Valassis Expands Social Reach with New Couponing App on the Facebook Platform

Valassis (NYSE: VCI), one of the nation’s leading media and marketing services companies, just extended its reach further in the digital promotion space by launching a compelling application – RedPlum Social Savings™ – built on Facebook Platform. This easy-to-use, skinable app enables the power of human influence in a simple and viral way by allowing friends to use and share compelling offers without leaving Facebook. This app allows advertisers to provide targeted offers to the right people, then gives them the option to share relevant deals with their friends. With this new social marketing tool, Valassis is Re-Imagining Reach™ to empower advertisers to meet consumers in a fun, relevant, easy way.

Since the beta launch of this first fully integrated couponing app, over 25,000 users have installed it, achieving an astounding 72% adoption rate and have triggered more than 450,000 impressions.  The strong, viral consumer adoption of this easy-to-use app provides an early indication of the value and engagement users are experiencing as they view, share, print and download coupon offers to their grocery store loyalty card instantly. The app’s innovative integration with Facebook’s Open Graph has generated significant viral promotion and friend engagement with brands, manufacturers and retailers.

“The social world is the new frontier of consumer to brand connections, however, the opinions of those we trust will always have the highest impact,” said Jim Parkinson, Valassis Chief Digital Officer.  “Our social coupon app’s number one design goal is to allow any brand to connect to the right consumers in a sharable way. The RedPlum Social Savings app allows great offers to get viral traction so consumers can receive them from both the brands and people they trust most.”

Valassis is Re-Imagining Reach™ for the way today’s digital-savvy consumers plan, shop and purchase to get the right message to the right consumer, in the right medium at the right time. Valassis’ complete suite of promotion products, from print to mobile and social, provides brands the ability to continuously engage consumers where they live – geographically, behaviorally, socially – driving awareness to action.

A recent Crowdtap poll found that 70% of consumers are influenced by a friend or family member’s online suggestion, meaning marketers need to have a presence on social networks and take a strategic approach to reaching their target consumer. Along with bolstered consumer engagement and increased loyalty, brands that customize the new app will also have access to the full suite of Facebook Insights reports and analytics.

Food Lion, a leading grocer based in Salisbury, North Carolina, is an early adopter of RedPlum Social Savings™. Food Lion operates more than 1,100 supermarkets and employs approximately 57,000 associates delivering quality products, low prices and service to customers in 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states.

“Food Lion is excited about the opportunity to offer RedPlum Social Savings™ on Facebook,” said Kimberly Mohns, Food Lion Social Media Specialist. “We look forward to providing additional savings opportunities to customers and our social-savvy brand ambassadors.”

Consumers can get the RedPlum Social Savingsapp at http://apps.facebook.com/redplumsocialsavings or by searching for “RedPlum Social Savings” on Facebook.

For more information on the white label app and its brand application, go to: http://bit.ly/P2m4ED.

About Valassis

Valassis is one of the nation’s leading media and marketing services companies, offering unparalleled reach and scale to more than 15,000 advertisers. Its RedPlum® media portfolio delivers value on a weekly basis to over 100 million shoppers across a multi-media platform – in-home, in-store and in-motion. Through its digital offerings, including redplum.com and save.com, consumers can find compelling national and local deals. Headquartered in Livonia, Michigan with approximately 7,000 associates in 28 states and eight countries, Valassis is widely recognized for its associate and corporate citizenship programs, including its America’s Looking for Its Missing Children® program. Valassis companies include Valassis Direct Mail, Inc., Valassis Canada, Promotion Watch, Valassis Relationship Marketing Systems, LLC, NCH Marketing Services, Inc. and Brand.net.  For more information, visit http://www.valassis.com, http://www.redplum.com and http://www.save.com. To learn about advertising opportunities with RedPlum, please call 1-800-437-0479.