A new study from e-Marketer reveals that consumer coupon usage has drastically increased since March 2008 month to month (December saw a 46% increase!). Not only that, but about 50% of coupon holders are getting them from flyers, and the rest online.

This makes me hopeful for newspaper sales execs everywhere!

I know that being an avid coupon collector, I look both online and offline for great deals.. what about everyone else?

Probably the best way to come up with an integrated strategy for marketing your brand with coupons. Promotions that offer online coupons to print out and bring in to physical stores really promotes the online and offline elements of a company. In my mind, it makes sense for a brand like Coke to have coupons online to take to certain stores, and it makes sense for a company like Safeway to have coupons in a flyer form. For Coke, it’s easy to distribute online because their products are sold in different stores worldwide, and they can take a mass approach. Conversely, Safeway could use a localized approach, and specific regions or even stores could have products they want to push using a pull strategy.

If you want to see more of the results of the study, check out the article at http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007164