Digital Promotions: The Right Offer, Consumer and Provider Are All in the Mix

Digital promotions plug in with consumers of today lead lifestyles that challenge marketers to influence buying behaviors using methods beyond traditional advertising from print, TV, direct mail and radio. Now, brands need to catch up with consumers on the go, and interact where buyers work, eat, play and shop. There are digital promotions that reach and influence every socio-economic bracket and every age group, from elementary schoolers to senior citizens:

* music downloads
* ringtones
* mobile content
* social Media, including facebook and Twitter
* eBook
* online and virtual promotions
* digital movie downloads



Here's what we know about consumers and digital promotions:
According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, consumers in the United States are still feeling the crunch of a challenging economy, and they desire to keep cash on hand by buying less but making more frequent trips to the store. While keeping a product's digital promotion in mind, consider these research findings:

* communications from the store or brand aid in the shopper's decision to buy
* if the digital promotion involves a product type that they normally buy, consumers are more likely to notice a previously-ignored product if it involves a digital promotion
* oftentimes shoppers make an unplanned purchase based on a digital promotion
* some consumers will even switch to a different product when enticed by a digital promotion
* sales increase when aided by promotions in general



Unfortunately, it's not enough use just any digital promotions provider in order to increase sales for your brand. How many of us have been excited to receive free music downloads from a box of oatmeal, only to find that the online redemption site only houses music from unknown labels with artists we've never heard of? How about the time we wanted to take advantage of a free eBook promotion, but could only do so if we entered our credit card for a "free" one-week subscription? Or we tried to redeem a free movie from a digital promotions site, and the download timed out? The result of these is a killed emotional connection with a potential long-term customer, and no brand can afford that.

So in crafting your marketing strategy that incorporates digital promotions, it makes sense to keep these in mind:
1. Develop a solid partnership with a digital promotions provider who has worked with campaigns of all sizes, in various industries, for brands large and small. Tapping into their knowledge and experience will bring ideas and tactics to the table that sometimes only an outsider can contribute.
2. Keep your digital promotions campaign affordable and within your budget. One of the best ways to accomplish this, while at the same time launching promotional campaign on a large scale, is to implement promotional risk underwriting. If this type of promotions insurance isn't available through your selected provider, keep looking.
3. Employ a turnkey digital promotions provider with the highest-quality technology available. Again, it’s about ensuring that your customers experience no difficulties in redeeming your offer. An online music download engine, for example, that isn’t both PC and Mac-compatible is poison to your brand’s image.
4. Tailor your brand's digital promotions toward your target market. Recent research data released by the Neilsen Group, for example, cites the Asian and Hispanic population as the groups who are buying the highest number of smart phones over the past year. These demographics, then, may be the best for digital promotions offering free mobile content including ringtones, wallpaper and games.

Brand loyalty and increased sales for your brand extend well beyond the instant gratification and perceived value from a consumer's initial redemption of digital promotions. Precise choosing of the product, digital promotion, and provider will ultimately lead to higher numbers at the cash registers - and on your financials.

The Digital Promotional Incentive of Music Download Promotions Gains Loyalty of Gen Y

Digital Promotions are creating customer loyalty of generation Y. These promotional incentive campaigns provide mobile users with immediate gratification and instant rewards. These promotions include effective brand promotions of music download promotions, skins promotions, mobile promotions. Reach Gen Y through digital incentives and you will create customer loyalty forever.

Hip Digital Promotions Player

Digital music promotions evolved within the promotions industry, as Hip Digital Media, the leading digital promotions company announced that it has acquired Dallas based Promotional Currency.

About Hip Digital: Hip Digital Media is the leading Digital Promotions Company that brings high-end technology and programs that link brands with their consumers markets. Holding MP3 licenses from all 4 major labels in the US, United Kingdom and Canada, Hip Digital enables innovative customer experiences with digital music campaigns for Fortune 500 brands and online media companies. Experience Hip Digital’s suite of services at www.hipdigitalmedia.com.

About Promotional Currency: Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Promotional Currency is a promotions and promotional risk coverage company that merges digital technology in the form of digital music, ringtones, skins and more with turnkey, fixed-cost solutions for the promotional marketplace. Additionally, Promotional Currency protects companies from over-redemption liability with its in-depth promotional risk coverage and underwriting capabilities, enabling large-scale programs that increase brand awareness and user experience. Visit www.promotionalcurrency.com to learn more.

Digital Music Promotions Reach Gen Y & Boost Marketing Conversions

Digital music promotions reach active consumers, increase marketing conversions of these consumers, and increase sales. Gen Y is online. They are also active retail consumers. This group is a sought after demographic of 10-30 year olds, because they have more discretionary spending than their parents have. They communicate on mobile devices and marketers are finding it very difficult to reach them through traditional media channels. They interact with each other through social media applications and are speaking with each other about your products and services. The sooner marketers learn to join the conversation, the better for the brands they represent.



Smart phones are becoming a way of life. Nearly every coffee shop is providing free wifi to its customers, and many restaurants are following suit. The ubiquity of wireless and smart phones are making digital promotions easier for marketers to launch and providing a strong avenue to reach the coveted Generation Y demographic.

Digital music promotions gain brand loyalty of Generation Y. Investing your promotions budget into a digital music promotion will guarantee you customer loyalty. Traditional promotional incentives do not compare to digital music download promotions. Try earning Gen Y customer loyalty by investing in plastic pens , hats other promotional merchandise. Most customers will not keep their pens, but they download your music giveaway, save it to a mobile device and every time they hear the song you gave them, they will remember your brand. To follow are ideas to deploy these promotions and increase marketing conversion rates.

Social media is an active channel to distribute these promotions. Increase conversion rates by promoting the music giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, email, and a blog with links back to the promotional incentive. The viral marketing aspect of social media will increase campaign activity.

Create a promotional incentive with purchase promotion, by giving away a free music download card, free ring tones, or free wallpapers, when customers spend a set amount of money. Put the entire music promotion on a mobile supported website, and let customers download it via their smart phones.

Or create a free music promotion that rewards customers for referring their friends. With every referral you receive, the customer receives a free music download. Follow up with additional customer rewards programs.

Digital music promotions increase activity on viral marketing and grass roots marketing efforts. Use your music promotion campaign to ask customers and fans to post "like" a Facebook page, tweet a code via Twitter, or complete a marketing survey. Give them a free music download whenever they perform the requisite number of social media tasks..

Promotional incentives including digital promotions provide increased retail store traffic. Give away a music download is customers enter your store at a specific time. This is especially a great way to promote a bar or club that has a specific band or DJ coming to town. For example, you could give away one or two of their songs if people check in on the night they're playing.

Digital music promotions reach almost every audience. Gen Y is actively responding to music promotions, but other consumers do as well. The love of music spans all generations. If you are looking to reach your customer, boost marketing conversions, and increase sales, deploy digital promotions. Releasing these promotions through online applications, social media, and text campaigns will provide increased brand exposure, and boost marketing conversions. The outcome of reaching this active, loyal consumer will be a pleasant surprise and you may even learn something from them about your brand.

