The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2025
Ziploc revives expired coupons for shoppers who add a bag to their cart — 49% redemption
US shoppers upload an expired food coupon, add a Ziploc to their cart, and get fresh savings — the 'preserves everything' brand rescues coupons too.
Ziploc (SC Johnson) · VML
What it had to solve
US grocery inflation pushed food prices up about 20% in four years, driving shoppers back to coupons — yet 99.5% of issued coupons are never redeemed, and expiring promos feel like lost money. Ziploc wanted to reinforce its 'preserves what matters' promise in a market where its unit sales were under pressure.
How it works
Ziploc's 'Preserved Promos', built with VML New York, launched in 2025 as a mobile-commerce mechanic with a dead-simple bargain: upload a photo of an expired food coupon and get fresh savings — up to $4 — redeemable at Walmart, Target, Kroger or Amazon, on one condition: a Ziploc product must be in your cart.
The idea came from inflation math. With US food prices up about 20% over four years, shoppers had returned to coupons, yet 99.5% of issued coupons are never redeemed and expiring promos feel like money lost. Ziploc, whose entire brand promise is preservation, reasoned that rescuing coupons was the most on-brand favor it could do — a literal demonstration that it preserves what matters, including your wallet.
The mechanics were real-time: the system validated each uploaded promo before applying the reward at checkout alongside Ziploc items, across more than 80 retail partners and 65,000+ stores. The results were a 49% redemption rate, a 5% sales lift, 14% new buyers and a 61% share-of-voice increase.
At Cannes Lions 2025 the work took the Creative Commerce Grand Prix plus five more Lions, becoming the festival's proof that a commerce mechanic can be the creative idea itself rather than a bolt-on.
Why it lands
- The one condition — buy Ziploc to unlock the revived coupon — makes the product the enabler of the saving, not an interruption.
- Expired coupons are a frustration millions share, so the mechanic felt like a favor instead of an ad.
- Real-time validation plus a simple upload flow kept the barrier to entry almost zero.
- It rewarded an existing habit (clipping coupons) rather than asking shoppers to learn new behavior.
What it did
The campaign delivered a 49% redemption rate, a 5% sales lift, 14% new buyers and a 61% share-of-voice increase, and won the Creative Commerce Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2025 plus five more Lions.
What you can take
Instead of advertising preservation, Ziploc made the brand itself preserve value: shoppers only get money back when the product is in the cart, so utility, not persuasion, drives the sale.
Since then
Preserved Promos became the reference point for 'commerce as creativity' at Cannes 2025 and was cited across the trade press as one of the year's cleanest examples of turning utility into brand love. The platform itself was campaign-time, but the mechanic — expired savings revived at checkout — spread into shopper-marketing practice and was documented in WARC and industry award write-ups as a model for making the transaction the message.
Sources
- Cannes Lions 2025 Grand Prix Winners in Brand Experience & Activation, Business Transformation, Commerce, Effectiveness, Strategy, Innovation, and Luxury
- Ziploc wins Grand Prix and five Cannes Lions
- Ziploc: Preserved Promos (case study)
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