General Mills tries Groupon

General Mills developed a clever way to get on the Groupon bandwagon. They ran a Groupon deal that offered coupon buyers in Minneapolis and San Francisco a $40 sampler pack for $20.

The offer ran April 21 and consisted of a sample pack with 12 grocery items, including Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix, a Wanchai Ferry Orange Chicken dinner kit, and sampler sizes of Green Giant Corn Niblets, Chex Mix and Hamburger Helper.

A coupon book was also included.

General Mills viewed this as an interesting way to offer up samples to consumers and move sales via in-store redemption. This was the first time Groupon has worked with a CPG company due to Groupon's deep-discount offerings.

I envision more CPG offerings now that General Mills has paved the way.

http://promomagazine.com/incentives/news/general-mills-tests-groupons-0426bq1/

Kroger Software Update

Kroger has recently updated their POS system to prevent coupon fraud. This new enhancement checks for multiple coupons being redeemed for a single product. Consumers can now only use one coupon per product purchased.

"In the past, Kroger customers could use or "stack" an electronic coupon with a paper coupon for the same item. They could use both because Kroger did not have a good way of monitoring that the customer was using two coupons on the same item."

This upgrade gives Kroger the means to tighten coupon use to the limit terms printed on most coupons.


http://www.wmctv.com/story/14344597/kroger

Sweepstakes I Like

I found a couple of sweepstakes on Facebook I want to share.

I Like Vacations gives you the opportunity to win $300 and you can enter every day. This is your Personal Entry. The great part is you can choose a Facebook friend to win $300 as well. Together, you get one entry for that day. The friend selection is optional.

You also have a chance to win when one of your friends submits a Personal Entry and lists your name as the friend of their choice. That friend will receive one Personal Entry and you will receive one Friend Entry. There is no limit to the number of valid Friend Entries you may receive per day from this method.

This sweepstakes ends April 11, 2011.
Enter here: http://www.bigprize.com/share/vacations

Next, I like the Stouffer's Farmers' Harvest Drop 'n' Save Game.
The registration form asks a question about the number of people living in your household. How you answer depends on the prize pool you are in. All prizes are Stouffer's Meal coupons ranging from cents off coupons to free coupons.

After registering, you proceed to the instant win portion and play the game. If you win a prize and like the prize you won, you can accept the prize and print the coupon. But if you don't like the outcome, you can discard that entry or prize and try again, up to two more times. Your third chance is your final outcome for the day. You can win one time during the entire promotion.

This game ends April 8, 2011. Enter here:
http://www.facebook.com/stouffers?ref=ts#!/stouffers?sk=app_132019770201051

Clay Yourself Contest

Hotels.com ran a contest where consumers could create clay images of themselves in order to enter. A total of 390,000 people visited clayyourself.com and 230,000 developed headshots to enter the contest.

Consumers then voted on their favorite clay avatar. Approximately 1.2 million votes were cast to narrow down their favorite.

The winner, from North Carolina, will travel to Los Angeles to see the making of the next Hotels.com commercial. The winner's clay creation will play a part in the commercial along-side the hotels.com spokesperson, Smart, a clay character (shown on the left) and the face of hotels.com.

This site won the Favorite Website Award's "Site of the Day" on February 18.


http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hotelscom-clay-yourself-contest-concludes-grand-prize-winner-leonty-m-will-star-in-a-hotelscom-commercial-117795238.html

Orville Redenbacher's Pop & Win Game

Orville Redenbacher is running an instant win game on specially marked packages of Orville Redenbacher's Gourment Popping Corn. The game is called Pop & Win.

What I love about this promotion is the game piece. Each bag has a heat activated game piece. Once you cook the popcorn in the microwave, a winning or non-winning message is revealed. Winning game pieces tell you what you have won and show a prize redemption code that you enter online.

There are over $8 million in prizes to be won. And the odds of winning are good: one in six wins. I actually won a prize on the first bag I cooked from the 3-pack box I purchased.

I love how technology can enhance the sweepstakes experience if you can find the right technology for the right brand. The anticipation of waiting to see if I won was a fun experience. And even though I'm not hungry for popcorn right now, I can't wait to see if I have won any more prizes with the remaining two bags in the box.

Game ends 11/30/11.

http://orville.promo.eprize.com/popandwin/

Extreme Couponing on The Learning Channel

There are consumers who are obsessed with saving money. TLC has a special called Extreme Couponing which profiles four coupon fanatics that go beyond the norm to save hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars on their monthly grocery bill. This show portrays what they do to save money.

Digging through garbage to find coupons that have been thrown out, carefully following store ads, going to stores that only double coupon, stock piling, and hoarding is just a part of the lifestyle that these shopaholics lead.


One star of the show had a store visit that only cost him $241 after using his coupons, a retail value that would have cost him $5743.00.


One mom utilized her coupons and only had to pay $6.32 on a bill that came to $230.38.


Check out the details here: http://press.discovery.com/us/tlc/programs/extreme-couponing/



Look for reruns of this special on the TLC website found here: http://tlc.discovery.com/search/results.html?focus=site&query=extreme+couponing

Record Year for Coupons.com

For the first three quarters of 2010, Coupons.com has shown a 57 percent growth compared to the same period in 2009. The company reported that it has surpassed the $1-billion mark for printed savings for the year.

The growth shows a consumer comfort level in printing and saving coupons to their loyalty cards. This also shows that more manufacturers are getting accustomed to offering coupons online. We wouldn't be seeing this type of interest from both sides if the economy hadn't forced consumers to look for savings and brands to find new ways to promote their product and stand out among the competition.

For the first 9 months of 2010, the following digital coupon categories have been most popular:
#1 Ready to Eat Cereal
#2 Yogurt
#3 Refrigerated Dough
#4 Portable Snacks
#5 Vegetables,
#6 Baby Needs,
#7 Soup,
#8 Nutritional Snacks
#9 Lunch Meats
#10 Cheese

You can find the Coupons.com news release here: http://www.couponsinc.com/Corporate/OurCompany/PressReleases/2010.aspx?udt_447_param_detail=118