Cumberland Farms sent its mobile customers a holiday present with an in-application coupon for a free chocolate bar.

The offer went out to consumers who already have the SmartPay app, Cumberland Farms’ mobile payments app for gas. The coupon can be redeemed for one free Cumberland Farms Farmhouse Premium c

hocolate bar.

“In today’s deal-seeking world where consumers are always looking for the best price, it’s important for marketers to find new ways to stand out,” said Mark Tack, vice president of marketing at Vibes, Chicago. “The convenience of mobile coupons provides marketers with a great opportunity to connect with their shoppers and meet their needs.

“Driving engagement in the app is a major priority for many marketers and mobile coupons are a great way to go,” he said.

Mr. Tacks is not affiliated with Cumberland Farms. He commented based on his expertise on the subject.

Cumberland Farms did not meet press deadline.

Happy holidays
An email went out to SmartPay users notifying them of the free mobile coupon. yesterday. The email explained that Cumberland Farms wanted to thank its customers for their business and wished them happy holidays.

The email told consumers to look in their SmartPay app for the coupon.

When they opened the app, the rewards section of the app showed a notification for a new reward. When they clicked on the rewards tab, consumers saw the holiday chocolate coupon.

The coupon expires on December 31, 2013.

It is valid for any Premium Farmhouse chocolate bar, including peanut butter and jelly sandwich, marshmallow s’mores, raspberry burst, mint cookie crunch, café espresso bean and salty sea shore caramel.

To use the coupon, consumers can tap the redeem coupon button and show the screen to a cashier. Once consumers press the button, the coupon will automatically disappear after 20 minutes.

It is interesting to note that the coupon went out to consumers who already had the SmartPay app. This works towards incentivizing repeat visits to the app, as opposed to driving new consumers to download the app to begin with.

SmartPay
The Cumberland Farms SmartPay app launched last spring enabling users to pay for gas using their smartphones and a PayPal account (see story).

The new SmartPay Check-Link payment program enables users to pay for gas and in-store purchase using their mobile phone or with the swipe of a card.

Users also automatically save 10 cents on every gallon of gas every time they fill up.

In October, Cumberland Farms added rewards into the program to incentivize consumers for paying for gas via their mobile devices (see story).

Many retailers are realizing the power of mobile coupons especially when integrated into pre-existing apps.

According to a Vibes report, the top two benefits consumers see in mobile wallet coupons and loyalty cards are digitizing paper items and organizing content on your smartphone. Apple’s Passbook and Google Wallet take mobile coupons to the next level with better organization, location-aware and personalization features.

“Many large retailers are now using Apple’s Passbook and the new Google Wallet app to deliver mobile coupons and loyalty cards and we expect to see this trend skyrocket in 2014,” Mr. Tack said.

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York