Postage printing system having a digital coupon distribution system

A method of operating a coupon distribution system within a postage printing system, the coupon distribution system including a computer in operative communication with a printer for printing a postal indicium on an envelope and a data center in operative communication with the computer, the computer being located remotely from the data center, the data center including a plurality of postage accounts and a plurality of advertiser accounts, each of the plurality of advertiser accounts including respective ad data having coupon data and restriction data, each of the coupon data representative of a coupon, for printing on the envelope, the method comprising the step(s) of:

• establishing a transaction session between the computer and the data center, the user corresponding to one of the plurality of postage accounts;
• obtaining recipient address information from the user;
• and
• using the recipient address information and the restriction data from the plurality of advertiser accounts to identify a subset of coupons available for printing on the envelope in conjunction with the postal indicium.

A method of operating a data center, the data center in operative communication with a computer system including a printer for printing a postal indicium on an envelope, the method comprising the step(s) of:

• maintaining a plurality of postage accounts;
• maintaining a plurality of advertiser accounts, each of the plurality of advertiser accounts including respective ad data having coupon data and restriction data, each of the coupon data representative of a coupon, respectively, for printing on the envelope;
• establishing a transaction session with a user of the computer system, the user corresponding to one of the plurality of postage accounts;
• receiving recipient address information from the user;
• and
• using the recipient address information and the restriction data from the plurality of advertiser accounts to identify a subset of coupons available for printing on the envelope in conjunction with the postal indicium.

A product, comprising:

• a computer readable medium;
• and
• executable code for a postage application on the computer readable medium, wherein when read and executed the code for the postage application causes a programmable processor to perform the following steps:
• receiving a request for an indicia from a non-postage application via an application program interface;
• in response to the request, establishing a transaction session between the computer and a data center;
• sending to the data center recipient address information corresponding to a mailpiece;
• and
• receiving from the data center a subset of coupons available for printing on the mailpiece;
• and
• printing a postage indicia and at least one coupon of the subset of coupons on the mailpiece.