PowerTalk: Unveiling the Future of Coupons with Michael Vivio, president of Cox Target Media

Joining me on PowerTalk this week is Michael Vivio, president of Cox Target Media. Now, you may be scratching your head, wondering what kind of company that is… but as you’ll soon learn, Cox Target Media is the company behind that blue Valpak envelope you get each week in the mail. Each and every week, it’s packed with coupons, discounts and other offers that are designed to help you save money. On the other side of the coin, this drives revenue at those establishments whose coupons are distributed.

Vivio was named president of Cox Target Media in December 2010. Within a year, he has taken Valpak and Valpak.com to new heights, with a newly re-launched website, which has seen online traffic increase 400%, and new partnerships that have doubled the amount of online coupons to 40,000.

I don’t know about you, but at my house we do not go through only the mailed Valpak packet each week — I use the app on my iPhone religiously, and I get to load great deals into Passbook. As I look at the app right now, I can see coupons for Gold’s Gym, local dry cleaners, a bunch of restaurants that we go to and a bunch of other services.

As you’ll learn in a few minutes, not only is that emphasis on local a key differentiator for Valpak, but the company has hundreds, if not thousands, of companies that it works with each week. Just because it’s local doesn’t mean it’s just small business. To the contrary, Valpak works with businesses of all sizes to drive revenues by giving consumers the deals they need.

There’s a growing amount of data that suggests the global economy is heading once again for a spring swoon. Worse yet, two engines for the domestic economy — the consumer and the small business — are coming under pressure. In particular, more Americans have been falling out of the labor force, are on food stamps and have seen their disposable dollars disappear. That’s at the heart of what I call the Cash Strapped Consumer, and subscribers to my investing newsletter PowerTrend Profits have been booking big profits by capitalizing on this pain point.

Michael and I talk about all of that, as well as what sets Valpak apart from other daily-deal companies like Living Social, Groupon (GRPN), Google Offers (GOOG) and more. We also talk about how Valpak is gearing up for the push to mobile commerce, which includes not only payments, but also couponing.

Whether you’re looking to save more than a few dollars each week, curious as to how Valpak is positioning itself for the future or wondering why Groupon is on the ropes, those answers are all found in this week’s PowerTalk.

Listen now:

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Access prior PowerTalk interviews here:

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Steve Forbes Focuses on the Economy, Taxes, Health Care and Obama

Susan Crawford, Author of “Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age”

Paul Musselman, CEO of Carnegie Speech

Jim Nolan, EVP of InterDigital (IDCC)

Manish Chandra, Founder and CEO of Poshmark

Michael D. Brown, Customer Experience Expert

Debra Kaye, Partner at Lucule Consulting

Beth Solomon, President and CEO of NADCO

Bob Keheller Founder of The Employee Engagement Group

Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal

Currency Expert Bernard Lietaer

CEO of Accellion Yorgen Edholm

Founder and former CEO of Staples Tom Stemberg

Bestselling author Daniel Pink

dwinQ’s Patrick Sweeney

Cuttone & Company’s Keith Bliss

Visa’s Jason Alderman

GM’s Greg Martin

Consumer Electronic Association CEO Gary Shapiro

Smith & Wesson CEO James Debney

Mobile Payment expert Matt Jacobson