social media fan reward programs

MKTG 7546 – Marketing in a Digital Environment – Professor Brey

Social Media Fan Reward Program Marina N. Barrett

Social Media Fan Reward ProgramTrend Assessment 1

The Power of Engagement

“Reward programs are everywhere. Credit cards, frequent flier miles, grocery chains and drugstores.”9 As a society, getting things for free is something we greatly enjoy. Businesses realize that “nothing promotes profitability more than a high customer retention rate and strong sales within the customer base.”6 As the economy continues to fluctuate it has become more challenging for businesses to retain and maintain customers. However, this challenge would decrease if businesses optimized the platforms their customers enjoy and constantly engage in. “While social media may seem like a trend that’s too techy or too young…it’s a phenomenon that [businesses] can’t afford to ignore, postpone or delegate.”4

Social media can help businesses in areas such as customer service, market research, competitive intelligence, and reputation management al (Torrell, 2012)ong with many others, but it can also increase their customer engagement by integrating social media reward programs. Reward programs have worked for a variety of types of businesses and structured in a way that makes sense for their audience. Through social media, businesses can restructure their reward programs in order to generate a desired outcome. “Getting people to promote content is great but businesses should gear their program to provide the greatest incentives to actions that help reach business goals.”9 A recent survey by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council indicates that loyalty programs can strongly influence consumer’s buying decisions.6

The transparency and openness of Social Media makes identifying [a] brand enthusiasts very easy. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of marketing there is. Conversations are happening online all the time whether it be established social sites like Facebook or Twitter or rising ones such as Yelp or FourSquare. Identifying customers who are passionate and talking about your business or service within their social circles and rewarding them with bonuses or perks can do wonders for your business.5

The advantage of reward programs for businesses is that they do not have to distribute monetary rewards to every customer involved in order to maintain their engagement. Reward programs can instead offer incentives in the form of “points” and once reached the predetermined allocation of points then that customer can receive a reward. This entices customers to repeat and maintain their engagement through social media platforms. Social media allows businesses to eliminate the limitations that offline reward programs encompassed. “A modern loyalty rewards program that leverages Internet technology is the ideal tool for keeping your customers loyal and selling them more of your products and services.”6

The Buzz Around Sports

Traditionally, the sporting industry focuses on the fan and crowd engagement while your financial records are kept private and secure within your bank. Social media is a platform dedicated to enhancing communications and sharing personal and specific information at any given time. We tend to broadcast details of our lives on Facebook and Twitter for the world to see while allowing the Internet to keep for all times. But rarely, if at all, do you we see information about how much money we have in the bank offered publicly on the World-Wide-

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Social Media Fan Reward ProgramTrends Assessment 1

Web. The two cases I have selected to demonstrate the impact social media reward programs have on businesses today include, BuzzBanking and Baylor Bold Rewards. Two completely different establishments yet both utilizing similar platforms for social engagement.

I never thought banks would consider utilizing social media based on how private banking can be until PointBank in Pilot Point, Texas found a way. By boosting social media presence banks are finding a way to replace lost checking-account revenue. Slowly, banks are engaging in “BuzzBanking, a rewards program that lets customers earn points both for debit-card use and for publicizing their points-earning activities on Facebook and Twitter.”7 President of PointBank, Ray David Jr. believes, “social media brings value to the customer, it enhances the bank’s image and it is more direct marketing for the merchant”.7 BuzzBanking works when banks and credit unions join forces with the program and their customer’s current debit-card is transformed into a “Buzz-Enabled Debit-Card”. Every time a purchase is made with this card the customer accumulates points. These customers can then login to BuzzBanking’s website and track how many points you have earned. From there they can exchange those points for a variety of gift cards to businesses such as Chili’s, Target, and Travelocity.8

“The BuzzBanking model is a way for banks to wrap their arms around social media in a productive way that engages consumers and merchants. This allows them to control the message but in a fun way.”7 While BuzzBanking encompasses social media, the company does little to explain the impact that social media platforms have on their program. It states that the customers earn points by publicizing their earnings on sites such as Facebook and Twitter but their website does not address the real benefit they receive by doing so. I believe BuzzBanking could be more successful in gaining participation through banks/credit unions, involved merchants, and customers if they increasing the total amount of points one can receive by enhancing the social media publicity. For example, if I chose to trade in my points for a Chili’s gift card I could receive double points if I checked-in on FourSquare at the Chili’s I was using my card at, as well as using BuzzBanking promoted hashtag’s on Twitter. Not only would this maintain customer engagement it offers free marketing for Chili’s (as well as other businesses associated with BuzzBanking) when customers are talking about them rather than the competitors.

