Coupons, Inc. Debuts Concordance, First Contextual Coupon Delivery Program; Internet Broadcasting Systems, AllRecipes.com, Dial Corp. are Charter Publishers Using Contextual Placement Engine That Matches Keywords with Relevant Offers

Business Wire, Sept 26, 2005

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Bringing contextual ad placement to the coupons arena for the first time, Coupons, Inc. has launched Concordance(TM), a system that allows Web site publishers and advertisers to provide consumers with money-saving offers directly related to the content of particular web pages. Internet Broadcasting Systems, AllRecipes.com and Dial Corp. have signed on as inaugural Concordance users.

Contextual placement involves scanning host Web pages for keywords, and linking them to related content. While several online networks offer contextual ad placements, most notably Google's AdSense, Concordance is the first such execution designed specifically to deliver coupons and promotions. Instead of trying to distract the consumer, Concordance links to offers on relevant products when the consumer is most likely to want them. For instance, Concordance will scan an article on children's nutrition with a section on healthy cereal, and create links to consumer-printed coupons for whole-grain and trans-fat free cereals. Consumers can then print the coupons and redeem them at local retailers. Offers delivered via Concordance utilize Coupons, Inc.'s time-tested technology and services, including secure coupons, consumer registration, viral marketing, and consumer affairs options.

"Contextual placement is a perfect fit for the online, print-at-home coupon experience," said Steven R. Boal, CEO, Coupons, Inc. "With Concordance, Web publishers and advertisers can offer seamless integration with relevant content, without interrupting the consumer experience. The technology doesn't require the consumer to do anything, and publishers can add it to their site as easily as a banner ad."

"Having Concordance on our sites ensures that our visitors get coupons on name brand products, when they are most interested in those products." said Clayton Rose, Vice President of Business Development, Internet Broadcasting. "Eighty-four percent of consumers use coupons when they shop, so for coupon delivery, contextual placement can be more effective than other types of targeting. The option to have the links appear in the body of an article in addition to standard ad formats makes it easier for our users to find them."

The Coupons, Inc. Digital Solo(TM) platform has also been outfitted with Concordance. Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturers can now Concordance-enable their own corporate and product websites to deliver relevant coupons to their own site visitors.

"Concordance can benefit any Web publishers in Coupons, Inc.'s distribution network by increasing click-through on hosted offers, while a wide array of relevant money-saving offers could significantly escalate site traffic," Boal explained. "Concordance can deliver ads for coupons either directly associated with keywords on a page, or in a variety of alternative ad size formats."

"Our corporate and brand websites attract consumers who are looking for information on our products and new ways to use them," said Ann Toca, Director Advertising, Consumer Promotion & Internet, The Dial Corporation. "Concordance gives us a way to convert those consumers into buyers, cross-sell related products, and track how visitors to our websites ultimately behave in the retail channel. With the in-line keyword matching option, we can offer these promotions in an appropriate context, without compromising the brand identity we want for the site, and we were able to set everything up in a day."

"With over 40 million recipe views per month, and over 30,000 of the world's best-rated recipes, AllRecipes.com is an ideal environment to delivery contextually-relevant coupons to consumers," said Bill Moore, CEO, Allrecipes.com. "We've long been fans of contextual advertising, and Concordance seamlessly matches recipe interests and ingredients with available coupons. Coupons, Inc. has created a turnkey service that took us only a few hours to have up and running."

About Coupons, Inc.

Coupons, Inc. is the leading U.S. provider of consumer-printed coupon marketing and technology solutions. Coupons, Inc.'s core couponing, customer acquisition and e-mail marketing services provide clients with creation, distribution, tracking and reporting of consumer-printed coupons that can be used for traditional in-store redemption. A network of hundreds of consumer websites, consumer packaged good manufacturers, and pharmaceutical suppliers distribute offers via Coupons, Inc.'s distribution network and Digital FSI platform. Independent and privately held, Coupons, Inc. represents the most flexible, effective, fraud-resistant, print-from-the-web coupon solution available in the marketplace, and the most popular alternative to traditional couponing.

Coupons, Inc. clients and licensees include the majority of top consumer packaged goods and brands, such as Johnson & Johnson, General Mills, Kimberly-Clark, Masterfoods, Pfizer, Wyeth, Valassis, and News Corporation's News America Marketing.

Coupons, Inc. is located in Mountain View, CA. For more information call 650-947-3900 or visit www.couponsinc.com.