Webstakes Two years ago, Steven Krein launched Webstakes with a simple idea. Marketers needed a way to get surfers to touch down on their page, and Krein’s program proved to be a great conduit. Webstakes offers weekly prizes to people who register at its home site. Participants can increase their chances to win by visiting the corporate Web sites; the more visits, the better the chances to win.
“It allows marketers to promote their own promotion,” Krein says. “They can elevate their products from six clicks down on their Web page to feature status.”
The program has paid off, increasing its members to 1.2 million. Nearly half of those choose to receive a weekly email to update them of the new prizes.
Webstakes makes members fill out a registration form and it can glean information from what sites they visit and their online behavior. This info helps target the offers, and better serve marketers. Prizes range in value from $200 to $400 and are offered through 10 different interest areas.
More than 50 merchants have signed onto the service, from software seller Siberian Outpost to CBS Sportsline to Universal Studios.
Krein says when he started almost all the companies were looking to increase visits to their Web sites. Now, 80 percent are looking to make sales on those sites, he adds.
Comparing Aisles For years supermarket chains have led the loyalty surge with their frequent shopper clubs. Club cards not only allow retailers to confer instant discounts on shoppers, but to keep track of their shopping habits as well.
Retailers mining the one-to-one marketing potential of card programs are few, but the rapid growth of the Internet seems to have goosed marketers into action. With their competitors just a click away, retailers have started to work harder to create the loyalty that every marketer craves.
Dick’s Supermarkets, an eight-store chain in northwestern Illinois, offers customers Internet coupons that can be loaded right onto their club cards. Visitors to the Dick’s Web page register for the program using their card number. They click on the offers they like, and then receive the discounts when the cashier swipes their cards at checkout. The Dick’s program was the first implementaion of U-pons, a system devised by San Francisco-based Planet U.
The first results are in and those who champion FSIs should have a seat. Compared to the 2 percent redemption FSIs usually get, Dick’s U-pons snared a 20-percent redemption rate for national brands. (Distribution of U-pons, of course, are much more limited than FSIs, considering potential users have to activate the offer themselves.)
“The success of U-pons has been phenomenal,” says Bob Brodbeck, president and ceo of Brodbeck Enterprises, the operator of Dick’s.
Planet U has just signed a deal with Kroger to put the coupons on the 1,400-store grocery chain Web site. Kroger will use the technology to push its own Kroger Brand products. Surfers will click on the offers they want and then receive the coupons in the mail, reducing the possibility of coupon fraud.
Home-grown Memphis-based Piggly Wiggly, meanwhile, uses its own home page to push Pig Power, the chain’s frequent shopper club. The retailer offers the ability to create a personalized shopping list before you leave home and a chance for shoppers to find out about current Piggly Wiggly promotions. The site also includes its own online coupons, allowing users to download and print the coupons for easy redemption.
This might not add up to the online shopping many were championing years ago, but it does allow shoppers to prepare for their trips and spend less time in the store. At least it’s a start.
For any incentive program, “the worse thing you can do is give somone something they don’t want,” Parker adds. His program lets consumers pick prizes from the regular catalogs of partners, getting the same merchandise that’s for sale. And with prices set at a penny a point, Parker has avoided setting up a program that requires a year’s worth of activity to earn enough points to claim an umbrella.
Parker also offers marketers the opportunity to target potential customers differently. For example, Hanes can give women more points for the same tasks men complete simply because women are better customers for Hanes. The marketer can also make sure that when a customer links from mypoints.com to the corporate home page, the surfer is greeted with an appropriate message. Hanes puts men on a page showing boxers and briefs, while women are connected to a page that shows lingerie.
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