We’re trying to help global brands control, manage and lower redemption costs of rewards points within their global rewards programs – can it be done? Can we have one set of solutions that globally work to reduce risk, lowering the cost of points redemption while engaging the audience effectively?

When it comes to loyalty and promotions, adding the word ‘international’ or ‘global’ sparks fear, due to the many aspects of legal, UX, data management and overall program delivery that must be considered.  After years of working through the logistics, companies launch these marketing beasts… beasts of burden.

Redemption of points becomes a thought that keeps marketers sleepless at night and gives CFOs the shakes, as the points that engaged such massive audiences begin to be redeemed. Once the program is mature, the audience is captured and the membership active, you might think it’s time to ring the bell and hang your hat on an incredible feat… but it’s just beginning.

A Newer World

Today’s loyalty memberships expect more. They expect instant. They expect new.

How can an organization do this without incurring incredible costs and thousands of ongoing unbilled hours burned?

Let’s Focus on a Key Word – Instant

Instant Coffee, 30-second drive-through windows, 10-second online processing, instant cash… everything in our world, especially in the millennium category, is instant.

And so it should be!

Good for everyone for wanting something now; with advances in technology and customer services workflows, there is no reason why instant cannot become resident in almost everything.

Instant Loyalty?

So, let’s look at loyalty programs and how they leverage instant:

• Earn points instantly – Good
• If you have enough points, buy catalog items and get them instantly (if digital) – Good
• Save, save, and save enough points so you can then spend points on catalog items… – Not good as it takes too long.
• Let’s give access to great adventures in sweepstakes… enter… wait for draw… still waiting… finally, the draw happens and after all the non-instant waiting… no win – Bad

Few – if any – loyalty programs are focused on instant gratification on the rewards side of the fence. Take that ethos to a global scale and there is only one company successfully helping.

I won’t even tell you who!

How ‘instant’ can save your program!

We know people, generally speaking, are hooked on ‘instant’. So, if we offer a chance to win instantly for spending a few points, the assumption is a reasonable % of members will do this.

What if I told you that 15-25% of members will try it and 10-15% will continually play? What if I told you that a proper instant win experience could drive 10X more points than the same $1 spent in a catalog?

Yep, it can.

Here’s how…

We have developed a global promotions capability with all legal requirements completed, integrated with the local registration, bonding, and lotteries to ensure our instant win games are compliant.

We have even created the redemption and prizing systems that allow us to reward winners in their local currency with prizes unique to their country and cultures.

Where do we fit?

The IC Group platform features simple integration tools allowing any loyalty program to tap into our systems to effectively deliver instant win games quickly and efficiently without significant IT support.

By building the service first, and executing it in over 20 countries today, we have refined our processes to keep costs extremely low. This specific detail allows us to provide a significantly powerful solution which helps burn remarkable numbers of points, at fractions of the typical costs, thereby making programs more profitable and consistently driving a lower cost-per-point.

Does instant really work better than sweepstakes?

Executing both will allow you to manage your budgets well. Each of our programs has both long-term sweepstakes and instant win games as part of their model.

While sweepstakes typically cost a little less to execute globally, they typically drive about 50% less point spend than instant win games.

I’d say that sweepstakes are a 5:1 ratio and instant win is 10:1 ratio.

What if your program is in many countries?

Choosing to launch an instant win game in each country your loyalty program is in is very possible. We routinely launch multiple programs in multiple languages, each following their own set of laws and requirements.

Some countries are easy, and some are very difficult, and some you may just want to avoid outright.

If you’re interested in knowing more, let us know as we’d be happy to map it out for you.

Why is it so complicated?

No different than how each company has its own policies for its employees, each country has their own policies on promotional governance.

Some are risk adverse, and some are quite simple. Remember; promotion and lotteries are big money, so countries want to make sure compliancy is strictly managed, which means you have to jump through additional hoops if you’re not a lottery.

It’s a good thing we are great jumpers and successfully managed all of the hoops you need to worry about!

What is the risk reward of doing instant win programs?

The risk is that you decide to do one and you do not deliver and manage the program to the local requirements of the law. This would be disastrous, and there is no margin for error. Lack of compliance comes with harsh penalties and ignorance is not a defense.

The rewards that you are going to execute properly are numerous and bountiful. Membership that can engage earlier in your redemption cycle making them participants again. Lower cost items in the catalog to drive frequency of participation which we all know is an ingredient for loyalty.

Tons of winners to announce, nothing feels better than people knowing others are winning, and this drives higher participation across the membership.

Massive cost savings. Eliminating $5 Million to $25 million of redemption costs for fractions of the cost is real and happening. Imagine saving that much on your current loyalty program and what you could do with that money to further drive sales and membership.

Don’t wait until tomorrow. We will show you how instant can change your global loyalty program.