Major programmes increasingly using statements as promotional devices
Fourteen of the UK top 100 loyalty schemes now print targeted adverts in their loyalty statement ‘white space’.
That is one of the findings in a new study from direct communications company GI Direct.
The survey found there is a major ‘transpromo’ (transactional print and proactive marketing) opportunity in the loyalty sector as it does not suffer from the strict boundaries of regulatory compliance in the finance sector or the concerns of industries like energy, mobile phone, ISP, mail order, where small hiccups in billing runs can have a massive effect on cash flow.
Of the schemes studied, the Music/Entertainment, Mobile Phone & Electronics, and Retail industries had the strongest transpromo initiatives in place. With the benefit of repeat customers and successful points-based loyalty schemes, companies have ample opportunity to insert targeted advertising onto their loyalty statements.
The least advanced in loyalty scheme transpromo were credit card issuers, Hotels & Catering and Travel/Travel Agency companies
Patrick Headley, sales and marketing director, GI Direct, commented: “As pressure is mounting on marketers to achieve improved return on marketing investment in 2009 harnessing transpromo for cross sales, or to subsidise scheme costs through third party revenue, is turning into a commercial imperative. Thanks to low-cost, high-speed, good quality, variable colour technology is now allowing marketers to achieve creative impact within the context of transpromo and white space management.”
Percentage Use of ‘Transpromo’ by Sector
Music & Entertainment – 50%
Mobile Phone & Electronics – 40%
Retail – 31%
Credit Card – 15%
Hotels & Catering – 12%
Travel & Travel Agents – 8%