Digital Promotions Are Gaining Customer Loyalty

Digital promotions can go a long way in earning customer loyalty, which is very important to your business. That's because return business is going to be much more profitable than your new business.

It can cost five times as much to find a new customer than it does to keep an old one. It also takes a lot less effort to keep old customers than it does to find new ones. Plus, if you can convert returning customers to raving fans, you'll have people telling their friends about your business. You just don't get that word of mouth marketing by trying to gain new customers; it comes from the customers who are loyal to you and your brand.

But while most companies will use discounts and special offers to maintain customer loyalty, digital promotions make it possible for you to increase sales and keep your pricing at its current level, which can boost your profits even more.

That's because when you offer a discount, the savings comes off your profit margin. A 10% discount could be as much as a 20% or even 30% cut into your profits. But digital promotions will be much cheaper, cut into your profits less, and encourage customer loyalty in a way that a coupon just can't.

So, not only have you reduced the value of your product, you've just told your customer, "it's really not worth as much, and in fact, we overcharged you by 10% earlier." You also haven't done anything to earn their loyalty. You haven't done anything to make them love you, tell your friends about you, or come back again and again.

Why Digital Promotions Will Outperform Coupons

Digital promotions are a lot like a frequent buyers program ("Buy 9 items, and your 10th is free"). These programs are wildly successful, and customer loyalty marketers love them. That's because they compel the customer to return several times, until they make enough purchases to get their free item. (Coupons don't do that.)

Your digital promotions can be more along the lines of "buy 10 items, and get 5 free ringtone downloads," "refer 5 friends, get a free wallpaper," or even "upgrade to our premium membership, and get a free skin for your iPhone or Droid." You can tie your digital promotions into any fulfillment condition you want: purchases, references, upgrades, you name it.

The great thing about digital promotions is that 1) they only cost you the number of songs, which can be less than $1 per download, or the cost of the skins, which can be less than $7, depending on the provider.

You Can Measure the ROI of Your Digital Promotions

Another great thing about a digital promotions campaign is that you can easily measure the ROI of the program. Whenever someone completes their condition — buy the 9 items, refer the 5 friends, etc. — you can determine who did it, when they downloaded their digital content, and how many more times they met the conditions to get more content.

You can also examine all this data to determine who your best customers are, who your most profitable customers are, who brings in the most new customers (and how much they spent), and even your most popular digital promotions content.

You can also test your digital promotion campaigns. Do some A/B testing of two different campaigns, and compare their success rate. You can test the different times of year, or the different levels of difficulty of fulfillment, or even compare it to two different types of giveaways, and use that data to see what kind of digital content your customers would like to "win" in the future.

Digital promotions campaigns are an excellent way to gain customer loyalty, while preserving your profit margin. You can tie the digital promotions directly into sales, it has a higher perceived value, you can measure your ROI, and even use it for market testing. It's the perfect marketing solution.

-Julie Ann Ross

A Mobile Promotion Without Promotional Risk

A Mobile promotion is an excellent way to reach today's Generation Y customers through modern technology. A recent report — that any mobile promotion professional should read — showed that global data traffic exceeded an exabyte of data in 2009. That's 1 billion GB.

All told, there are 4.6 billion mobile phone users around the world, with a penetration rate of 68 percent. This is why mobile promotion strategies are so important in today's marketing world. In fact, mobile promotions may be one of the best marketing tools to come along in decades.

A mobile promotion doesn't require the traditional process and costs we've become accustomed to paying. No shipping, no packaging, no worrying about what to do with thousands of leftover tchotchkes.

That's because a mobile promotion is digital. Now, instead of giving out swag, you can give customers music downloads, movie promotions, special ringtones, and mobile games. Now, rather than sending out direct mail to people who might not be ideal customers, you can send out SMS messages to existing customers and people who sign up for your text club — people who want to hear from you. Everything is happening virtually, which means you don't have to worry about storage space

Of course, before you go planning your next campaign, make sure you include promotional risk coverage in your budget.

Promotional risk coverage is basically promotional insurance that makes sure you don't overextend your marketing budget or get yourself into a lot of trouble.

Let's say you wanted to run a contest where someone could win $100,000. The odds of someone winning are pretty remote, but what would you do if someone did win, and you didn't have $100,000? That's where promotional risk coverage saves your bacon.

Promotional risk coverage is also helpful to mobile promotion campaigns. It protects your campaign from over redemption on special gifts and downloads.

Let's say you've arranged with a music label to offer 5,000 downloads of their artists' songs as part of your mobile promotion campaign. But the stars align for you, the promotion takes off, and you end up with 15,000 downloads.

In the first week. And you've got four more weeks to go.

Most people would shut down their campaign right there, desperately hoping to cut their losses. That's where promotional risk can save you. Since it insures against instances like this, you're covered. The music label will still get paid, you can allow the mobile promotion to go on, and you gain more customers than you ever imagined.

We saw this happen in 2009, when Indianapolis-based Marsh Supermarkets ran a coupon promotion on Facebook, where they gave a $10 coupon for any purchase of more than $10... including $10.01.

They had 2,200 fans on Facebook, so the promotion should have cost $22,000. But 45,000 people redeemed the coupon. Marsh canceled the promotion, which angered a lot of their customers, and they took a big hit in the media.

But the biggest hit was the $450,000 in over redemption of the coupons — $428,000 more than they had expected. While they did generate a lot of resentment on the part of their customers, that was minor compared to what they could have lost if they hadn't shut off the promotion.

While it wasn't strictly a mobile promotion, it was a great example of why someone needs promotional risk coverage. Imagine if the same thing happened to your mobile promotion campaign. What would you do if customers were passing the free download codes to their friends? Would you cancel the campaign? Would you risk the backlash from your loyal customers who didn't get a chance to redeem their songs, just because a few people ruined it for the rest of them?

So is it a matter of people being irresponsible and greedy? Or did a mobile promotion succeed beyond our wildest expectations, and we didn't plan accordingly? While we like to think it's the latter, it's still hard to plan accordingly. No matter how wild our expectations are, we can't always see every possibility. That's where promotional risk coverage would have saved our mobile promotion campaign. And our bacon.

Four Reasons Your Entertainment Promotions Should be Digital

Your entertainment promotions may run into some trouble if you're not keeping up with the times. If you're still handing out trade show giveaways like pens, hats, and coffee mugs, you're going to lose some of your street cred with your customers.

These days, your entertainment promotions need to include digital incentives like music downloads and ringtones. Here are four important reasons why you need to stop giving out the logoed apparel, the baseball caps, and the 1 GB thumb drives as promotional incentives.