A potential application of this trend could be implemented across Universities. Most all universities offer meal plans to their students that can be accessed by using a university issued ID card it could also be transferred into a reward earing card. This could be popular among students who do not live on campus and either frequently or infrequently purchase a meal or coffee on campus. A system could be developed where students can go to a link on the universities website and add funds from to their student ID card. When that card is used to purchase anything on campus from food, books, tickets to athletic events, they would accumulate points which can be monitored on the same website that they use to add funds to the card. When a student earns a level of points they can then in turn exchanged those points for rewards. These rewards could range from a discount at the school book store to large prizes such as field access pass to a football game. The integration of social media would remain the same as students could also accumulate points for publicizing where they used their ID card, how many points they have earned, and what prize they are hopping to win. In order for the student to obtain these points they would be requited to share this news on specific university Facebook pages or tweet with promoted hashtags.

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On the complete opposite side of the business spectrum is Baylor University and their integration of social media in their athletic department with the Baylor Bold Rewards Program.

“Fans can sign up for the program at baylorboldrewards.com and connect their Facebook, Twitter and FourSquare accounts. All rewards points are automatically updated when they “like” things on Baylor Athletics’ Facebook page, tweet with specific hashtags and check in to athletic events, which are just a few of the ways to earn points. The only reason fans would need to go to Baylor’s rewards site is to check how many points they have earned and see how 1 they stack up to other Bears fans on the leaderboard.”2

At the end of the year the three participants with the most points will earn a prize, including the grand prize of getting to lead the Baylor football team out on the field for the first game of the 2012 season and receive an iPad2. However, participants receive points and prizes throughout the year as an incentive to participate.1,2 The best thing Baylor University did with the development of their rewards program is not limiting it to their student body. The program is offered for all Baylor students and non-students, which offers engagement nationwide. Baylor was extremely smart in making the process simple and compliant with today’s most popular social media platforms.

Baylor provides to have a strong handle on this trend based especially on the timeframe that they launched the program. Baylor Bold Rewards Program was introduced at the beginning of their basketball season when their women’s team was ranked number one in the country and their men’s team ranked number seven. This generated strong online buzz in their first few weeks of the programs existence. Baylor could be more successful with this trend and their program if they had mid-year grand prize winners. This would offer awareness to those who may not be familiar with the program including recognizing dedicated participants. The Baylor Bold Rewards Program is the most promising and effective program I have ever seen initiated by a sporting entity. I see this program expanding and becoming implemented among all sporting events from High School athletic departments to the Olympics while being designed for their specific needs.

The Baylor Bold Rewards Program could also be applied to the movie theater industry. Using Malco Paradiso Movie Theater as an example, they could implement a rewards program in order to increase attendance at the movies. Following the same structure that Baylor University created Malco would be able to promote the program during the commercials prior to the start of each film. This would allow as a constant reminder to all the individuals in attendance to reach for their phone and check in to the theater and publicize what movie they were attending. The participants could also receive double the points if they posted a review about the movie they watched or service they received while at the theater. Rewards could range from free movie passes to a discount in the fee for commercial advertisement; as well as a congratulatory message to the grand prize winner on the same add that promotes the program.

Social Media Growl Towel

I reached out to the Director of New Media, Brad Sheffield, at Baylor University in hopes of gathering information on the direct impact the University and Athletic Department had seen

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based on the Baylor Bold Rewards Program as well as the future of the program; sadly I never received a response.

Fortunately, I was able to connect with Lesley Torrell, Director, Internet Marketing and Web Development, for the Memphis Grizzlies. Lesley has been with the Grizzlies for 11 years and responsible for strategy and implementation of interactive marketing initiative for the team and FedExForum. She is also the team liaison for NBA.com and TicketMaster.com.

I met with Lesley in her office at FedExForum to discuss the current trends she saw impacting the Grizzlies through social media while she also learned about the trends and topics we have been discussing in our class. She seemed extremely eager to learn and be refreshed on the world of social media wile informing me how the Grizzlies utilize such platforms. I described both case studies from Baylor University and PointBank, and of course we leaned towards a more engaging conversation regarding the Baylor Bold Rewards Program. Lesley described to me how fascinating and simple the program seemed to be and something that could be considered for implementation for the team. As for impacting the business landscape (i.e., the Memphis Grizzlies) she sees the trend being used by many professional teams with a strong number of participation, solely based on the interaction the Grizzlies Facebook fan page and Twitter account see on a regular basis. Naturally on game nights these sites attract participation, so to have a game/contest that the fans can engage in during a Grizzlies game is something that can and will easily be accomplished.

