Source : PROMO Magazine
Online promos get better mileage when they're connected to offline traffic and sales. E-stakes, Chicago, links on-pack gamepieces to Web promo's on a brand's site. Consumers enter online for instant prizes; marketers collect demographic data and offer discounts or loyalty points redeemable in-store.
Chicago Transit Authority ran a Take It and Win instant-win sweeps on fare cards to support its new "Take It" ad campaign and revamped web site. Riders entered their fare card's PIN at CTA's Web site to win commuter related prizes like Sony Discman players. Thousands of Chicagoans played - 87 percent of them were first-time visitors to CTA's site.
E-stakes turns one year old next month under ad veteran and founder Laurie Cairns. More information: www.e-stakes.com or 312-670-0077.
CUSTOMERS TO YOUR WEB SITE
Source : Internet Marketing Report
A new product creates online sweepstakes that can drive in lots of traffic to your site.
This product provides your offline prospects and customers with a unique PIN number that only they can open online to see if they've won.
Supports your brand only
You can deliver this sort of PIN to people in your:
When people clik on to your site, they must first fill out entry forms with the marketing info you need. You get reports about what sorts of people respond to your sweepstakes.
Unlike promotional services that entice visitors with points and credits, this product supports your brand only. After people take part in your contest or promotion, they remain on your site, not the site that awards points or credits.
It's easy for customers because they might win right away. With services that award points, people must visit several times to get enough points.
You can also use this tool to develop a loyalty program that gives buyers points,, discounts, rebates, etc.
And if you sell online, you can see how, where, what and when people are buying after various promotions.
So far, most users are consumer sites like the Chicago Transit Authority. Sales of CTA fare cards rose 50% during its sweepstakes. Site traffic surged - and 87% of sweepstakes participants were first-time visitors to the site, www.transitchicago.com.
Source : Digitrends.net
By: Abby Garcia
This week, Digitrends talked to Laurie Cairns, president of e-stakes (www.e-stakes.com), a Chicago-based firm that integrates online and offline branding in client promotion programs. Cairns discussed a recent e-stakes promotion launched last summer involving a major public transportation company.
Digitrends: Describe your recent Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) interactive promotions program.
Cairns: The "Take It and Win" promotion was designed to reward existing riders, encourage trial of the CTA, and make people aware of the CTA Web site (www.transitchicago.com). Off-line, the campaign was marketed to existing riders with signage on CTA?s fare card vending machines and other media such as TV, radio, outdoor and CTA vehicles. Online, we promoted the CTA campaign with banner ads in some Chicago-oriented Internet sites. We also advertised on WeatherChannel.com because they provide very localized information. The campaign launched last July and ended in August.
Digitrends: How did the CTA e-stakes promotion work?
Cairns: When riders purchased their CTA fare cards, there was printed on each card a personal identification number (PIN). With PIN in hand, riders were prompted to go to the CTA Web site to enter the "Take It and Win" contest by entering their PIN along with key demographic information. When the number entered matched the one displayed on the site, they won. Prizes varied from a trip to St. Thomas to CD players.
Digitrends: Did the campaign actually help increase ridership on the CTA? Did it encourage people to visit the CTA Web site?
Cairns: Yes on both counts. Ridership is on the rise and awareness of the Web site increased with the promotion. Fare card sales spiked during the promotion. As for the Web site, average hits per month skyrocketed. We wanted people to know what the CTA had to offer and we accomplished that.
Digitrends: Are you seeing an uptick in online and off-line promotions as a way to drive Web site traffic?
Cairns: Not just to drive traffic, but to drive sales. But to do this, marketers have to do two things: one, they have to integrate advertising practices in a meaningful way; and two, they have to use the Web to build a relationship with their customers. If they do these two things the Internet can be a key part of effective branding.
CONSUMERS EMBRACE STORED-VALUE PROGRAMS
Source : Card Marketing
By: Laurie Freeman
Retailers are flooding display shelves this holiday shopping season with gift cards, stored value cards that retailed hope soon will supplant paper gift certificates....
BUDGET RAISED TO $3 MIL. FOR JOINT AD EFFORT
Source : ADWEEK
By: Jenn Goddu
CHICAGO - Looking to keep ridership growth on track, the Chicago Transit Authority has launched a $3 million campaign from LEC LTD. and Fusion Idea Lab to boost its image.
TV, radio, print and outdoor ads from the Chicago shops suggest public transportationis a "cool thing to be doing", said LEC president Laurie Cairns.
It's been several years since the CTA has spent this much on a marketing effort aimed at riders, said CTA representative Noelle Gaffney. Ridership is up over 40,000 a day this year, and the agency wants to build on that, Gaffney said. "We want to invite people to take a second look," she said.
Using the tag "Take It," the work, which broke over the weekend adn will run for a year, plays on the perils of private commuting.
In the 15-second TV spots, CTA buses and trains pass quickly while phrases such as "Stop road rage before it starts" and "Good luck finding parking" remind viewers of the realities of braving the commute alone.