Generation Y Loves Digital Entertainment Promotions

This year was first time Generation Y outnumbered the Baby Boomers, 82 million to 78 million. These Millennials were born with a computer mouse in one hand, and a cell phone in the other. Their media consumption is more online than offline. They read their news online, they watch YouTube and Hulu instead of TV, and they communicate by texting on their cell phones. Some of them are so mobile, they don't even use email anymore.

This means if you want to appeal to Generation Y, your entertainment promotions need to be digital in nature: music download cards (plastic or digital), ringtones, free online movie rentals, etc. Any of these are going to appeal to Generation Y more than the typical knickknack brick-a-brack you find at every bank opening, community festival, or trade show.

Tie your entertainment promotions into both sales and just showing up. Give people a free song download for visiting your location, and five more for spending $50. Doing this will create both goodwill for your brand, and will give people the kind of incentive they really enjoy.

Increase in Broadband Boosts Digital Entertainment Promotions

Back in 2009, broadband Internet access had reached 60% of American homes. Broadband means we can go online faster. Pictures and documents download faster, communication is faster, we can watch movies online, communicate via video. And best of all, music downloads faster.

When you consider that Generation Y are some of the biggest consumers of digital music, increased broadband makes entertainment promotions like music downloads a win-win situation for both the customer and the marketer. Why not take advantage of that with your next entertainment promotions campaign?

Smart phones are becoming more popular

There are so many cell phones in this country, you'll have an easier time finding people who don't have a cell phone than trying to figure out who does. We love our cell phones. We trick them out, download all kinds of apps and ringtones, and even take pictures, record videos, and listen to music on them. And if you have the time, you can even talk to someone.

People love customizing their phones so much, they'll even pay money for snippets of songs for ringtones. They'll download wallpapers of their favorite brands. And they'll even buy skins to decorate their phones. So your entertainment promotions should take advantage of this cellular obsession, and start giving your customers what they want: a cooler phone than the ones their friends have.

If you're sponsoring a special event, include some digital swag in your entertainment promotions campaign. Let people download custom ringtones, special wallpapers, and even promotional apps.

Digital Entertainment Promotions Mean a Bigger Bang for Your Buck

Rather than paying for design, production, and shipping costs, a digital promotion can be done strictly via websites, SMS (text), email, and even Twitter. So if your budget is limited, why sink your shrinking dollars into preparing your entertainment promotions campaign?

Why not take those dollars and put them into increasing your number of giveaways, the scope, or even the promotion of the campaign itself? Why pay to ship 500 coffee mugs to a trade show, when you can collect business cards and send emails for free? Why pay for embroidery costs on 1,000 baseball caps when you can spend the extra money on giving away music or ringtones? By using digital promotions, you can remove all those costs associated with just preparing your promotion, and put them toward actually giving away the entertainment promotions swag.

--Julie Ann Ross

Using a Consumer Loyalty Program to Boost Sales

A consumer loyalty program can go a long way in helping you find and retain new customers, as well as keep existing ones. A consumer loyalty program tells your customers you value their business, and you want them to keep coming back.

Take the simple coffee card, for example. That's one of the easiest, most common type of consumer loyalty program you'll ever see. It's simple: buy 9 or 10 cups of coffee, and your next one is free. We've embraced this idea so warmly that we could float a battleship with all the free coffee we've drunk.

Psychology of a Consumer Loyalty Program

If you want your consumer loyalty program to be successful, it needs to be easy to use. If your customers buy a product X number of times, they can get the same product they're already buying.

A frequent buyer card is the best example of a consumer loyalty program, because it rewards customers for doing something they would normally do anyway. But it has the added effect of getting them to do it more frequently.

You can do this with music download cards or free ringtones. Give away one card or ringtone with every 10 items your customers buy, every 10 times they use your service, or every 10 friends they refer. Any kind of digital incentive can be marketed with a consumer loyalty program.

The thing we really like about a consumer loyalty program like music downloads is that they're hard for the customer to abandon. They'll think they can't give up my loyalty card once they've started it. They get the card for the first stamp out of habit. "I could quit any time. Maybe I'll try a different program and see if I can find a better one," they promise themselves. But they go back, because they don't have time, or because it's a habit.

Once they cross that threshold of three or four purchases on their card, they figure they might as well keep going. That other program will still be there. "I'll check it out next week, after I get this song. Once I hit seven or eight, I can see the finish line. It's just up ahead. A couple more purchases, and WIN! I get a free song!"

And anyone who knows anything about customer loyalty management uses this kind of marketing, and will try to give away a digital incentive, or even a few, to the really loyal customers. "Go nuts," they tell us. Because they know they've more than made up for the cost of the extra freebies by bringing them back 10 other times over the last few weeks. In fact, by offering a consumer loyalty program, they've probably brought the customer back a few more times each month than they might have otherwise visited. A real customer loyalty management pro will also know how to keep track of the average number of visits of their customers, and can track how effectively their promotions are increasing sales.

The Downside of the Consumer Loyalty Program

There isn't one.

Okay, there are a few, but it usually happens if the consumer loyalty program is not run properly. If you don't promote it to your customers. Or if your offer is too difficult — buy 100 songs in 30 days. Or the reward is not motivation enough — buy 100 songs in 30 days and get one free ringtone.

By making the reward seem worthless or cheap, or the purchases too difficult to reach, you can actually hurt the effectiveness of your consumer loyalty program.

You can find almost any kind of consumer loyalty program if you look hard enough. Look online, check out a few consumer loyalty program, case studies and digital incentive programs. And visit a local coffee shop and check out their program. Once you get your first cup, you'll be hooked.

--Julie Ann Ross

Music Download Cards Promotion of Candlewood Suites

Music download cards are a great digital promotion to reach both Generation Y as well as Generation X and Baby Boomers. While many people think that only Generation Y uses digital media, there are plenty of Gen Xers and Boomers who love their MP3 players too. And they're buying music like crazy.

Hotel Stays = Music Download Cards

Holiday Inn brand, Candlewood Suites, used that knowledge to reach their own customer base by offering music download cards to their Holiday Inn Priority Club members. The typical Priority Club member tends to be people in their 30s and older, frequent business travelers, and probably still listening to the music they heard in high school and college.

They created an entire campaign of music download cards around Classic Rock songs — music of the Boomers and older Gen Xers — that would appeal to many business travelers: stay at Candlewood Suites Hotel, and for each night you stay (because business travelers stay more than one night), you'll earn Priority Club points, be entered for a chance to win a $1,000 Ticketmaster gift card, and get five free music downloads. One night, one card; two nights equals two music download cards.

Users could choose from the hit list on the custom landing page, or find their favorites on the entire catalogue. All they did is punch in the numbers on their music download cards, download their favorite songs to their MP3 players, and they were all set. Now, business travelers could be reminded of their youth, while making grown-up salaries.

Book Online More = Music Download Cards

They even sweetened the deal: book your stay online, get another card. This meant that if you were a frequent traveler, you got as many music download cards you could shake a mouse at.

