Brands face challenges when it comes to increasing sales.
They ideally want to grow their customer base, but finding new customers is more expensive than keeping existing customers and can increase loyalty.
Brendan Grove, chief technology officer and co-founder of AdTech firm Prizeout, told PYMNTS in an interview that brands are rethinking their cost structures and go-to-market strategies.
Branded currency (the currency attached to gift cards) can be a strategic differentiator in all cases.
$21 billion worth of unused gift cards. Done right, brands can use that currency to unlock its value, engage and re-engage customers, strengthen brand loyalty, and find new audiences.
“Marketers looking for an edge aren’t necessarily new,” says Grove.
However, in the current environment, beyond the increasing competition among platforms for a share of consumers’ wallets, the cost of capital itself is rising.
Pursue further brand efficiency
“Brands are increasingly looking for efficiency, but not just new user growth all the time,” he said. “Enhancing customer lifetime value is becoming a big focus.”
The three pillars of customer strategy rest on awareness, care and intent. The best strategy is to leverage gift cards through digital channels to touch each of these pillars simultaneously.
Through platform models like Prizeout, digital gift cards leap to that concept of “branded currency,” he said. The company’s AdTech platform is worth more than what the card’s “face value” is called. ties.
“The reason we started moving from digital gift cards to the term branded currency is because it’s not a gift,” said Grove. “Self-use.”
So instead of spending money to reach users and increase their customer ranks on Facebook, brands are effectively spending money on users by offering personalized deals that give them extra money. .
“An added 10% to 12% is cheaper than most other ways to acquire customers,” he said. “Brands get conversions. Users get paid.”
Prizeout partners with companies in 10+ verticals including credit unions, banks, gig economy and gaming. The company announced in March that he partnered with Flatiron Gaming to provide a new channel for real money gaming brands that can offer digital card promotions. Gaming companies don’t pay for clicks or impressions, but gain inherent advantages in targeting and retargeting as users see fit, Grove said.
Joining another partnership announced late last year, this time with Square, the model is now scalable for any kind of vertical, he said. The joint effort will allow Square’s enterprise clients to link their accounts to Prizeout and digitally gift his cards into a variety of withdrawal solutions that fit the individual customer’s value proposition.
Going forward, unlocking the $21 billion in branded currency currently frozen in unused gift cards will be made easier “by our continued transition to digital and by brands being digital first,” he said. Grove said.
These cards sit unused in consumers’ desk drawers while consumers seek additional purchasing power. The intersection of brand awareness, voluntary spending, and the digital platform model that underpins it all “will take away those unspent funds,” he said.
