Trends Assessment #1

1. Social Media Fan Reward Program
Marina N. Barrett
MKTG 7546 – Marketing in a Digital Environment – Professor Brey

2. Social Media Fan Reward Program
Trend Assessment 1
The Power of Engagement
“Reward programs are everywhere. Credit cards, frequent flier miles, grocery chains and
drugstores.”9As 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.”6As the economy continues to fluctuate it has become more
challenging for businesses to retain and maintain customers. However, this challenge would
decrease if businessesoptimized 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.”9A 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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3. Social Media Fan Reward Program
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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.”7President 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”.7BuzzBanking works when banks and credit
unions join forces with the program and their customer’scurrent 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.”7While 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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4. Social Media Fan Reward Program
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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.1,2The 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 includingrecognizing 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 theOlympics while being designed for their specific needs.
The Baylor Bold Rewards Program could also be applied to the movie theater industry. Using
MalcoParadisoMovie 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
watchedor 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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5. Social Media Fan Reward Program
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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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6. Social Media Fan Reward Program
Trend Assessment 1
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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7. Social Media Fan Reward Program
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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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