The upshot of this is that by having guests book their suites online, they can reduce call center costs. And reducing call center salaries for the cost of giving away some music download cards means Candlewood Suites saw an immediate ROI, before the final sales figures were ever calculated.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Music Download Cards

If a company chooses, music download cards can also be tracked to individual users. Since each card is given a specific number, the analytics can show when a particular person uses one of their music download cards. They can also pinpoint how frequently a person stays, visits the corporate website, and whether the program increased their number of stays. Future promotions can target only those guests who stay a certain number of nights, or use specific features of the website.

User Interaction Improves Response

Finally, users were encouraged to vote for their favorite classic rock hit. The Beatles won with 3,096 votes, Led Zeppelin came in second with 1,595 votes, and Queen was last with 432 votes (despite the awesomeness of "Bohemian Rhapsody"). All told, the top 10 bands earned 9,755 votes. Or to put it another way, at least 9,755 people participated in the program.

How to Use the Data

Let's consider some possible future uses of this data. Claire spends six nights in Candlewood Suites over the summer, and she downloads a few Journey songs (among others). Next summer when Journey is back out on tour (yes, they still tour), Candlewood Suites can send Claire some notification emails when Journey is going to be in cities with a Candlewood Suites in them.

Carl spends six nights in Candlewood Suites and downloads songs by the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and The Eagles. When the Stones release their next album (no, they're not dead yet), they can offer it as a digital promotion gift to Carl if he stays for three nights at a Candlewood Suites next Spring.

While we're not sure of the final results, we do know that Candlewood Suites saw some great success with their music download cards program. With some careful planning and market research into your customer base, companies can increase (and easily measure) the ROI of a digital promotions campaign.

--Julie Ann Ross

Why Digital Promotions Are Better for Trade Shows

Digital promotions are replacing — or should be — the traditional trade show tchotchkes and giveaways we've been subjected to over the years. Maybe it's because I'm in the digital promotions business, or because I've got enough cheap plastic pens to last two lifetimes, but I really think these digital promotion campaigns are going to be the wave of the trade show future.

For one thing, the effectiveness of digital promotions, like music downloads, ringtones, or even online gift cards, are easy to prove. Basically, I can track whenever someone downloads a song or ringtone using one of my promotions. In fact, I can tell you exactly who downloaded it and when. If it's someone important, I can know to the second when they accessed their digital promotion, and make the appropriate followup.

Digital Promotions are Targeted

For another thing, I can target my digital promotions. Rather than buying 5000 flashlights and handing them out to anyone who walks past my booth, I can purchase the list of show attendees and send them an invitation to stop by the booth where they'll receive a free music download card. I can pick and choose who will receive my invitation, and then keep track of who stopped by.

Or I can come at this from the other end and email a special download to everyone who stopped by my booth. This way, I can send my giveaways only to potential customers, rather than giving one out to everyone who stopped by looking for a freebie.

Digital Promotions are Green

Believe it or not, you're helping the environment by giving away digital promotions items. Rather than creating one more plastic widget (pollution), which needs to be shipped (oil and gas), and will sit forgotten until it dries up and you pitch it (landfill), a digital promotions campaign doesn't need any sort of offline promotion if you don't want it. You can promote your digital freebies by email, Twitter, and Facebook if you want. Or you can use offline promotional methods using some of the different green technology out there.

They also don't require a lot of distribution efforts. I can give out my digital promotions by giving away a stack of cards to people who visit my booth, or just by emailing everyone on my list. There are benefits to both. If I hand them out, I can talk to the people I'm giving them to. This lets me make a sales contact, and tell the person about my product or service. But emailing them is free, and a big time saver. Rather than giving the same message over and over to a handful of people, I can reach dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of customers. And best of all, by using variable data, I can keep track of who received it, took advantage of it, and then converted into a paying customer. Handing out 5,000 flashlights won't let me do it with the same accuracy and ease as digital promotions do.

Digital Promotions are Immediate and Efficient

Like I said in a previous postdigital promotions provide your customers instant gratification. People can redeem their giveaway immediately or at their convenience. They're also easy to redeem. They don't take up space in the customer's luggage, they're not forgotten or given away to their kids, where your customer never sees them again. If it's a song, they'll hear it on their MP3 player, and remember where they got it. If it's a ringtone, they'll think of you whenever their phone rings. Not like a stress ball, Frisbee, or funny hat, which I've seen at previous trade shows.

--Julie Ann Ross

Why Digital Promotions Are Better for Trade Shows

Digital promotions are replacing — or should be — the traditional trade show tchotchkes and giveaways we've been subjected to over the years. Maybe it's because I'm in the digital promotions business, or because I've got enough cheap plastic pens to last two lifetimes, but I really think these digital promotion campaigns are going to be the wave of the trade show future.

For one thing, the effectiveness of digital promotions, like music downloads, ringtones, or even online gift cards, are easy to prove. Basically, I can track whenever someone downloads a song or ringtone using one of my promotions. In fact, I can tell you exactly who downloaded it and when. If it's someone important, I can know to the second when they accessed their digital promotion, and make the appropriate followup.

Digital Promotions are Targeted

For another thing, I can target my digital promotions. Rather than buying 5000 flashlights and handing them out to anyone who walks past my booth, I can purchase the list of show attendees and send them an invitation to stop by the booth where they'll receive a free music download card. I can pick and choose who will receive my invitation, and then keep track of who stopped by.

Or I can come at this from the other end and email a special download to everyone who stopped by my booth. This way, I can send my giveaways only to potential customers, rather than giving one out to everyone who stopped by looking for a freebie.

Digital Promotions are Green

Believe it or not, you're helping the environment by giving away digital promotions items. Rather than creating one more plastic widget (pollution), which needs to be shipped (oil and gas), and will sit forgotten until it dries up and you pitch it (landfill), a digital promotions campaign doesn't need any sort of offline promotion if you don't want it. You can promote your digital freebies by email, Twitter, and Facebook if you want. Or you can use offline promotional methods using some of the different green technology out there.

They also don't require a lot of distribution efforts. I can give out my digital promotions by giving away a stack of cards to people who visit my booth, or just by emailing everyone on my list. There are benefits to both. If I hand them out, I can talk to the people I'm giving them to. This lets me make a sales contact, and tell the person about my product or service. But emailing them is free, and a big time saver. Rather than giving the same message over and over to a handful of people, I can reach dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of customers. And best of all, by using variable data, I can keep track of who received it, took advantage of it, and then converted into a paying customer. Handing out 5,000 flashlights won't let me do it with the same accuracy and ease as digital promotions do.

Digital Promotions are Immediate and Efficient

Like I said in a previous postdigital promotions provide your customers instant gratification. People can redeem their giveaway immediately or at their convenience. They're also easy to redeem. They don't take up space in the customer's luggage, they're not forgotten or given away to their kids, where your customer never sees them again. If it's a song, they'll hear it on their MP3 player, and remember where they got it. If it's a ringtone, they'll think of you whenever their phone rings. Not like a stress ball, Frisbee, or funny hat, which I've seen at previous trade shows.

