Direct marketing giant Valassis Communications Inc. launched Redplum, a consumer brand and portal, on January 3.
The company’s co-op mailers, free standing inserts and polybagged marketing products will carry the new logo and tagline, “sweeten the deal,” and direct consumers to an online portal for deals, print coupons and sweepstakes entries.
The brand is a new way for Valassis’s b-to-b partners to reach consumers with their offers.
“Valassis is a well-known b-to-b name, but most consumers have never heard of it,” said Brian Costello, general manager and VP of the interactive/redplum.com division at Valassis. “Redplum is an adjunct to what we do already and is by no means replacing our other services.”
At its launch, the portal will aggregate existing content and values from the Valassis portfolio into sections for grocery, travel, home and yard, lifestyle, entertainment and a local family guide called Town Square. In addition to featuring advertising partner deals and coupons, the site will also have short articles and reviews as well as movie previews.
Visitors to www.redplum.com enter their ZIP codes and are able search for deals and print coupons. Users can create an account and register to receive notice of deals in specific categories. Costello expects a feature allowing consumers to upload a grocery list to be available soon.
“Our brand partners have been very positive,” Costello said. “What they love about it is that it’s integrated — one invoice. It’s a closed loop of reaching consumers with relevant deals.”
Valassis has relationships with more than 15,000 advertisers worldwide in various industries. Redplum offers include national, regional and local products and services.
“When we launch our advertisers will primarily be national brands,” Costello said. “However, the ratio of national to local marketers is something that is constantly changing on the site.
Valassis has no plans to resell registered users’ information for marketing purposes.
