Valassis' Social Savings and Sharing App Enables Individual Promotion for Advertisers

LIVONIA, Mich. and WINCHESTER, Va., Dec. 11, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Valassis (NYSE: VCI), a leader in intelligent media delivery, and Oasis Brands Inc. announced today how they are working together to offer consumer savings in the social sphere. Valassis' savings application built on the Facebook® Platform is now being utilized by advertisers like Oasis Brands to promote specific individual brand promotions. As Facebook evolves its platform to benefit its users, the Valassis team has evolved their social products to enable easy, effective, focused social promotions, such as the savings program currently being used by Oasis Brands to support the social media efforts of its retail brand, Fiora®.  

Fiora®, a new and rapidly-growing retail tissue and towel brand, has found a stronghold among a growing breed of consumers who are better networked, more vigilant shoppers, interested in new choices and new channels. With keen analysis, marketplace observation, and nimble responses, the brand is finding innovative solutions to meet the needs of retailers and consumers as it enters the social media world. To access the offer, please visit https://www.facebook.com/FioraBrand/app_480369188658945

"We are committed to meeting the evolving needs of our customers and their shoppers, who make vigilant assessments and hyper-prioritize their families' needs and spending," said Nathan Hanson, CEO of Oasis Brands. "Today that means engaging with them in a medium where they are most comfortable and where saving money and sharing information come together. Valassis' social innovations have afforded us the ability to engage and help our consumer target 'win the hunt' by saving in an easy, effective way."

Maintaining and winning consumer loyalty in the social space requires more than just regular posts. Even the most fervent brand enthusiast expects tangible value in exchange for their loyalty to a brand's fan page. And when a brand does decide to offer rewards, they carry far more weight when shared by a friend. Valassis Social Promotion Pages allow marketers to quickly and easily extend their reach to consumers via deeper Facebook engagement by giving Facebook users easy access to deals on new brands and brands they already like.

Socially savvy consumers can share offers published on Valassis Social Promotion Pages across Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest or just print them for their own use.  With Facebook integration (based on consumers' specific privacy preferences); a consumer's offer activity is accessible via Facebook Timeline, friend-based Open Graph Ticker impressions and Facebook Insights reports.

"This opportunity with Valassis has given us the chance to leverage the latest, most effective technology to benefit our customers," said Hanson. "Ultimately, we hope to mobilize our consumers to become brand advocates, sharing information with their networks, via a medium that gives us more measurable impact."

Valassis is a leading provider of print and digital targeted coupons and promotions and also home to the Brand.net display network and Circle Street local offers. With these new social marketing tools, Valassis is Re-Imagining Reach™ to empower advertisers to meet consumers in a fun, relevant, easy way. Valassis' complete portfolio, from print to mobile and social, provides brands the ability to continuously engage consumers where they live – geographically, behaviorally, socially – driving awareness to action.

The versatile app is skinable, allowing advertisers to customize it and promote a variety of offers to new and loyal consumers via social media. To learn more about Valassis' social products, go to: http://www.valassis.com/online-advertising/social-media-app.aspx.  

About Valassis
Valassis is one of the nation's leading media and marketing services companies, offering unparalleled reach and scale to more than 15,000 advertisers. Its RedPlum® media portfolio delivers value on a weekly basis to over 100 million shoppers across a multi-media platform – in-home, in-store and in-motion. Through its digital offerings, including redplum.com and save.com, consumers can find compelling national and local deals. Headquartered in Livonia, Michigan with approximately 7,000 associates in 28 states and eight countries, Valassis is widely recognized for its associate and corporate citizenship programs, including its America's Looking for Its Missing Children® program. Valassis companies include Valassis Direct Mail, Inc., Valassis Canada, Promotion Watch, Valassis Relationship Marketing Systems, LLC, NCH Marketing Services, Inc. and Brand.net. For more information, visit www.valassis.com, www.redplum.com and www.save.com. To learn about advertising opportunities with RedPlum, please call 1-800-437-0479.

About Oasis Brands, Inc.
Founded in May 2010, Oasis Brands, Inc. is a Delaware-incorporated, Virginia-based consumer products company committed to innovative brand development, and uncovering category and consumer insights for the US Retail marketplace. For more information on Oasis Brands, visit www.oasisbrands.com.

Valassis Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-looking Statements
This document contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following: price competition from our existing competitors; new competitors in any of our businesses; a shift in client preferences for different promotional materials, strategies or coupon delivery methods, including, without limitation, as a result of declines in newspaper circulation and/or increased competition from new media formats including digital; an unforeseen increase in paper or postal costs; changes which affect the businesses of our clients and lead to reduced sales promotion spending, including, without limitation, a decrease of marketing budgets which are generally discretionary in nature and easier to reduce in the short-term than other expenses; our substantial indebtedness, and ability to refinance such indebtedness, if necessary, and our ability to incur additional indebtedness, may affect our financial health; the financial condition, including bankruptcies, of our clients, suppliers, senior secured credit facility lenders or other counterparties; certain covenants in our debt documents could adversely restrict our financial and operating flexibility; fluctuations in the amount, timing, pages, weight and kinds of advertising pieces from period to period, due to a change in our clients' promotional needs, inventories and other factors, including, without limitation, high levels of coupon redemption rates; our failure to attract and retain qualified personnel may affect our business and results of operations; a rise in interest rates could increase our borrowing costs; possible governmental regulation or litigation affecting aspects of our business; clients experiencing financial difficulties, or otherwise being unable to meet their obligations as they become due, could affect our results of operations and financial condition; uncertainty in the application and interpretation of applicable state sales tax laws may expose us to additional sales tax liability; and general economic conditions, whether nationally, internationally, or in the market areas in which we conduct our business, including the adverse impact of the ongoing economic downturn on the marketing expenditures and activities of our clients and prospective clients as well as our vendors, with whom we rely on to provide us with quality materials at the right prices and in a timely manner. These and other risks and uncertainties related to our business are described in greater detail in our filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, including our reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q and the foregoing information should be read in conjunction with these filings.  We disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

SOURCE Valassis