Brand Promotions Using Digital Media Reach Generation Y

Digital brand promotions are a great way to reach Generation Y. In fact, some Gen Y marketing experts will tell you digital brand promotions may be the only real way to reach them.


This is important, because Gen Y — born between 1977 and 1994 — are worth $200 billion in spending per year, and they affect another $300 - $400 billion in family spending (i.e. restaurants, clothing, and even cars). But they're ignoring ads on traditional media, choosing instead to consume media online and on their cell phones, the home of digital brand promotions. So they're not actually seeing your TV commercials, hearing your radio spots, or reading your newspaper ads.


This will actually make life easier for the brand promotions manager. As Generation Y consumes more media online, your digital brand promotions can be quickly created, easily tracked, and changed or dropped when you find something is working.


Gone are the days of traditional brand promotions through TV ads and radio campaigns, where you had to wait until the end of the sales quarter to see if your efforts had any effect. Gone are the days of guessing whether it was your billboards or the TV spots that resulted in the most sales. With digital promotions, you can get real-time results and see if people are buying, watching, or downloading whatever product or service you're selling. If they're not, change a few of the creative variables and see if that makes a difference.


Social media sites like Facebook and MySpace are a great way to reach Gen Yers and effective avenues to build a database for your brand promotions campaign. Purchase digital ads that are delivered to people who your target demographic. For example, you could promote an upcoming concert by selecting people between the ages of 18 - 24 in the cities on the tour. Brand managers collect names to build a marketing database, by offering social media users free music downloads or ringtones to people who register for the promotional giveaway.


You can further enhance your concert brand promotions by offering prizes or swag to the fans who promote the concert to their friends, asking them to forward it to their friends. Then, collect everyone's information, and you're also building a future contact list of fans where you can promote future concerts, upcoming albums, and merchandise. Gen Y is responding to digital promotions and prize offerings in a big way.



Text messaging is another great way to reach Generation Y, because they're texting like crazy. A recent report on NielsenWire says the average teenager is texting 3,146 times per month. So your digital brand promotions should include texting. Text promotions reach these consumers in their element.


Whether you're creating an opt-in text club, or including ads as part of a service, like sports scores or news updates, people are more willing to accept brand promotions messages as a part of a service. And the more useful your service is, the more often they'll see your ad. In fact, according to an article in the New York Times, during the 2008 NFL draft, Coors sent text messages about draft pick updates and put Coors branding on each message.


Generation Y is also skipping the TV in order to watch YouTube and Hulu videos instead. If you got the brand promotions budget for it, consider placing ads on Hulu videos, rather than buying a TV commercial. Since Hulu will only show 3 or 4 commercials per 30 minute show, people are more willing to sit through them, rather than getting up or flipping around. Several of our friends have watched shows on Hulu, and actually even taken the time to rate commercials, rather than ignore them.


In short, Generation Y is online, and they're responding to those brands that communicate directly with them. Rather than trying to reach them through traditional promotions, give digital brand promotions a try instead. Communicating with Gen Y through relationship marketing is a surefire way to reach them and get them to respond to you.

--Julie Ross, Rostin Ventures

Digital Promotions Creating Customer Loyalty of Gen Y Forever

Digital promotions continue to spur billions of dollars in annual sales for product suppliers. By offering promotional incentives, through mobile promotions, online promotions, music download promotions, and other custom promotions, companies can tap into a vast pool of consumers that would otherwise be all but unreachable.


Promotional Currency brings a powerful combination of brand promotions including promotional incentives, entertainment promotions, music download promotions, ringtone promotions, mobile promotions, online instant win games and artist licensing - offering brand partners the first one-stop source for all online promotions, wireless and digital promotions.

Promotional Incentives Launch Products and Lift Sales Volume

Promotional incentives are a powerful marketing lever that brand advertisers can use to engage and excite consumers. They play a key role in launching new products, lifting sales of existing products, and cultivating customer loyalty. From the smallest "mom and pop" retail stores to the largest brands in the world, promotional incentives encourage people to experience products they might otherwise ignore.

Creative Ways To Leverage Promotional Incentives

Giving away free items is one of the most effective ways to stimulate a response from your target market. Nothing excites consumers more than the chance to receive something with a high perceived value for free. There are a variety of ways in which you can use free promotional incentives to motivate your audience to take action.

You can give your customers something for free in exchange for trying a new product or service. For example, Starbucks recently launched their Via brand of instant coffee and used promotional incentives to spearhead the effort. They organized a Via Taste Challenge to entice customers to try their instant brew. Customers in the Los Angeles area were asked to order a cup of Via. In return, they received a coupon that could be redeemed for any cup of coffee in the future.

You can also use promotional incentives to create a surge in sales volume around your brand. For example, Estée Lauder launched a promotion in October 2009 called "Your Beauty. Your Style. Your Profile." They invited women to visit participating counters and receive a free makeover and photo. The photos were emailed to women so they could be uploaded easily to dating and social networking sites. The Estée Lauder logo was in the background of each photo, strengthening their brand.

Using Promotional Incentives To Collect Customer Information

In the Estée Lauder example, the promotional incentives were emailed to women who received makeovers. That means in order to receive their digital photo, women had to provide a working email address. This mechanism helped Estée Lauder to create a database of customers to whom they could market their products in the future. For example, they can email these customers a targeted holiday promotion focusing on the products that were used during the makeovers.

Mobile promotions such as music download promotions can offer this same advantage. When consumers visit your customized landing page to download your promotional incentives (e.g. free music downloads), you can require them to provide their contact information. In doing so, you'll build a database of customers for future marketing campaigns.

The Advantage Of Delivering Promotional Incentives Online

When your promotional incentives are delivered online, your expenses are limited to whatever it costs to fulfill redemption. For example, suppose you're offering free music downloads to people who spend $70 at a certain clothing store. Provide a website address and promo code on their purchase receipt that directs them to your download site. They can redeem your promotional incentives online, which helps to minimize your costs while exposing customers to your brand and products.

Or, suppose you want to deliver a "buy three and get one free" promotion to customers' mobile devices. The cost of delivery is practically zero. The same is true for launching instant win games, skins promotions, offering free ringtones, and other digital promotional incentives. While the cost is low compared to traditional advertising channels, the impact on your audience is high.

Why Promotional Incentives Are Effective

Brand sponsors realized long ago that promotional incentives were a potent trigger for stimulating a response from their market. Each year, billions of dollars are spent to launch promotions that improve brand awareness, drive traffic and sales, and strengthen customer loyalty.

The reason promotional incentives are so effective is because people always enjoy the chance to receive free products they consider valuable. Whether the incentive is a free tank of gas, limited access to an online fee-based service, or free song downloads, consumers are happy to participate. In some cases, they'll increase their purchase order or buy new products in order to take advantage of a promotion. In other cases, they'll willingly exchange their contact information to receive your promotional incentives.

