Valassis

Valassis Communications, Inc. is a Livonia, Michigan-based company that provides media and marketing services in the United States, Europe, Mexico, and Canada. It is one of the largest coupon distributors/processors in the world. Since 2020, Valassis has been unified under parent corporation, Vericast.

Valassis companies include Valassis Digital, Valassis Direct Mail, Inc., Valassis Canada, Promotion Watch and NCH Marketing Services, Inc. It has approximately 7,000 employees in 28 states and nine countries.

Valassis has relationships with more than 15,000 advertisers worldwide in various industries, including automotive, consumer electronics, consumer packaged goods, financial services, franchise food, grocery, specialty retail, and telecommunications.

In February 2014, Harland Clarke Holdings, a subsidiary of M&F Worldwide, completed purchase of Valassis for about $1.8 billion. Before this, Valassis had been a publicly traded corporation.

History

Valassis was started by George Valassis in 1970 and it purchased its first printing press in 1971. In 1986 it was acquired by Consolidated Press Holdings (CPH) of Sydney, Australia, owned by Kerry Packer. In 1992 CPH took the company public on the New York Stock Exchange

America's Looking For Its Missing Children Program

In partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the U.S. Postal Service, Valassis distributes pictures of missing children as part of its "Have You Seen Me?" picture program. The program was launched on May 24, 1985, featuring missing Pennsylvania girl Cherrie Mahan on their first flyer.[15]

The "Have You Seen Me?" program is currently responsible for 87% of the leads called in to NCMEC. According to NCMEC, photos are the number one tool that parents and law enforcement officials have in their search for missing children. By featuring recent and/or age-progressed photos of missing children, and their alleged abductors when possible, Valassis empowers the American public to take part in the effort to help safely recover these children. Of the 2,000 children featured in programs such as "Have You Seen Me?", more than 1,200 have been recovered.

NCMEC history

Inspired by the September 1984 (October 1983?) premiere of the TV movie Adam, the company developed a public service program plan to assist local and national efforts to locate missing children through the mass distribution of pictures.
The U.S. Postal Service changed its postal regulations in March 1985 to allow pictures and data of missing children provided by the NCMEC to appear on detached address labels.
In an effort to remember all children still not recovered, the company initiated a white ribbon campaign on May 25, 1992 – now designated as National Missing Children's Day.
In January 1997, the company secured the participation of its regional direct mail companies to expand the program's reach to 17 million additional households.
The company began targeting its photo distribution in April 1998 to leverage the NCMEC's and the FBI's intelligence, when possible, on the likely whereabouts of a missing child. A child's photo can now be targeted to any one of six regions of the country, or distributed nationwide over a six-week period.
On Sept. 19, 2000, the 100th safe recovery was celebrated with an event hosted by Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Dennis Hastert on Capitol Hill. Attending were John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted, Members of Congress, representatives of the U.S. Postal Service and the NCMEC, as well as the 100th recovered child and her mother.
In May 2007, the photo program moved from the detached address label to a full-color position on the direct mail piece itself.
In January 2008, the program expanded from the RedPlum Direct Mail Package to also include the RedPlum Free-standing Insert, increasing its reach to potentially 130-140 million households as well as online.

type	Subsidiary (since 2014)
industry	Advertising
foundation	1970
location city	Livonia, Michigan
location country	United States
parent	M&F Worldwide
website	https://valassis.com/

History

RedPlum/RetailMeNot Everyday

America's Looking For Its Missing Children Program

NCMEC history

References