Loyalty programs typically work by providing customers with discounts and securing consistent business for retailers. But what about a rewards system that also tracks consumer habits across social media while sidestepping traditional digital advertising models?
While Vancouver-based digital marketing agencies such as 3 Tier Logic (3TL) and LocalSphere have developed platforms for loyalty rewards programs, 3TL is using its technology to more effectively reach customers online through data tracking.
Users sign in to 3TL’s platform through their social media accounts and earn rewards when posting or tweeting about experiences with certain brands or businesses.
“What we wanted this platform to do is enable brands to engage through all three channels [Twitter, Facebook, Instagram] all on one dashboard,” CEO Rob Craig said, adding the platform also provides businesses with extensive information about customers that’s culled from social media accounts.
This includes what customers are posting online, how often they discuss certain brands, where they’re located and how many online friends or followers they have.
Craig said digital ads that appear on the margins of websites don’t resonate for most people. Instead, 3TL set out to create a platform that would allow people to engage with brands through social media.
So instead of seeing an ad for Red Bull in a banner at the top of a website, consumers will more likely notice a friend tweeting or posting about the energy drink in their own feeds.
This is what Craig described as “socially credible content.”
As a part of Guildford Town Centre’s own loyalty program, 3TL unveiled new receipt-scanning technology in December that tracks consumer behaviour in real time. •
