Client:
Coupons, Inc. is the leading provider of printable promotional coupon technology. The company is redefining its market by shifting coupon distribution from newspapers and free-standing inserts (FSIs) to online delivery.

Situation:
While Coupons is by far the leading distributor of online coupons, its main competition came from traditional promotional sources such as free-standing inserts (Sunday circulars), mailed coupons such as Valpack, and other forms of traditional coupon delivery. With marketers facing tighter promotional budgets, getting a slice of that pie would be challenging. However, the biggest challenge facing Coupons was getting their message in front of the decision makers at the companies they were targeting.

Objectives:
Our main goal was to generate sales leads with senior-level decision makers within targeted companies. The audience included executive brand managers and advertising/marketing agency representatives at 330 companies. The target list was made up of the top companies that placed FSI coupons, based on dollars spent.

Strategies & Tactics:
Knowing that our targets had little time to waste on irrelevant or poorly conceived marketing messages, we chose a Lead Machine-based campaign as the best way to both get our message seen, and to convert our targets into bona fide, let's-talk-about-this leads.

The campaign launched by mailing a simple, intriguing piece to almost 2,800 targets at 330 companies. The piece included a URL personalized with the target's name, along with several carnival tickets with "admit one" printed on them. It did not, however, include any reference to Coupons. Upon visiting the site, the target was presented with a carnival-themed presentation where they were encouraged to play a midway-style shooting game. The game illustrated how Coupons helps its clients hit moving targets; i.e., consumers who are moving their coupon searches from traditional Sunday newspaper FSIs to the internet.

After prospects finished the game, they were presented with two dynamic divisions of information including brief case studies and a "How We Do It" section. The "How We Do It" interactive presentation walked prospects through the components of Coupons' services and successes.

The personalized URL allowed us, via our Lead Machine technology, to track individual users' interaction with the site by identifying the prospect without requiring them to complete a form. Targets meeting certain criteria were then identified as "warm" or "hot" leads.

The sitelet's real-time dashboard immediately alerted sales representatives about these leads, allowing them to follow up with the targets with customized pitches just after they left the sitelet. This real-time follow-up lead to more receptive and engaged prospects.

Results
During the four-month campaign, an impressive 39 percent of 2,783 targeted individuals visited the sitelet. Of the 330 companies represented by those targets, 51 percent clicked through the entire sitelet and 12 percent requested a follow-up call from Coupons. Even more impressive is that Coupons sales executives set appointments with more than 10 percent of the companies to whom we sent direct mail pieces. These appointments led to more than 25 new clients and put many more within reach.

Coupons received more than a 300 percent return on investment within the first four months of the campaign, and that ROI value has continued to rise since the campaign ended. In fact, just one of the campaign-generated leads resulted in incremental revenue that exceeded the expense of the entire campaign itself.

No wonder Coupons is set to work with Farstar in 2008 and beyond.