Top tips: How Coupons are helping FMCG brands engage Facebook users

Social media coupon campaigns are on the rise, but getting the strategy right is crucial to avoid the risks invovled. Oliver Felstead, Sales and Marketing Director of Coupons.com UK, explores how Coupons allow FMCG brands to engage Facebook users and encourage purchases.


2011 marked the year that many FMCG brands went social. For some it was small-scale exploratory activity. For others the creation of a Facebook Fan Page or Twitter profile was a social land grab to directly counter the plethora of unofficial pages/profiles that have emerged.
However for the some of more forward thinking brands it was the start of a proactive marketing strategy seeking to engage consumers in the social space and then influence their path to purchase through various promotional marketing activities.
One of the winners in this trend was secure printable-coupons, which prospered as FMCG brands sought to use proven promotional mechanics to help grow fan bases, drive social engagement and interaction, as well as practical ways of connecting Facebook activity with in-store product sales.
Campaign results provided valuable insight. On the one hand, Facebook coupon promotions offered speed of response, potential scale, and near instant consumer feedback. On the other hand, however, the immediacy and public nature of customer comments presented genuine challenges for brands. And, as long as brands recognised that the social nature demanded a new set of best practices and leveraged proven knowledge and expertise accordingly to get the basics of their promotion right, the pros outweighed the cons by a significant margin.
As FMCG brands continue to respond to the two-fold challenge of a customer base demanding ever more value and marketing budgets mandating a tangible return on investment, the use of coupon promotions across social media is set to increase rapidly in 2012. Oliver Felstead, Sales & Marketing Director of Coupons.com explains how brands can build on the lessons learned during 2011 to run high-performing and impactful coupon promotions on Facebook.
Last 12 Months – Lessons Learned
During 2011 social media evolved from being a medium to watch, to an established platform for brand promotions including the distribution of coupon offers to drive in-store product purchase.
Approaches varied – some brands embarked upon larger integrated marketing campaigns, such as P & G’s Supersavvyme.com, which broadened its reach to Facebook and used coupons within various apps, whilst other brands like SPAM and Hovis opted for basic out-the-box coupon promotions, sometimes simply just to increase their followers (i.e. Facebook ‘Likes’), reward existing fans or to encourage product trial.
What became evidently clear during a year of ‘test and learn’ was the need for brands to pay greater attention to promotional marketing best practices. Whilst social media is a relatively new form of media, traditional promotional marketing guidelines and best-practices still apply, this is especially the case when distributing coupons. The sheer scale of Facebook and potential for social sharing offers considerable appeal for brands, however failure to properly plan and execute coupon campaigns can also expose them to risks such as disappointed customers or redemption budget overspend.
Basic errors seen ranged from brands offering coupons for products that were not readily available in-store, to coupons offered for products that were already on promotion leading to double-discounting. Some of the oversights risked disenfranchising consumers and adding significant cost to the promotion, not to mention ruffling the feathers of a few inexperienced Brand Managers.
Managing The Risks

Brands also realised that social media can offer both scale and potential influence – a powerful combination when effectively harnessed. Coupons, when properly executed are one of the promotional mechanics that can leverage both these attributes to full effect.
Whereas lower value coupons in many cases generate the strongest ROI when it comes to traditional coupon mediums such as direct mail, there are now an increasing number of brands opting to channel media spend into coupon redemptions budget. Not only does this enable them to offer a higher value, more compelling offer that taps into the demands of a consumer base looking for ever increasing value in the current economic climate, it also naturally promotes social sharing. For example a free product offer that achieves 10,000 redemptions might significantly out-perform a lower value offer supported by heavy media spent. Of course it all comes down to the campaign objectives.
Campaigns also need to be accessible to all, including consumers without a printer and those using a handheld device such as smartphone or tablet to access Facebook or Twitter – neither should be excluded from coupon promotions. Additional support facilities that enable consumers to request a coupon via email or claim it by post are key to an inclusive campaign. For example a recent campaign for P&G Aussie Hair allowed mobile Facebook users who are typically constrained from joining campaigns because they cannot access apps to request a coupon to be emailed, ensuring wider reach.
At the same time, the scale of the social audiences and speed of adoption can result in overwhelming campaign performance. One brand’s coupon campaign was so successful that it achieved its print target in half the intended duration. Good problem perhaps, however not when media is booked for the duration and customers are expectant. If strong print controls had not been in place then cost of over-performance would have been significant. Under circumstances like this, it is important for brands to communicate the success to their fans and followers and let them know that they’ll be the first to be notified of future coupon promotions, in order to ensure continued interest and engagement.
Such experiences over the past 12 months have focused attention. The vast majority of brands now recognise the need to follow best practices when planning social media coupon campaigns including secure coupon distribution and effective management of redemption liability and appropriate levels of customer service.
Creativity & Measured Success
With best practices covered, a growing number of FMCG brands are exploring the opportunities for far more innovative and creative coupon campaigns that include highly customised features. For example, social advocacy campaigns that reward advocates by providing them with higher value rewards when they share a promotion with friends or fixed time release thresholds that restrict a coupon’s availability to specific quantities per day or certain time periods to build momentum and stimulate interest in the promotion and buzz.
Alongside creativity, however, comes a demand for greater performance evaluation and new ways of appraising ROI. Traditionally, coupon campaigns have been evaluated on the basis of coupons redeemed. Measuring the success of social couponing campaigns simply on this basis is short-sighted; other metrics should also be appraised such as increase in fans, enhanced media performance as well as non-traditional measures such as quantity and quality of consumer engagement (i.e. consumer comments and feedback).
For example, a Facebook coupon promotion for SPAM in 2011 generated an abundance of interesting new purchase and recipe ideas such as Spam carbonara and salads, not to mention a new generation of passionate SPAM fritter fans. Powerful consumer generated content that helped make this particular brand more relevant to a younger audience of customers with less brand association.
Conclusion
Given the current financial pressure, it is clear that as brands increase their investment in social media there will be a need to consider ROI more broadly and to adopt other ways of measuring success. However, a sustained emphasis on creativity is critical. Brands should continue to develop new and ambitious coupon-based promotions that drive social marketing innovation, while ensuring the basics of the coupon promotion (the engine, so to speak) are well executed.
Brands learnt some tough lessons in 2011 – coupon campaigns were not uniformly well managed and understandably some failed to either meet expectations or deliver consumer value. But they also scored some genuinely great results. The key for 2012 will be not only to innovate and become more sophisticated but also to ensure that the central coupon component is securely managed properly in accordance with the promotional marketing industry’s guidelines and best practices.
By Oliver Felstead
Sales and Marketing Director
Coupons.com UK
Coupons.com