Coupons.com [1] on Aug. 1 launched the first TV campaign in its 11-year history, telling consumers: "There's a better way to save" in humorous commercials depicting the outrageous lengths people will go to in order to save money on grocery bills.
Four spots, scheduled to run in 15- and 30-second versions nationwide, show shoppers sneakily taking shortcuts in supermarket aisles to save cash. One woman gobbles up as many free samples as possible, while a man tries to discreetly shampoo his hair. Each ad ends with a reminder that Coupons.com is the place where consumers can "Click. Print. Save."
After two years of testing TV ads for its subsidiary brands CouponSuzy.com and CouponBug.com, parent Coupons, Inc. determined it was ready to try TV advertising for its flagship consumer brand Coupons.com, said client CEO Steve Boal.
"TV is still the biggest cannon in the land," said Boal. "The ability to use TV to tell consumers what we are doing on the Internet and take them into physical stores is very exciting to us."
Based on testing, the company found that TV advertising proved "extremely cost effective," and as a result the company is making a significant broadcast investment, Boal said. "We found that a lot of our TV marketing initiatives created more brand affinity than our online initiatives did," he said. "The response rate and the rate of return of those people who found out about it on TV was slightly higher than those who found out about us on the Internet."
The economic climate provides an appropriate backdrop for the new consumer push, added Boal. "Saving money is serious business and 72 percent of consumers report using coupons in some way," said Boal. "Calling attention to it in a humorous way gives an 'it's alright to do this' message to consumers."
The commercials were created in-house and directed by Jason Zada of Tool of North America.
Nielsen Business Media [2]