Fan’s attending any type of event, whether it be within FedExForum or any other arena in the world, they love to be engaged and close to the action. Lesley sees the Grizzlies and FedExForum being impacted by the trend of reward programs via social media because of this desire for engagement. Lesley described a new text-messaging-system that the arena released at the beginning of this season where fans who were attending any ticketed event could send messages to a dispatcher regarding any incidents, such as a vulgar behavior or spilled condiments, which were located in their area. Although there were a large sum of messages received by the dispatcher resulting in false accusations, the system soon made it more engaging for fans to be a part of the action throughout the arena; especially if they saw a fan two rows ahead of them being escorted out by security. Because of the strong engagement that the text based system displayed, Lesley believes that the impact social media has on their fans could bring an overwhelming increase in participation though positive messages distributed by those fans especially if rewards were an ending factor.

As for Lesley’s thoughts on the future of the trend; she sees it becoming implemented among more college athletic departments sooner than professional teams. While she believes that this trend has been growing and will continue to grow as social media strategies are integrated in to the industry, professional teams will have to decipher whether this trend is more important than the perks and benefits that season ticket holders currently receive. The Grizzlies season ticket holders, known as MVP’s, receive a variety of rewards for every year they continue as season ticket holders. While these rewards may not offer immediate satisfaction it is something that the organization would need to discuss because they do not want to lessen the degree of prestige that the season ticket holders receive. While there are season ticket holders and boosters within college athletics there is a larger threshold of fans, students and non-students, which can participate in a rewards program. This allows for a quicker implementation of the program

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without the risk of lessening the prestige of the incentives boosters and season ticket holders receive.

In order for the Grizzlies to stay ahead of competitors they must determine how other NBA teams and college athletics are successfully utilizing social media. Lesley told me that she is aware of the rate that Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and YouTube is accelerating and that it is important to remain close to social media and technological advancements in order to benefit from them before their competitors do. Lesley explained to me that she does not have enough employees within her department to fully monitor all of their social media outlets or remain educated on the benefits they can obtain through such monitoring. She believes that if she wants to stay ahead of the competition, besides researching other teams, she needs to expand her staff so that research and tasks of monitoring can occur and be put towards a promising use and a successful outcome.

Social Media Sums It Up

When businesses want to strongly influence their consumers’ buying decisions it is important that they meet those consumers needs and wants on the platforms that reach them best. Through social media businesses can reach out to their existing customer base and ask them to connect with the business through their favorite social sites.3,6 By offering incentives to customers through rewards programs via social networking sites you remain at the top of their mind and usually a big factor in their decision making process for repeat business or visits. Social media rewards programs have become the most effective way to engage consumers, retain loyalty and provide satisfaction.

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Reference List: 1. Baylor Bold Rewards Program. (n.d.). Retrieved from Baylor Athletics:

http://baylorboldrewards.com/

2. Beise, K., & Howes, L. (2011, December 12). Social Media Fan Rewards: Baylor University Uses Innovative New Program to Reward Fans. Retrieved from Sports Networker: http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2011/12/12/social-media-fan-rewards-baylor-university-uses-innovative-new-program-to-reward-fans/

3. Customer Reward Programs Through Social Media. (n.d.). Retrieved from Brand Advance: http://www.brandadvance.net/blog/customer-reward-programs

4. Getting Social . (2011, October). Retrieved from Food-Management.com: food-management.com/business_topics/operations/letting-students-take-lead1011

5. Measuring Social Media ROI. (n.d.). Retrieved from Brand Advance: http://www.brandadvance.net/blog/measuring-social-media-roi

6. Rutigliano, J. (2011). Get Sticky! Don't Take Chances on Customer Retention. Indoor Comfort Marketing , 70 (4), 12-16.

7. Stewart, J. (2011, January 2). Bank Uses Social Media Rewards to Buoost Revenue. Business Source Premier .

8. Torrell, L. (2012, Febuary 8). Director, Internet Markeing and Web Development, Memphis Grizzlies. (M. Barrett, Interviewer)

9. Video Tour: BuzzBanking. (n.d.). Retrieved from BuzzBanking: http://www.buzzbanking.com/

10. Whitney, D. (2011, August 2). How Social Rewards Programs are Changing Online Marketing. Retrieved from Social Meda Today: http://socialmediatoday.com/dean-whitney/328865/how-social-rewards-programs-are-changing-online-marketing

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