Incentive Promotion Acting Badly?

At the Confidential, we loathe to criticize incentive marketing in general. In some ways, we feel a strange duty to protect and promote our own, not to mention that many of our sponsors have, and continue to, make their living off the incentive promotion space. Those that have been through incentive promotion offers know that they contain many steps, up to 100 points of interaction with offers not tied to the incentive, and navigation that directs the user rather than the user directing themselves. They do this because getting volume requires it. In order for an incentive promotion company to obtain users, it must both, out compete another incentive offer and out compete other offers. It must pay out more than a dollar per initial submit to compete with other offers, and convert well enough so that emailers will run it and companies who market them can continue to buy billions of banner impressions.

In the end, though, it comes down to user value and a phrase we like to use, consideration. We bring this topic of value and consideration up now because as many outside of this space have assumed incentive promotion offers are on the decline, they continue to thrive. More importantly though, to those in the space, do not assume it without future scrutiny. The incentive promotion space has formalized quite a bit with respect to its explanatory language and disclaimers. Some companies have even settled and/or come to agreements with brand holders. That though, does not mean, the industry can consider itself out of the woods. As the saying goes, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. We are not, so instead of making this about judging the industry, we thought it best to simply shed some transparency on the process and ultimately provide some suggestions. This explains why we do not reference the specific offers and names of those behind them.

For this experiment, we went through two different (or so we think) offers and report the findings below.

#1

Landing Page Offer Fine Print:
To receive the gift for this promotion you must: 1) register with valid information; 2) complete the user survey; 3) complete at least 3 Silver, 6 Gold and 6 Platinum offers.

Survey Language:
Complete the Survey Below
Please take a few moments to respond to our optional survey, filled with Free Stuff & Special Offers!
All offers are optional – Sign up if you are interested. Please answer each question truthfully & accurately.
To earn your gift [Name of Gift] you must continue through the entire survey.

Survey Process:
Step 1 of survey – 33 individually presented
Step 2 – 21, yes/no 7 preselected, does offer a skip
Step 3 – yes/no, 12, none selected, no skip
Step 4 – offers – clearly defined amount of silver to complete
Step 5 – when done looking at the actual incentive offers, 16 more offers to look at, this time as "bonus gifts"
plus a link to one more page;
Final offer to follow – Chrohns Disease – treatcrohnstoday.com, lead gen for Abbot Labs. (interesting)

Exit pops: 1

Highlights from T&C’s:
· 3 Easy Steps to Get Your Gift. Page 1 – complete any 3 offers; Page 2 – complete any 6 offers; Page 3 – complete any 6 offers to get your gift. Purchase may be required.
· “You have qualified for your Gift” will be posted on the Gift Status Page in your Member Account, along with a Gift Redemption Voucher that you need to print out and complete. You must mail your fully completed Gift Redemption Voucher to the address listed on the voucher within ninety (90) days after your Gift Redemption Voucher is made available to you. Keep a copy of your completed Gift Redemption Voucher for your records.
· The purpose of the survey is to learn about your interests, so that we can provide you with information and future marketing materials and Offers that fit your personality and lifestyle. (In answer to whether these offers count towards promotional item)

# 2

Landing Page Offer Fine Print:
To receive the incentive gift you must: 1) register with valid information; 2) complete the user survey; 3) complete at least 2 Silver, 2 Gold and 6 Platinum offers; and 4) refer 2 unique household(s) that also complete these requirements. Purchase may be required.

Note: on submit of landing page pop under of "last steps", i.e. page of actual offers shown; on exit of that though, nine links plus a continue at the bottom that takes you to an offer unrelated

Survey Language:
Complete the Survey Below Here are some great offers for you. Click “Yes” to as many as you like and continue. To earn your free* Gift, you must continue through the entire survey.

Survey Process:
Step 1 – 10 yes / no questions, shown one at a time
Step 2 – outsourced to third-party, 25 yes/no offers, 20 preselected to yes; no option to skip or check all no
Step 3 – also outsourced, 27 yes/no, majority prechecked, different layout, does have a skip at the bottom
Step 4 – 5 yes/no all set to yes with a skip
Step 5 – back to original path; 15 yes/no, no skip, 5 already yes
Step 6 – shown full forms offers, must scroll to bottom to skip, 4 offers total
Step 7 – 16 yes/no, none prechecked, no skip, but – all supposedly optional – but you have to select yes to one to continue
Step 7 – continued – offer you had to select; previous / next arrows on top, submit, skip buttons on bottom; hit skip
Step 8 – 13 yes/no – none checked blank
Step 9 – shown individual form offers again – 3 total
Step 10 – 15 yes/no none pre-checked
Step 11 – Last Step woo hoo – yet, now the real work begins, as you still have 10 offers to do yourself and you have to get have two other people to do the same (if they can get this far).

Exit pops: 1 then 1 on that (2 total)

Highlights from T&C’s:
· Each account expires 60 days from the date you register on the site.
· A user may complete more than required offers and may refer more than two (2) referrals, but cannot earn more than 1 free product with their account. Any additional referrals or offer completions will not result in any additional free items.
· Users may only receive 1 free item per account.
· This offer expires 60 days from the date you register on the site.
· If at the end of the 60 day period, you have successfully completed the required number sponsored offers but have not referred two (2) unique households who have successfully completed the required number sponsored offers, you will not be eligible to receive the free promotional item; but as a consolation for participating, you will automatically receive a complementary $50 gift card.
· After verifying your mailing address at the Redemption Center, a Redemption certificate will be generated. Print out this certificate and mail it to the address provided in the Redemption Center instructions.
· Your Redemption certificate must be postmarked within 15 days of your final required offer being “Approved.”

And then?
Exactly. We said in the opening, we wanted to shed some transparency on the process and ultimately provide some suggestions. Increased transparency, check. Suggestions for the industry…we are but opinion. Let’s hear what you think. Comment below or email us and we’ll publish an unofficial best practices for Incentive Marketers next week. Thanks in advance for your contributions.