopper, the company says. Once they have bought a product, the shopper inputs their details online along with a picture of the receipt and is then sent a cashback or reward payment.  Payment can be delivered via a number of methods – cash, PayPal, cheque or coupon. Rewards can also be product samples or entry into a prize draw.  This direct fulfilment allows brands to reinforce messages, which often is not possible when fulfilled via a third party.

Valassis has worked with brands across Europe to deliver Cashback & Rewards for products in the pharmaceutical sector, with cashback given to both merchants and shoppers. The service is now being made available in the UK.

Charles D’Oyly, Valassis’ Managing Director, observes: “Our new Cashback & Rewards solution means that brands can deliver benefits directly to intended beneficiaries and without involving point of sale.  It taps into existing interest among consumers for cash back and represents a flexible and compelling promotional tool to engage shoppers via an easy and seamless customer experience.”

Valassis Limited is the UK’s largest coupon and voucher services provider, performing crucial data management and financial clearing services. Responsible for handling most of the UK’s coupons and vouchers, Valassis Limited is uniquely positioned to deliver insights on UK consumer promotions and is regularly quoted as an expert in the media. Valassis is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harland Clarke Holdings, a US provider of payment solutions, multi-channel marketing campaigns, and secure data-driven lead generation and critical communications.  In addition, Harland Clarke provides promotional products, call centers, and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) solutions.

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Cult Japanese confectionary brand Hi-CHEW has launched in the UK, backed with a social media promotion which allows London-based consumers to claim a free sample pack.

The promotion was put together by Hi-CHEW’s UK marketing agency, tbk, with the digital vouchers being delivered by i-movo.

The social media campaign launched at the beginning of March, with thousands of consumers clicking through to the i-movo service to request the voucher. All of the initially available vouchers were claimed within 24 hours; Hi-CHEW now plans to extend the online campaign shortly, and will also be running a series of experiential campaigns in the Greater London area.

Targeted advertising on social media sites has been driving relevant consumers through to a promotional site where they can claim their vouchers, which are sent to their mobile phones, as well as find their nearest participating retailer. Consumers can then redeem their vouchers at participating stores – the initial campaign ran with around 700 convenience stores in the Greater London area.

Hi-CHEW is a chewable soft candy, described as a cross between chewing gum and sweets like Starburst, which has been sold in Japan for decades. Made by Japanese company Morinaga & Co, the brand was launched in the US in 2008, and is also available in various Asian countries.

tbk is an award-winning independent creative marketing agency that also includes Carlsberg, Pringles, Lucozade, Krispy Kreme, Boots and Wickes amongst its clients.

i-movo is one of the largest Secure Digital Voucher networks in the world, advising agencies and brands on initial creative concept, planning and execution, and post-campaign analysis, as well as providing systems and skills to minimise the risk and maximise the return on investment. It works with over 60,000 participating retailers, has delivered over 300 successful campaigns and has processed over 10 million vouchers worth over £100 million.

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Easy-to-digest milk brand a2 Milk has just run a digitally-powered “Try Me Free” campaign to increase visibility in store at the point of purchase and drive trial.

a2 Milk is a pure cow’s milk that’s naturally free-from the A1 protein found in regular cows’ milk, which some people have challenges digesting. a2 Milk hand-select cows that naturally produce only the easy to digest A2 protein so that many people can enjoy the benefits of dairy without stomach problems.

To increase awareness of the brand and the promotion, over 200,000 bottles were promoted using a “Try Me Free” neck collar. On purchasing the promotional product in-store, consumers opened the neck collar and were prompted to visit www.trya2milk.co.uk where they could claim their free product.

The promotion and the supporting website were created by Activate by Shopmium through a completely digital redemption process. Consumers registered on the site, provided feedback on their experience with the product, uploaded a picture of their receipt, entered either their PayPal or Bank Account details and then received their cashback.

The campaign was initially trialled across Waitrose over the course of November 2017 and was successfully rolled out across all retailers during January and February 2018.

Sarah Shakespeare, Social & Digital Content Manager at a2 Milk, says: “The Try Me Free campaign has gone very smoothly. The neck collars delivered good stand out on shelf and the redemption process was very easy for our consumers to use.”.

Activate by Shopmium is a Quotient Technology brand, enabling brands to drive measurable sales from their digital, on pack and in-store marketing spend.

Quotient Technology Inc., which was previously known as Coupons.com Incorporated, is a leading digital promotion and media platform that connects brands, retailers and consumers. It distributes digital coupons and media through a variety of products, including: digital printable coupons, digital paperless coupons, coupon codes, and card linked offers.

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Walkers, the UK’s biggest selling savoury snacking brand, has teamed up with ITV to capitalise on the Saturday ‘big night in’ sharing occasion by offering consumers the chance to win prizes live every Saturday night.

The brand will host three advert spots every Saturday night for 16 weeks. The first ad slot will showcase the headline prize of the week. The second will help to remind consumers to scan or enter their codes, which they can find on promotional sharing packs of Walkers crisps and Bugles. The final spot will announce the week’s top prize winner live on ITV to a captive audience.

