Promo - April 2008 - (Page S13) casual restaurants, many verticals are now utilizing incentive gift cards to retain customers and acquire new customers through partnerships with non-competing brands.” Creative examples aren’t hard to find. Circuit City and Disney teamed up last spring to promote the premiere of “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.” The offering was a co-branded DVD gift card featuring clips from the movie and interactive content that could be used on DVD players, computer CD drives and popular gaming consoles. That was Circuit City’s second foray into DVD gift cards. During the 2006 holiday season, it promoted 24 of its hottest products by offering a game and free downloads from eMusic.com. Best Western International recently launched a co-branded NASCAR travel gift card designed to appeal to stockcar fans with a holographic checkered flag. This is the chain’s first foray into creating customized cards with a special audience in mind. “It makes sense for our brand because NASCAR fans and the Best Western customer are one and the same,” says Dorothy Dowling, senior vice president, marketing and sales at Best Western. The cards will be sold at retail outlets, and Best Western expects that corporate partners will offer them to both employees and customers. Then there’s the new Starbucks-AT&T partnership. Starting this spring, Starbucks Card holders and more than 17 million AT&T customers can enjoy up to two consecutive hours of free wi-fi service per day at Starbucks locations. Starbucks customers must use their cards at least once per month to maintain the benefit—not a problem for most coffee drinkers—14% of all Starbucks retail transactions take place through the cards. And get this. Starbucks now allows customers to customize the cards that they buy online. They can add the name of the recipient or user, occasion messages and a variety of graphics and designs, including a photo of their favorite beverage. CARDS WITH MULTIPLE BRANDS AND THEMES Card users were once limited to buying from a single brand. No more. They can now purchase from several retailers or providers—in fact, multiple brands are often featured on the same card, and branded on the card carrier. For example, Maritz, using patented technology that enables merchant filtering, ran a campaign for one healthcare provider that wanted to promote wellness, reports Toni Ashby, product manager, rewards, Maritz Motivation. The consumer received a specified number of points toward selected health oriented merchants. Visa is marketing a healthcare gift card through Givewell.com to both consumers and corporate programs. It can be used for a variety of health-related costs for which Visa debit cards are accepted, including doctor and pharmacy co-pays, dental care, health club memberships and elective procedures like Lasik and cosmetic surgery. But that’s not all—multiple-brand cards (and online platforms that enable redeeming points but don’t require a phys- How to Select Incentives Finding the right incentives is now akin to science—or at least to direct marketing. There’s a substantial body of knowledge about what works for which types of objectives and audiences, and ample research tools to address promotion-specific questions. Here’s advice on key best practices from incentive pros: <Clearly define your objectives and base performance levels, and put effective metrics in place before selecting incentives or starting a program. (See “Boosting the Bottom Line” for more on goal setting and performance measurement.) <Know your audience and their incentive preferences. “Voice of the participant” research is strongly recommended for employee motivation programs. Continued S15 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT S 13 http://eMusic.com http://Givewell.com
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