Direct-Marketing Franchisor Acquired by ADVO Unit

BIG Hires From MTV, Time Warner; Marshall Wraps Yamaha Spot

Both Bob Philpott, and his Laguna Hills business, Yellow Jacket Franchise Corp., were acquired by Super Coups, a direct-mail coupon company based in Avon, Mass.

Philpott is now the Western region business development manager for Super Coups.

Super Coups, owned by ADVO, is a direct-mail advertising company for small businesses, similar to Fla.-based Val-Pak, which sends out small-business advertisements in the form of coupons inside blue envelopes.

Coupon advertising is considered a relatively inexpensive means for small businesses to advertise at 3.5 cents per home.

Val-Pak substantially leads the direct mail coupon business. Super Coups holds the second spot, with 100 franchise owners at 500 franchise units in 35 states.

Super Coups is stepping up its online business through an agreement with CoolSavings.com. The goal is to build a global coupon site, said Don McKenzie, president and CEO of Super Coups. The way it works: a customer visits the web site and clicks on one of the signed-up national merchants’ coupons and goes to the retailer site for redemption or simply prints the coupons and brings them into the store. The franchises feed the site with local shoppers.

Philpott’s office sells Super Coups franchises, which go for $32,000. Philpott began his direct marketing career when he bought a Yellow Jacket direct-mail franchise in 1990. In 1994, he took over operations and in January he sold Yellow Jacket to Super Coups. Yellow Jacket had nine franchised owners in 17 franchised areas in Nevada, Arizona and California.

BIG Hires MTV Producer

Broadband Interactive Group hired Brendan Casey, a former MTV Network convergence producer. Casey will be BIG’s director of convergence programming. In other words, he will merge BIG’s Bluetorch.com and Bluetorch TV. BIG also added Ron James, a former webmaster with Time Warner’s Road Runner cable-modem service. He is BIG’s new director of broadband content. Bluetorch targets participants and fans of extreme sports.

Bits and Pieces

Costa Mesa-based Marshall Advertising