FSI activity continues to trump digital

Digital coupons may get all the publicity, but SmartSource isn’t buying the hype as evidenced by what it said was arecord-setting coupon droponSunday, January 5.

Parent company News America Marketing said the Sunday, January 5 edition of its SmartSource publication was thelargest in itshistory with up to three inserts required in some markets to deliver up to 136 pages of coupons.

“’Save more money’ is an almost universal New Year’s resolution,” said News America Marketing EVP Martin Garofalo. “We’re happy that we can help make that resolution possible with a gigantic assortment of coupons delivered right to consumer’s homes through their local newspaper or publication.”

Even with much being written recently about digital couponing trends, coupons contained in free-standing inserts (FSIs) continue to dominate all other forms of distribution, accounting for 88.8% of all coupons distributed in 2012, according to News America Marketing.

Taking into consideration the number of newspapers and publications that carriedSmartSource, on January 5,combined the page count of the issue, there were more than5.7 billion pages of coupons distributed compared to5.3 billion on the same Sunday last year. The Dallas Morning News hadthe most coupons of any publication with a total of 136 pages and an estimated value of $197. The Philadelphia Inquirer, Houston Chronicle, Phoenix Republic, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times each had more than125 pages of coupons.

“We’ve worked very hard to pack as much value as we possibly can into this date,” said Garofalo. “It’s thanks to our long-lasting relationships with the consumer packaged goods community that we can deliver savings like these right after the holidays when consumers need it most. With total coupon distribution down the past two years, News America Marketing is proud to be bucking the trend with a record-shattering number of coupons in this issue.”