This past Wednesday, March 5th, Paybefore hosted their 8th annual Paybefore Awards program recognizing the industry leaders in prepaid, mobile and emerging payment innovation. We were excited to be nominated alongside many of our peers, but thrilled that our campaign was named the winner in the “Up with Prepaid Marketing” category. Blackhawk Network’s “Before You” program was considered one of the most effective and exciting marketing campaigns that generated prepaid and/or emerging payments awareness, education or sales during the past year.
How Did The Campaign Work?
“Before You” was designed to increase the awareness of the variety of prepaid uses. It illustrated the myriad of ways in which gift cards and other forms of prepaid can be used by consumers to help save time and money. It also highlighted the benefits consumers can derive from purchasing these cards at specific grocery retailers and using them to purchase what they need, whenever they need it.
The flexible program included a multi-media campaign, communicated through visuals that included in-store signage and print advertisements, as well as circulars and posters.
The campaign highlighted how cards for top brands and telecom services can be purchased to accrue bonus points in the retailers’ incentive programs, such as fuel points. Once purchased, the consumer benefits from these points with discounts applied toward filling their gas tank. Plus, the activated gift card can be used to purchase products or services at retailers across the U.S. The concept demonstrated a win-win for retailers as well as consumers. The consumer gets fuel, the card partner gets the purchase and the distribution retailer gets the traffic of a happy customer.
Connecting With Our Consumers
Consumer reaction to this program was tremendous as the displays were seen in more than 870 stores with approximately 10,000 visitors per week. Even better, the campaign clearly identified new and exciting uses for prepaid gift and telecom, which was the overall goal of the program.
We are so proud to be part of this best-in-class program!