The saying goes that you've got to play to win. For Citi Cards, the name of the game is getting cardholders spending to win.
The credit titan uses prize promotions both online and off to encourage use of its cards, says Robbin Smilg, vice president for e-business profit enhancement marketing at Citi Cards, a member of CitiGroup.
A typical promotion might encourage cardholders to use their account for holiday shopping, offering a toy shopping spree as a sweepstakes prize. But while such promotions work well as retention tools, Citi Cards doesn't employ them in prospecting efforts.
“Especially in credit card financial services, you don't want someone acquiring your product because they might win a dream vacation,” says Smilg. “You want them acquiring your product because it's a good fit for them and they need it and they'll use it, as opposed to a gimmick.”
Citi Cards bases its marketing strategies on behavior. “We look at customers based on the way they use the product and interact with us,” says Smilg. “For example, if someone is a heavy catalog shopper, that could bridge across different products or consumer types. That could be a college student or a retiree. In terms of targeting, in the DM business, it's much easier to find someone based on the way they interact with you, as opposed to psychographic or demographic [data], which really isn't predictive in the kinds of programs we do anyway.”
With creative by both an in-house team and outside agencies, the company uses direct mail and online tactics to conduct its contests. The Web is an ideal promotional tool, because many customers already go to the Citicards.com site regularly anyway to self-service their account, she says. Another benefit of the Web is that, because it gives marketers conducting contests an easier place to disclose all of the “long and intimidating” looking copy for the contest rules, mailing piece sizes can be reduced. Instead of always printing the rules on the direct mail pieces, Citi Cards can steer consumers to the Web, where they can read all about the promotion.
As for direct mail, Citi Cards — which has over 9 million accounts — relies on a number of methods, including standalone pieces and inserts in monthly billing statements.
“Reinforcing the message in the most places and using the less costly channels to supplement a direct mail piece has been our general approach,” she notes.
An umbrella branding campaign created by Fallon, dubbed Live Richly, helps create a consistent feeling across communications in all of CitiGroup's business units, says Smilg.
“It's important for each unit to incorporate Live Richly into their marketing messages. It helps us have a different personality from our competitors,” she says. “And when you have a consistent voice in the marketplace, a business unit can step up communications for their needs and they're not starting from ground zero. Having that consistent message reinforces the brand.”
The company judges the ROI of its prize promotion efforts based on whether an effort achieved its desired goal (such as increasing card usage, moving members to pay their bill online, or collecting survey data), and — not surprisingly — the revenue minus the cost of the promotion.
“We've very disciplined in our marketing here,” notes Smilg. “We're always in a test, read, rollout mode.”
To be successful, a promotion must be relevant and conscious of the marketing environment. For example, says Smilg, two years ago a phone card promotion would have been very successful. “But it wouldn't be now because of the popularity of cellular phones,” she says. “It's a combination of looking at previous results and keeping current with the marketplace and consumers.”
Smilg says doing co-op promotions has been very cost-effective for Citi Cards. In a co-op prize promotion, several companies buy into a prize pool with a given set of rules for a fixed cost. Each company can promote it to as many customers as they choose, and determine how a consumer enters the contest.
“It's really nice because you can customize [your contest] communications and all the backbone is turnkey and cost-effective,” she says. “It's good for my team; customizing rules, getting a sweeps bonded and all other requirements can be quite intensive.”
Aside from giving yourself a generous lead time to get a contest in order and meet all the legal requirements, the most important factor in running a successful prize promotion is being clear on your objective, says Smilg.
“Have the prize promotion tied to the objective. For example, a dream vacation could be related to credit cards, but we've had most success when the prize and promotion are linked to desired behavior. Something removed from credit cards or financial transactions doesn't resonate with consumers.”
— BNV
Robbin Smilg of Citi Cards, Marla Altberg of Ventura Associates Inc. and Kristian Chronister of Andin International Inc. (a division of Jewelry.com) will present “Prize Promotions: The Blossoming Marriage of Online and Offline,” on Tuesday, June 3 at 3:50 p.m.