Your marketing campaigns are ultimately designed to sell your products. The challenge is to motivate your audience to buy them. Digital promotional incentives will excite your market, educate them about your products, and encourage their loyalty to your brand. And they'll do so at a lower cost than using other advertising channels. Now is the time to explore how promotional incentives can drive traffic and increase sales for your company.

--Cynthia Walker

Promotional Currency is THE leading digital promotions firm, merging digital technology, artist licensing and promotional risk coverage to deliver turnkey, fixed-cost solutions for the promotional marketplace. Promotional incentives such as music download promotions, ringtone promotions, mobile promotion, skins promotions and online instant win games and sweepstakes are powerful, multi-pronged promotional marketing tools build customer loyalty and drive sales.

Entertain your consumers with promotional incentives to differentiate your brand and boost sales through increased brand interest and customer loyalty.

Digital Promotions Generate Exposure, Entice Customers, and Boost Your ROI

Digital promotions give you valuable exposure to your market without burdening you with the exorbitant costs associated with traditional advertising. You can leverage them to tap into a large consumer audience in order to promote your brand and products. The incentives can be used to educate people about your products, lift sales, and generate intense customer loyalty.

For example, digital promotions such as online gift certificates and customer loyalty programs can reward people for purchasing your product. That strengthens their loyalty to your brand. It improves the likelihood that they will continue buying your product in the future. Likewise, free music download promotions can entice people to try your brand. Whether you're promoting video games, clothes, or sporting equipment, every demographic loves music.

Digital promotions are a powerful marketing tool because they leverage a low-cost platform to deliver high-impact incentives to a hungry market. That provides an enormous boost to your ROI. Below, you'll discover the three top reasons to integrate digital promotions into your marketing strategy. You'll also learn one of the most unique advantages of using them.

3 Reasons To Leverage Digital Promotions

To be sure, digital promotions can lift product sales and drive brand awareness. They can also bridge the gap between you and your target audience, so you can educate them about the benefits of buying your products. But, it's important to highlight why digital promotions are so effective.

First, they are distributed online. That eliminates most, if not all, of the production and distribution cost. After all, what is the cost of emailing gift certificates to your customers? What is the cost of allowing consumers to download music and play instant win games on their mobile devices?

Second, digital promotions can be customized to fit your products, brand, and target market. For example, would you like to improve brand awareness by connecting your products to a big-box retailer? Would you like to target fans of jazz music? Would you like to give customers who have spent $200 on your products a "30% off" coupon? A solution can be tailor-made for your company.

Third, digital promotions offer a robust level of tracking capability. You can measure your redemption rate and determine which incentives are most likely to generate a response in the future. You can also identify which consumers are actually buying your products down the road. If they are not buying, remove them from your list.

Tracking Results From Your Digital Promotions

Being able to track the results of your digital promotions gives you an enormous level of control over your marketing. It gives you unique, detailed insight into what works - and what does not - for your market.

For example, suppose you're leveraging music download promotions to market an exclusive line of dress shoes. By tracking your metrics, you might discover that fans of country music are far more likely to buy your shoes than fans of other types of music. With that information, you can refine your digital promotions to specifically target country music fans.

This same level of tracking can be used to hone your mobile promotions and skins promotions. For example, you might find that consumers who redeem mobile coupons to certain big-box retailers are more likely to buy your products than those who frequent other stores. Or, you might discover that a specific age group is more receptive to your skins promotions. That demographic may provide far more brand exposure.

How Digital Promotions Attract Valuable Consumer Data

Savvy marketers and advertisers know the inherent value of a consumer database. The more points of data categorized within their database, the more tightly they can target specific market segments. They can design their promotions based on certain demographics, past purchase history, or response rates within various product categories.

Digital promotions give you the same opportunity to collect data from your audience. In fact, it's less costly and less complex than doing so through traditional marketing channels. If you intend to email gift certificates, you'll need consumers to provide their email addresses. If you're launching mobile promotions, you'll need them to provide their mobile numbers. And if you're letting consumers download free music, you can ask them to provide information about themselves prior to redemption.

Imagine the marketing flexibility you'll enjoy when you combine the tracking capability of digital promotions with a perpetually expanding consumer database. You'll be able to hone your future digital promotions and personalize them to individual recipients. In doing so, you'll trigger a larger response from each market segment.

Digital promotions remove the largest obstacles advertisers face in reaching a broad consumer market. You can leverage them to improve awareness of your brand, drive ongoing product sales, and dramatically boost your ROI.

--Cyndi Walker, Promotional Currency

Music Download Promotions Improve Brand Awareness & Encourage Customer Loyalty

Music download promotions are as powerful and wide-reaching as they are evergreen. They give your company a multi-faceted promotional tool with which you can leverage popular artists to grow your brand and excite your target market. Because new artists are continuously catapulted into the spotlight, your business has access to an unlimited resource of popular music. You can harness this resource to meet an unquenchable consumer demand. In doing so, you'll improve your brand and create a surge in product sales.

Below, we'll give you a comprehensive preview of music download promotions. You'll learn how they work and the unique promotional advantages they offer your business. We'll also describe how to use digital promotions to deliver a memorable impact at a surprisingly low cost. Lastly, we'll explain how you can tailor music download promotions to form a seamless fit for your target audience, regardless of your marketing objectives.

How Music Download Promotions Work

Digital music incentives are delivered to your customers online through customized landing pages and branded music stores. The music download promotions are launched by distributing promo codes and website URLs in-pack, on-pack, through email, text messaging, signage, custom-branded cards, and other platforms. You can customize your marketing campaign to control its reach into your target market.

When your customers visit the website URL listed on your promotion, they'll be able to choose from a library of popular artists and songs. Once your customers select their downloads, they are prompted to enter their promo code.

You'll enjoy a tremendous level of flexibility in customizing your music download promotions. You can broaden your music library to include millions of songs, or tighten it according to your audience and marketing objectives.

Harnessing The Advantages Of Music Promotions

Because the landing pages to which your target market is driven can be customized with your company's logo and artwork, your music download promotions dramatically improve brand recognition. And because music has such universal appeal, it is one of the most potent levers for increasing customer loyalty.

But, that is merely scratching the surface of their marketing potential.

When your target audience arrives on your customized landing pages, you'll have an opportunity to introduce them to new products your company is launching. You can also require them to provide personal information prior to downloading songs. That allows you to build a valuable database that you can leverage for future marketing campaigns. While music download promotions can be harnessed to generate a boost in immediate sales, their potential effect on your business's bottom line extends much further.

Digital Promotions: High-Performance Promotional Impact At A Lower Cost

Digital promotions have quickly evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry. Companies have realized music download promotions and other digital incentives can broaden their marketing reach at a remarkably low cost. Promotional incentives can be delivered online to mobile devices, through email, or customized landing pages. Given the high-performance impact of these promotions, the cost of distribution to a massive audience is exceptionally low.