Promotional packs will be supported by in-store and digital activity. To be entered into the weekly draw, consumers need to buy a sharing pack and either scan the Facebook Messenger code or visit walkers.co.uk/winlive and enter the unique code from their pack.

The promotion, which kicked off on February 17th, is offering Tier One prizes including: seven night holidays for four people to destinations including Orlando, New York, Cape Town, Nice, Create Majorca and Tenerife; £5,000 in cash; or a Suzuki Vitara car.

Tier Two prizes include lastminute.com voucher codes, Rakuten credit which can be used to download music or films, family return tickets on Virgin Rail, Virgin Experience giftcards, Game giftcards, Walkers merchandise goody bags, board games, Thorpe Park tickets and Zipworld family packages.

Finally, one in 10 entrants every week will win a voucher for a free Walkers sharing pack.

Tier One prize winners will be announced during the ad breaks of popular ITV Saturday Night shows, including Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway and Britain’s Got Talent. The promotion will be activated across Walkers sharing packs, Mix Ups and Bugles.

Walkers says combining Walkers sharing packs, Mix Ups and Bugles together in one campaign will help to drive awareness of the brand’s sharing portfolio, at a time when sharing occasions are experiencing +17% growth. It claims that spend on Walkers sharing bags, Mix Ups and Bugles is growing at +20.7%.

Rachel Holms, Senior Marketing Director at PepsiCo, comments: “We’re delighted to launch this campaign on our popular sharing range, supporting some of ITV’s most iconic entertainment shows. We are the first brand in the UK to utilise Messenger codes on-pack for competition entry and this is also the first time we have announced winners live on TV. We’re confident that these initiatives will drive mass participation and excitement with consumers. Our TV adverts every Saturday night will be unmissable and the prizes will mean people won’t want to miss out.”

The Walkers brand is owned by PepsiCo.

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Even though the volume of money-off coupons and vouchers in circulation appears to have fallen, UK consumers still saved £3.4 billion in the 12 months to April 2017, a new survey conducted for coupon company Valassis reveals.

Almost all consumers said they use coupons when supermarket shopping (99%) and almost all (96%) say they are actively looking for promotional offers more often or as much as a year ago.

However, while the appetite for coupons and vouchers remains high, 41% of consumers report that they are receiving fewer than a year ago. The survey’s respondents reported decreases in coupon availability across most of the usual sources, with nearly two thirds (65%) claiming they now receive fewer coupons at till and 35% spotting fewer coupons online.

Charles D’Oyly, managing director of Valassis UK, comments: “Several grocery retailers have pulled back from using basket price comparisons against other supermarkets, which often resulted in the price difference being printed out as a voucher when checking out. This promotional mechanic has been popular since early 2010, but with the rise of the deep discounters and the need to compete on everyday low prices for household staples, it looks like retailers are not issuing as many of those types of coupons and vouchers.”

The hunger for coupons and vouchers remains high, especially among younger shoppers, with 49% of 16-24 year olds stating they had increased coupon use compared to 33% of all consumers.

Regarding new shopping habits, 20% of all shoppers claim to regularly use online shopping and home delivery, and it is particularly popular among the younger age group. Younger shoppers are also more likely to try other new shopping methods – 11% of shoppers aged 16-24 often use “Click and Collect” compared to 1% of shoppers over 65, while 15% of younger shoppers often use a handheld scanner when shopping compared to just 2% of all shoppers.

Over half of all those surveyed (54%) claimed to have used Amazon for grocery shopping, with 19% using it regularly.

However, some traditional shopping habits remain – most people still use a shopping list, with just 30% saying they never use one for their main grocery shop, suggesting that most shopping decisions are made before setting off to the supermarket. The research underlined this further, with 37% of respondents agreeing that offers will sway what they intend to purchase and what goes on the shopping list.

Loyalty to retailers is decreasing, with far fewer people using only one supermarket for their regular shop.  Shoppers visiting just one store for their grocery shopping has dropped to just 8% from 12% in the previous year. Likewise, over two thirds of shoppers (67%) report that they use two to three stores on a monthly basis.

The research also suggested that the rise of discount supermarkets may be slowing down and that the discounters may even be falling out of favour – exactly a quarter of shoppers stated that the hassle and inconvenience of shopping in places like Aldi and Lidl were not worth their lower prices.

The findings are based on an online survey of 2,000 nationally representative adults, conducted by GfKNOP from April 3 to 10 2017 on behalf of Valassis.

Valassis Limited is the UK’s largest coupon and voucher services provider, performing crucial data management and financial clearing services for brands, retailers and others. Responsible for handling most of the UK’s coupons and vouchers, Valassis Limited is uniquely positioned to deliver insights on UK consumer promotions.

