• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, August 19, 2008

According to a recent report fromTNS media intelligence, The Weighted Average Face Value (WAFV) for Free Standing Insert coupons across the Non-Food segment of the Consumer Packaged Goods industry increased 5.4 percent to $1.61, driven by the 17.7 percent increase within the Health Care area. WAFV across the Food segment increased 5.6 percent to $0.91, led by the 13.7 percent increase for the Dry Grocery area.

Manufacturers delivered more than $173 billion in consumer incentives as part of 129 billion coupons distributed across more than 101 billion pages during the first half of 2008. Retailer participation in FSI promotions increased 31.3 percent to over 21.2 billion pages during this period, driven in part by the growth of "co-equity" events that frequently deliver retailer-specific coupons rather than traditional manufacturer coupons.

Mark Nesbitt, chief operating officer at Marx Promotion Intelligence/TNS Media Intelligence, said "Manufacturers continue to leverage FSIs to... reinforce brand messaging... Leading retailers are increasing their use of FSIs to drive planned shopping trips and build shopper loyalty... "

During the first half of 2008, more than $173 billion in consumer incentives were delivered via FSIs in Sunday newspapers, up 3.8 percent from the same period in 2007. During the same six month period, over 129 billion coupons were distributed within more than 101 billion FSI pages.

 The CPG sector remains the largest user of FSI pages with a 70.1 percent share, followed by Direct Response, which includes general advertising activity, and Franchise, comprised of restaurants, portrait studios, and other businesses. FSI Pages Distributed increased for both the CPG and Franchise sectors, up 0.5 percent and 1.0 percent respectively. Pages Circulated for the Direct Response sector decreased 6.7 percent which was the sole driver of the 1.1 percent decrease in Pages Circulated for the FSI industry overall.

In the first half of 2008, Non-Food categories distributed more than 79.6 billion coupons, an versus a year ago, while Food categories distributed 50.0 billion coupons, a decline since last year. Health Care and Personal Care were the only two areas with increases in Coupons Dropped during this period.

The top 10 product types based on coupons distributed accounted for 35.8 percent of all FSI coupon activity during the first half of 2008. Household Cleaning Products ranked first, with 530.7 million coupons being associated with nine new product introductions during the first six months of 2008. Vitamins moved to fourth place with a 28.3 percent increase, due in part to 248.1 million coupons supporting eight new product introductions during this period.

*Coupons Distributed equals the actual number of coupons distributed in FSI inserts for manufacturers' brands.

For the complete TNS release please visit here, or for additional charts on Distribution Trends, go here.