Tailor Music Download Promotions To Your Audience

Your target market can likely be broken down into tight segments. You can launch music download promotions that cater specifically to each of these segments, according to their taste in music. The tighter your focus, the higher response you'll enjoy.

For example, suppose you're promoting a brand that appeals to multiple age groups. A younger audience may be motivated by music download promotions highlighting alternative rock and hip hop artists. An older audience might be more willing to respond if offered classic rock songs. Still other segments of your target market may be motivated to respond by music download promotions featuring Latino artists. Each market segment represents an opportunity to refine your focus and tap into a targeted pool of consumers.

Entertainment Promotions Leverage High-Profile Entertainment Content

Music download promotions are merely one of several types of entertainment promotions that can help drive your brand. Entertainment that has been created to promote high-profile content such as films, video games, television shows, and CD releases can be licensed and offered as digital incentives. That allows your company to benefit from the top of mind awareness enjoyed by these entertainment properties. Imagine launching music download promotions for your brand that ride on the coattails of the latest Hollywood blockbuster or CD release.

Executing Music Download Promotions For Your Company

You can penetrate new markets, invigorate your current customer base, improve brand recognition, and spur long-term sales by launching customized music download promotions. Your entire campaign can be designed as a turnkey solution. There's no need to host the music library on your site. Nor do you need to take an active role in driving web traffic to your branded landing pages. The delivery and fulfillment of your digital music incentives are also handled as components of the back-end system.

If you are not already leveraging music download promotions to reach more deeply into your market, now is the time to do so. Incentive customers to respond through music download promotions with promotional risk coverage.

--Cynthia Walker, Promotional Currency

Digital Promotions with Promotional Risk Coverage

Digital Promotions with promotional risk coverage allows your company to launch high-impact promotions at a
fixed cost. Have you ever wondered how your competitors are able to offer $1 million
prizes? Have you ever watched in dismay as seemingly smaller companies in your
market are able to engage your customers with large-value premiums? How can their
marketing budgets possibly handle the potential redemption volume?

Your competitors are relying upon promotional risk coverage in order to stretch the
marketing reach of every promotional dollar. They are offering customers a chance to
win valuable prizes and premiums at a fixed cost. They are launching exciting rebate
and coupon promotions without fear of going over budget, even if those promotions
become runaway successes.

You can do the same. You can leverage promotional risk coverage to inject a new
level of excitement into your market without worrying about cost overruns.

In this article, you'll discover how over redemption coverage eliminates budgetary
uncertainty. We'll explain how promotional risk coverage works and how you can use
it to plan each of your marketing campaigns to the penny. You'll also learn how to
launch large-scale promotions with high-value prizes while paying a fraction of the
associated cost.

Over Redemption Coverage Eliminates The Risk Of Uncertain Outcomes

Imagine this scenario: You have launched a promotion to build awareness about a new
product among millions of consumers. To do so, you're offering a tie-in premium with
the purchase of a well-known, entrenched brand. The problem is, your budget can only
handle a 20% redemption rate. If response to your promotion exceeds 20%, it will
decimate your budget. How can you launch this type of promotion given the
uncertainty of your market's response?

Promotional risk coverage eliminates that uncertainty. It provides financial
protection in the event that your promotion's redemption rate skyrockets. You'll
enjoy the marketing advantages of a high response to your promotion while
dramatically limiting your cost.

How Promotional Risk Coverage Works

The lever that allows you to offer high-value prizes, premiums, and coupons without
the risk of devastating budget overruns is insurance. Your promotional risk coverage
is provided by an A+ insurance company. The insurance company assumes the risk of
awarding prize winners and the costs associated with higher-than-anticipated
redemption rates.

It's important to realize that promotions offering guaranteed prizes cannot be
shielded with promotional risk coverage. The coverage is based upon odds. Once the
insurance company calculates the odds of a high-value prize being awarded, they'll
quantify the risk and extend coverage for a fixed fee. Odds are also calculated for
redemption rates of premiums, coupons, and rebates.

Promotional Risk Mitigation Protects Your Marketing Budget

Your company's marketing budget has limits. The challenge is to work within those
limits while squeezing the most value from your promotional campaigns. Promotional
risk coverage preserves your budget and lets you plan your marketing costs to the
penny. It gives you the flexibility to launch promotions that deliver a stunning
impact to your market without assuming the risk of over-redemption or awarding
winners. Your budget is protected. Whether your customer wins a $1 million dollar
prize or your premium redemption rate hits 100%, promotional risk coverage shields
you from the financial risk.

Promotional Risk Coverage: Large-Scale Promotions At A Fraction Of The Potential Cost

Games and contests that offer consumers a chance to win prizes with a high-perceived
value attract enormous attention. The bigger the prize, the higher the response.
Without promotional risk coverage, these types of promotions would be all but
impossible to launch without assuming an inordinate level of risk.

For example, suppose you wanted to launch an on-pack promotion on a popular brand
through which customers could redeem a coupon for a free tank of gas. Further
suppose you don't have the financial protection of promotional risk coverage. What
would happen if one million consumers redeemed your coupon? Could your budget
withstand the expense?

Promotional risk coverage allows you to launch these types of marketing campaigns
without worrying about your budget imploding from a higher-than-expected response.
It delivers the marketing exposure at a fraction of the potential cost.

Leverage Promotional Risk Coverage For Your Business

Can large-impact promotions with high-value prizes help your company build brand
awareness while motivating a market response? Consider these findings...

According to eMarketer, "The chance to win is the number one most effective tool to
motivate consumers to participate in permission-based marketing efforts."

According to Jupiter Research, "82% of consumers will provide private information in
exchange for the chance to win."

Promotional risk coverage lets you launch high-impact promotions with budget
certainty. It lets you stretch your marketing budget while generating awareness and
prompting a response from your customers. Expand your brand; educate your market;
excite your customers; drive sales. Promotional risk coverage protects you
financially while helping you accomplish all four goals.

--Cynthia Walker, Promotional Currency

Customer Loyalty Programs Including Digital Promotions Increase Long-Term Profitability

Customer loyalty programs including digital promotions can function as the promotional
linchpin that drives your company's long-term profitability. They are an essential tool for
improving customer retention. By offering your customers digital incentives, such as
music downloads, skins, and an assortment of mobile promotions, you can dramatically
increase the lifespan of each customer. Not only does this create an enormous level of goodwill,
but customer loyalty programs also encourage customers to respond to your ongoing
marketing campaigns.

In 2001, noted authority on customer loyalty programs, Fred Reichheld, released his
seminal book, "Loyalty Rules." Within its pages, Reichheld explained the influence
customer retention rates have on the overall value of your customer base. A 5%
retention rate can translate into a 75% improvement in the value of your customer
inventory.

Below, we'll explain how customer loyalty programs can produce these results for
your company. We'll also describe the difference between these programs and customer
rewards programs - each has a vital role to fulfill. You'll also discover how to
leverage music download promotions, skins promotions, and mobile promotions to
increase the loyalty your customers feel toward your company.

