• Seattle Post-Intelligencer/AP, Tuesday, March 18, 2008 11:15 AM

As advertising has become more intrusive--spawning annoying pitches via e-mail, popup ads and flimsy mailbox fliers--Valpak has managed to find ways to stay in consumers' good graces with discounts for everything from oil changes to kitchen cabinets.

From the beginning, the company has staked its success on measurable results. Founder Terry Loebel required advertisers to record how much coupon-carrying customers spent. Now part of Cox Enterprises' newspaper division, Valpak remains an intensely data-driven company, with the ability to divide neighborhoods into blocks of 10,000 residences. For instance, Valpak can tell businesses which neighborhoods have swimming pools, where new houses are being built and where people with certain income brackets live.

Valpak--which sends its trademark blue coupon-stuffed envelope to 45 million homes each month--expects to ship 20 billion coupons in 520 million envelopes to U.S. and Canadian households this year from its massive new $220 million facility in St. Petersburg.

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