Consumer Engagement Increases Sales

AMY SUNG

CAMP HILL, Pa. — As traditional advertising vehicles miss the mark, retailers are exploring incentives for consumers who engage with relevant brands.

Consumers are being rewarded for interacting with brands in-store and on retailer websites like riteaid.com. Viewership of commercials featured as part of Rite-Aid’s Video Values program is growing month-over-month.

Take, for instance, Rite-Aid's Video Values program which gives Web visitors exclusive access to coupons, but only after they've viewed corresponding product videos on riteaid.com.

“We are extremely pleased with our Video Values program, as are our suppliers who are partners in the program,” John Learish, senior vice president of marketing for Rite-Aid, told SN.

This month, over $100 in exclusive discounts were available to participants. Among the offers: $10 off L'Oreal Youth Code Kits, 50 cents off Chex Mix and $1 off any two Progresso Soups. The program is powered by San Francisco-based Ad Perk.

To take part, shoppers must provide their mailing address during registration, and log in on subsequent visits. In addition to gaining access to printable coupons, members earn a video credit for each video viewed. Credits can be redeemed for additional savings and rewards.

Interest in the year-old program is growing. “Video viewership continues to increase each month,” Learish said.

Barry Soicher, chief executive officer at Ad Perk — which partners with brands like Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and Kraft Foods — said featured products experience double-digit growth.

“Our sales lift is between 17% and 21% on a year-over-year basis with products that [are] in the program vs. products that are not,” he said.

Video Values are a win/win since shoppers can choose to interact with brands that are relevant to them, which is not the case with television commercials, noted Soicher.

“We're not saying you have to do this,” he explained. “This is an opportunity to save money, and if you want to, you participate; if you don't want to, you don't.”

Another shopper engagement vehicle gaining traction in Target, Macy's and Best Buy locations is shopkick — a location-based smartphone app that awards kickbucks credits to shoppers for “checking in” at retail locations. Kickbucks can be redeemed for gift cards at participating retailers, song downloads, movie tickets, hotel vouchers, Facebook credits and charity donations.

Rewards can also be earned by interacting with brands merchandised inside the store. Shopkick users simply scan a product's bar codes in order to earn credit.

“Our users can scan products from Procter & Gamble and Kraft at 300,000 stores, many of them food retailers,” Cyriac Roeding, chief executive officer and co-founder of shopkick, told SN.

Retailers can use check-in and product scan information to identify traffic patterns and see which product interactions drive the most purchases.

“One shopper might never visit the beverage section; another does not visit the household products section. That presents an opportunity to reward consumers for visiting a section of the store they previously would have skipped,” said Roeding.

Ad Perk is also able to track and analyze what products shoppers are interested in through the videos they choose to watch.

“At the end of the day, I'm in control of almost all of my media except for the occasional glance at a billboard,” Soicher said.