With the economy in recession, coupons could become popular again with marketers and consumers. ActiveAccess clients, and their advertisers, are in position to benefit from users who are continually seeking bargains during this holiday season, and beyond.

And if an article from the New York Times is right, shoppers looking for bargains should have plenty of opportunities with the resurgence of coupons from retailer trying to woo customers with deep discounts.

The article says that “coupons that offer cents off — or percents off — the price of things like groceries, clothing and restaurant meals are particularly popular when consumers need to stretch their dollars.”

Frivolous spending is so last century. These days, people are thinking low-key purchases and looking for or waiting on sales at their local retailers.

If that is the case, then our ActiveAccess clients should be jumping for joy, or at least to their closest local retailer, because their desktop application provides them with the opportunity to create and dispense coupons.

So now, not only does their desktop app provide news and information to its audiences, it can now provide a source of savings for those users who are determined to spend less on food, clothes, and services.

The coupons would be sent via the Alert Box that slides out the left side of the application, where the weather alerts usually appear. Plus, these coupons can be:

The flipside of using coupons in ActiveAccess is that they can be a great source of new revenue for both our client and their sponsor/advertiser. The client receives revenue for allowing the sponsor to advertise his business in the desktop  application, and the advertiser receives traffic into his business. Plus, he can physically count how any coupons he redeemed and calculate the ROI on this activity.

It’s a WIN (Client) WIN (Advertiser) WIN (Desktop App Users) for all involved.

A recent e-Marketer report says from 2007 to 2012 Web-influenced store sales are expected to grow at a 19% average annual rate, compared with a 12% rate for e-commerce sales. While both brick and mortar and online are predicted to enjoy double digit growth, 19% is significantly higher than 12%.

It’s an interesting statistic because it demonstrates the critical nature of integrating new and old media, that isolated neither will not save the day. We already know that folks need to engage in web presence, and not rely solely on web 1.0 brochureware. At the same social engagement must be developed to compel people to walk into the store. Nineteen percent will be compelled by the web, not junk mail. That means strong online reputation is absolutely necessary.

The web driving brick and mortar sales reminds me of a conversation Toby Bloomberg and I had with Frank Gruber when we were considering a book project. Frank noted that great online properties all have a brick and mortar component to them, whether it’s a tie into someone’s cell phone, delivery to your house (hello Zappos!), or actual retail outlets, such as Apple stores or Dell kiosks.

In essence, as the report says, to market effectively great companies engage in “multi-channeling” information. This only makes sense as we discussed before here and on other blogs. A happy median needs to be found between social and traditional, online and brick and mortar.

From a corporate branding and marketing standpoint, content creation needs to intelligently integrate new and old. A social media tool may need to intelligently manage social and traditional channels. A TV or print ad needs the social call to action. The social media effort may need a webinar or white paper to bulwark value.

Integrate intelligently to achieve cross tie marketing. Remember all of those great Super Bowl ads tat drove people online?), list social properties on business cards and letterhead, tell people about store features using a prominent piece of real estate on a social property, etc, etc.

The word that comes to mind is balance.