How Customer Loyalty Programs Generate Stunning Results

Your customers want to feel valued. They want to know that your company perceives
them as a critical factor in your success. Too often, companies treat their
customers as disposable commodities. This has produced a legion of consumers who
shop primarily based on price, all but eschewing brand loyalty. Customer loyalty
programs help eliminate price as the deciding factor and instead, transform your
customers into fans. By offering them digital incentives, you can cultivate their
loyalty while creating a more memorable brand experience.

That sharply increases the lifetime value of your customer inventory. It not only
inspires them to return, but it also encourages them to tell others about your
company, generating a new wave of customers.

The Difference Between Customer Rewards And Customer Loyalty Programs

A lot of companies make the mistake of thinking customer rewards and customer
loyalty programs are identical. They're not. Each has a distinct promotional role to
play. Customer rewards are a powerful lever that you can use to trigger a response
and gather customer data. By collecting information about your customers, you can
launch a sequence of marketing initiatives that build brand awareness and gradually
influence their purchasing behavior. In doing so, you'll be able to better identify
which customer segments are the most profitable for your company.

Customer loyalty programs fulfill a different function. They improve your customer
retention rate, which Reichheld showed to have a dramatic effect on long-term
profitability. By giving your customers a variety of digital currency incentives,
you'll encourage them to return to buy your products.

Music Download Promotions Can Spearhead Customer Loyalty Programs

Music download promotions and mobile promotions are cost-effective platforms from
which to launch your customer loyalty programs. Because they can be delivered
digitally to consumers' phones, PDAs, and other mobile devices, their effect is
often instantaneous. They trigger an immediate response from your customer base.

Music transcends gender, culture, and age to reach a broad audience. Your customers,
regardless of their backgrounds and musical tastes, will gravitate toward the
artists they enjoy. You can target certain segments by genre or provide your entire
customer base with a catalog of millions of songs from which they can choose.

Mobile promotions, such as instant win games and digital coupons, can also trigger
an immediate response. Your customers can enjoy playing instant win games the moment
they receive your promotions. Then, they can receive instant notification regarding
whether they have won a prize. Mobile coupons can be redeemed just as quickly.

When leveraged to spearhead customer loyalty programs, music download promotions and
mobile promotions can generate a new wave of sales while strengthening your brand
loyalty.

Customer Loyalty Programs And Skins Promotions Complement Each Other

Skins promotions are a unique type of incentive because they are delivered
digitally, yet physically adorn consumers' phones, PDAs, and laptops. They are a
perfect complement to your customer loyalty programs for two reasons. First, the
skins promote your brand not only to your customers, but to every person who
observes your customers' mobile devices. Second, skins promotions serve as a
perpetual reminder to your customers about why they're loyal to your company. The
skins generate enormous goodwill.

Customer loyalty programs remain one of the most potent promotional levers for
increasing your company's long-term profitability. They allow you to lengthen the
overall life cycle of your customer inventory. If you are not currently taking
advantage of customer loyalty programs, now is the time to reconsider.

--Cynthia Walker, Promotional Currency

Digital Promotion Basics: How Skins Promotions & Mobile Promotions Drive Sales

Digital Promotions are gaining momentum with marketers and brand managers, because few incentives attract consumers and generate a response as effectively as digital promotions, such as skins promotions, music download promotions, and mobile promotions.

A digital promotion campaign can fit seamlessly within the broader framework of your marketing strategy. Skins promotions, mobile promotions, and music download promotions do not replace your current advertising channels - they complement them. They leverage them. Digital promotions extend your company's reach into your chosen market. By doing so, they improve brand awareness, attract invaluable market data, and encourage customer loyalty.

Over the last few years, there has been a dramatic surge of interest in using digital promotions to spearhead broad market advertising campaigns. Companies of every size are realizing that mobile promotions, such as downloadable coupons, instant win games, ringtones, and other digital currency can have an enormous promotional impact. Many of your competitors are already leveraging them.

Below, we'll explain why digital promotions, including music download promotions and skins promotions, should be an extension of your current marketing strategy. You'll discover why companies in nearly every sector have begun taking advantage of them.

Why Your Competitors Are Using Digital Promotions

Few incentives attract consumers and generate a response as effectively as digital promotions. They are a cost-effective promotional tool with which you can educate your market about your products. They build top-of-mind awareness of your brand. They encourage customer loyalty and long-term sales within the retail market. And they accomplish these goals while preserving your profit margins.

Because digital promotions can be delivered directly to an enormous base, they eliminate layers of costly advertising expenses. Mobile promotions, such as instant win games and sweepstakes, can be distributed at low cost to millions of consumers. That allows your company to generate sales without sacrificing your margins.

Music Download Promotions: Understanding Their Appeal

Have you ever wondered why music download promotions are so pervasive within our society? Consumers seem glued to their iPhones, PDAs, and other mobile devices on which they can download digital music incentives. To understand their appeal, it's worth noting how this type of digital promotion dovetails perfectly with consumer psychology.

First, music is enjoyed universally and is consumed on a near-primal level. Second, consumers can access music download promotions instantly on their mobile devices. These two dynamics can be leveraged to gain quick entry into a large retail market. Digital promotions that offer downloadable music incentives allow you to tap into an unlimited, universal reservoir of consumer interest. What's more, you can use them as the launch pad upon which to build an opt-in database. That creates a mechanism through which you can deliver a perpetual string of future digital promotions.

Digital Promotions And Skins Promotions Complement Each Other

Skins promotions allow you to advertise your brand on consumers' cell phones, laptops, and MP3 players. They can be personalized by consumers to fit their preferences and their devices. The effect of skins promotions is subtle, yet potent. They increase the level of loyalty felt by the device's owner toward your brand. They also help your brand gain broader market exposure as others observe the skins.

Digital promotions can build upon skins promotions to further increase brand awareness. For example, suppose you are promoting a soon-to-be-released movie by letting consumers download photos and create personalized skins of the main actors. Further suppose that you launch a digital promotions campaign through which consumers can download games and music based on the movie. These multiple points of contact (i.e. skins, games, music, etc.) strengthen each other. In doing so, they further cement your brand in the consumer's mind.

How To Leverage Mobile Promotions And Other Digital Promotions

To this point, we've merely touched upon the potential of using mobile promotions. Besides digital music incentives and downloadable games, you can also leverage instant win games, sweepstakes, and coupons. The key to making these digital promotions successful is to look beyond the immediate surge in sales they can produce. Their value extends much further.

Mobile promotions let you tap into the ubiquitous nature of mobile devices. They allow you to deliver your digital promotions instantly to a wide audience at a low cost. As a result, your promotional incentives will generate excitement in the retail market, which encourages consumers to participate. That expands your brand, builds customer loyalty, and paves the way for a long-term increase in sales. If you are not currently leveraging digital promotions as a key component of your marketing strategy, it's time to explore your options.


Author, Cynthia Walker