Valpak now putting grocery coupons in your mailbox

The next time you think about clipping some grocery coupons, don’t reach for the scissors…reach for the Blue Envelope of savings in your mailbox!

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Here’s a new place to look for coupons

If you’re still into getting your grocery coupons the traditional way—like in the newspaper instead of via an app—there’s a new possibility you might want to look into.

Direct mail company Valpak has been including a select few manufacturer’s coupons in its envelopes. You can use these coupons at the grocery store or wherever you buy food.

(Full disclosure: Valpak and Fans 1st Media are both Cox properties.)

The company that’s best known for those mailers that come stuffed with offers on local products and service began including manufacturer’s coupons for food products in its envelopes two years ago.

But it faces some stiff competition in this field—namely from industry incumbents like RedPlum and SmartSource. Those two share a duopoly on the coupon inserts that you find in your Sunday paper.

But that hasn’t deterred Valpak, which hopes to carve out its own niche in the field.

“While we are typically competing for similar budgets, our program is more focused on shopping marketing efforts to help drive specific retailer activity,” Jay Loeffler of Cox Target Media told Clark.com. “[RedPlum and SmartSource] are more consumer promotion vehicles that drive mass redemption on a weekly basis; we are more tactically aligned to drive targeted shopper activity at retail due to our geo-specific targeting tools.”

In 2016, brands that offered manufacturer’s coupons in Valpak mailers included GSK, Bayer, Hormel, Drake’s Cakes, Kellogg’s, Clorox, P&G and L’Oreal.

Looking forward to 2017, Loeffler says Valpak will roll out four major themes displayed prominently on its envelopes—Stamp Out Hunger, Great Grocery Giveaway, Back-to-School and Healthy Holiday.

“[You] will have not only circulars inside Valpak, but creative designed on all envelopes to enhance awareness of [the] grocery [value inherent] within Valpak,” he says.

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