The radio features a man-on-the-street interview about the hazards of road construction and parking with a person waiting for a table at a restaurant. CTA passangers at a nearby table are already on their second course.
Source : internet news.com
LEC Ltd., an integrated advertising and new media firm in Chicago, launched e-stakes, a patent-pending, sweepstakes-style promotional concept designed to help marketers increase in-store sales and track consumer participation via the Internet.
To do this, e-stakes creates a direct relationship between the physical product on the shelf and the virtual world of the Web.
The concept utilizes a printed piece that is affixed to a product's packaging--such as a coupon, booklet or card--which contains a Personal Identification Number (PIN). Consumers are invited to visit a custom-designed Web site to see if they have won a prize. Once they have identified themselves and logged on, consumers can obtain coupons, receive ongoing product discounts and special offers and redeem non-winning entries for merchandise.
LEC is working with Minneapolis-based Smyth Companies, which is providing expertise and facilities for the printing, personalization, and application of virtually any type of on-pack device.
"Marketers and retailers can now establish a direct link between the brick and mortar world of the retail store and the virtual world of the Web," said Laurie Cairns, president of LEC. "Since users must enter personal data to gain access to the e-stakes site, it also enables marketers to obtain valuable demographics."
According to Cairns, LEC and Smyth Companies have received strong interest from brand managers in a variety of industries, especially those struggling to find ways to get a return on their Internet investment.
Added Cairns, "Marketers seem to be especially intrigued by the ability to reach an audience, to get to know them, and to develop long-term, multi-faceted promotions designed to build brand equity and attract new brand loyalists."
Source : PROMO Magazine
An integrated advertising and new media firm, LEC Ltd., announced the introduction of e-stakes last week. It's a patent-pending, sweepstakes-style promotion designed to help marketers increase in-store sales. e-stakes would also help track consumer participation via the Internet.
According to LEC Ltd. President, Laurie Cairns, "e-stakes creates a direct relationship between the physical product on the shelf and the virtual world of the World Wide Web."
The patent-pending concept uses a printed piece affixed to a product's packaging--such as a coupon booklet or card--which contains a Personal Identification Number (PIN). Consumers are invited to visit a custom-designed Web site to see if they have won a prize. Once they have identified themselves and logged on, consumers can obtain coupons, receive ongoing product discounts and special offers, redeem non-winning entries for merchandise and much more, Cairns said.
e-stakes is available only through Chicago-based LEC Ltd. and Minneapolis-based Smyth Companies.
According to Cairns, Smyth is a welcome addition that can help deliver a turnkey solution by providing expertise and facilities for the printing, privatization, and application of virtually any type of on-pack device.
Source : P-O-P Times
By Anne M. Nordhaus-Bike
Sweepstakes have entered the electronic age with LEC LTD's e-stakes, a first-of-its-kind promotion concept designed to help marketers jump-start their in-store sales, boost brand awareness and loyalty, and enhance customer relationships. The sweepstakes-style, patent-pending package combines sweeps distribution at the point-of-purchase with on-line notification of winners and electronic opportunities for offering discounts and other incentives.
"A lot of people are saying it's coming down to electronic commerce or 'e-shopping' versus physical shopping or 'p-shopping,'" says Laurie Cairns, president of the Chicago-based company. "The problem is, they're not seeing that there's a relationship. But the fact is that the web should enhance the in-store and vice versa, and that's exactly what e-stakes does by bringing the Internet virtually into the store."
e-stakes starts with a printed piece, such as a booklet, coupon or card, each of which contains a unique personal identification number (PIN) and is affixed to a product or its packaging. The piece encourages consumers to purchase items by promoting a sweepstakes and instructing them to access a web site to see if they've won.
"When you log on to the web site, you get a screen with a registration page that asks for your name, address, PIN and pertinent information to fulfill the prize if you've won," Cairns explains. "A company can also ask for the demographic information they want, and then the system searches all the PIN numbers in real time and returns with a message."
Winners get a congratulatory message with information about getting their prize, while losers are thanked and are told to save their sweeps card for a number of incentives. As Cairns notes, "The other giveaways are totally up to the individual promoter or brand manager. You can make it purely a contest, but you can also take advantage of the web environment to build a virtual relationship with the brand and maximize the e-stakes site to include coupon delivery and other options."
The concept also lends itself to cooperative arrangements. For example, a local supermarket chain could team up with a national beverage manufacturer to promote both the supermarket and a specific brand by offering sweepstakes prizes and discount coupons. Cairns says that the company it uses to print the on-packs, Smyth Cos. of Minneapolis, can deliver turnkey support that permits either the manufacturer or the retailer to affix the sweeps materials to the products.
So far, about 10 companies have expressed interest in using e-stakes. Many are attracted to one of its key advantages: the opportunity to build a rich database of purchasers interested in a particular brand or company. Given recent concerns about privacy and the Internet, however, LEC is already taking steps to ensure consumer comfort.
"The data and privacy regulations on the Internet are not solidified yet, but we're continually researching the area," Cairns says. "We see the registration page as something like a warranty card, where there would be required fields asking for minimal information, and non-required fields asking for more extensive demographic information.