In North America, Valassis is a leader in intelligent media delivery, providing over 58,000 clients with innovative media solutions to influence consumers wherever they plan, shop, buy and share. By integrating online and offline data combined with powerful insights, Valassis precisely targets its clients’ most valuable shoppers. NCH Marketing Services, Inc. and Clipper Magazine are Valassis subsidiaries, while RedPlum is its consumer brand. Valassis is a wholly owned subsidiary of Harland Clarke Holdings.

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David Tymm of secure digital voucher provider i-movo suggests a new approach to bridging the gap between online marketing activity and what consumers actually do… SPONSORED FEATURE

The term ‘The Three Rs’ – referring to Reading, Writing and Arithmetic – were first proposed as the basis for a solid Victorian education by Sir William Curtis in 1825, to much derision. His contribution to education theory was quickly satirised as ’Reading, ’Riting and ’Rithmetic, and became a wry comment on educational standards, or the lack of them.

However, the idea of alliterating the Rs remains popular to this day — the environmental lobby, for example, has recently adopted the format, adding a fourth R to create ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle & Recover’.

So, in this tradition, we at i-movo have developed our own 4Rs to cover the four stages marketers should go through when running online promotional campaigns.

R1 = Reach

This represents the total audience volume exposed to a campaign. Digital channels have a distinct advantage over broadcast or out-of-home media in this regard, as many digital platforms (Facebook and Twitter for example) allow precise targeting by demographic profile, time-of-day, or day-of-week, together with lifestyle and interest.

Other digital channels such as a brand’s own website or organic search terms are less targeted but have the advantage that visitors are likely to be positively predisposed to a brand given they have arrived at a brand site or searched for it without prompting.

Non-digital channels such as out-of-home and instore have a less quantifiable audience figure; in these instances, footfall figures can be used to arrive at an educated estimate.

In all cases, i-movo believes the best practice is to encourage consumers to engage with the offer by clicking through to a branded microsite, or by texting a keyword to a shortcode, triggering a reply of a digital voucher.

R2 = Response

The preceding process results in a figure representing the number of consumers engaging with the instructions of the promotion, and arriving at the microsite. Through Google Analytics we can measure how many consumers from the initial group (the Reach) have taken this next step.

Brands should be aware that this step represents the single largest percentage in reduction in volumes between the various steps of the 4R i-movo model. Consumers lost at this stage in the process cannot be easily re-contacted so particular care is required in the selection and buying of online campaigns, to ensure the reduction is minimised. Bear in mind that even the most successful of online campaigns rarely exceed a 5% response rate.

R3 = Request

The third step in the 4R process is the Voucher Request. This is the number of consumers that successfully request a voucher by supplying their email or mobile phone number as the means of receiving the voucher together with any other information the brand wishes to collect such as post code, or must collect such as date-of-birth in the case of promotions including alcoholic drinks.

Completion of this step results in the consumer being sent a unique voucher using their preferred channel. Best practice is to issue all vouchers with an expiry date and time expressed as a number of days and/or hours from the point of issue.

Combining this control in conjunction with scaling back on media spend to reduce the ‘Reach’ of the campaign can therefore provide effective financial control of a campaign, without the need for promotional insurance, but only if all relevant data is available in real-time – which it is with i-movo’s approach and method.

R4 = Redemption

The final R represents Redemption: the secure validation of the voucher in-store. This is the number of consumers that have completed all four steps of the consumer journey, from seeing the promotion to availing themselves of it in-store at any of the 65,000 stores that are able to process i-movo vouchers.

In terms of coverage, i-movo’s integration with the three payment networks who serve our selected retailers (epay, PayPoint and Payzone) means the service is currently available within one mile of 99.1% of the UK urban population and in rural areas to a similar percentage within five miles. We are now extending our reach further by integrating directly into the till systems used by retailers.

The final element of the process is the need to reimburse the retailer who accepted the voucher. At the time of writing and against a backdrop of changing and increased regulation, facilitating of some settlement payments is a regulated activity. Consequently, i-movo has been accredited as a ‘Small Payments Institution’ by the Financial Conduct Authority since 2012.

Through accurate measure of all elements of the process, the i-movo 4R process provides both visibility of campaign success and also enables transparent return-on-investment calculation. All aspects of a campaign, from the creative, the strategy, to the consumer store visit are visible, quantifiable, and ultimately accountable.

Conclusion

While marketers have plenty of tools to measure the impact of online marketing activity in the digital space, it is far less easy to achieve the same level of accountability for online marketing activity where the desired outcome is a consumer visiting a bricks-and-mortar store in order to purchase a promoted product.

This information gap between online marketing and the consumer’s subsequent experience of the promoted product requires filling if marketers are to better justify the return-on-investment of their marketing campaigns.

i-movo’s four-stage 4Rs model provides an approach to measuring and predicting results accurately and in real-time, to give an unprecedented perspective of campaign performance and accountability.

David Tymm is CEO and co-founder of secure digital voucher service i-movo. This comment piece has been extracted from a White Paper, ‘The Four Rs: Measuring the effectiveness of online marketing from screen to store’ which is available to download from the i-movo site.

i-movo is a sponsor of the IPM Awards 2017.

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