The BIA/Kelsey “Status and Review of Card-Linked Offers, 2015” report, which is based on in-depth interviews with industry leaders, has generated a lot of interest among the various shareholders of card-linked offers and non-advertising marketing solutions (including financial institutions, tech vendors and publishers).

We’re especially interested in the feedback from Thanx CEO Zach Goldstein, who tells us he’d like to see the Card Linked Offer space rebranded as “Card-Linked Services.” The main reason? “There is a lot of value that can be delivered to a consumer by linking their card without receiving and fulfilling an offer,” he says. “In our case, for instance, easier reward accrual for loyalty programs.”

In Goldstein’s view, the report — which is bullish on momentum in the card-linked offer space — could be even more bullish. He’s seeing conversion rates for Thanx campaigns ranging from 22 percent into the low-30 percent range. This is well above the 3 percent to 12 percent conversion rates that we cited as the norm.

Goldstein also takes issue with the report’s conclusion that cashback is the preferred reward type — something that is widely assumed by the financial institutions and related ecosystem, but sometimes disputed by players that focus more on loyalty.

“Many of our merchants would rather sacrifice margin than top-line revenue,” he says. “We actually see far more businesses who like to use card-linked for the ‘accrual’ portion of the experience (tracking spending to qualify) but redeem rewards through a more traditional channel or through mobile.” For more of Goldstein’s views on card linking, click here.

The CardLinx Association, which partnered with us on the report, is going deep on card-linked offers with a great lineup of speakers in New York April 28. We hope to see you there.

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The BIA/Kelsey “Status and Review of Card-Linked Offers, 2015” report, which is based on in-depth interviews with industry leaders, has generated a lot of interest among the various shareholders of card-linked offers and non-advertising marketing solutions (including financial institutions, tech vendors and publishers).

We’re especially interested in the feedback from Thanx CEO Zach Goldstein, who tells us he’d like to see the Card Linked Offer space rebranded as “Card-Linked Services.” The main reason? “There is a lot of value that can be delivered to a consumer by linking their card without receiving and fulfilling an offer,” he says. “In our case, for instance, easier reward accrual for loyalty programs.”

In Goldstein’s view, the report — which is bullish on momentum in the card-linked offer space — could be even more bullish. He’s seeing conversion rates for Thanx campaigns ranging from 22 percent into the low-30 percent range. This is well above the 3 percent to 12 percent conversion rates that we cited as the norm.

Goldstein also takes issue with the report’s conclusion that cashback is the preferred reward type — something that is widely assumed by the financial institutions and related ecosystem, but sometimes disputed by players that focus more on loyalty.

“Many of our merchants would rather sacrifice margin than top-line revenue,” he says. “We actually see far more businesses who like to use card-linked for the ‘accrual’ portion of the experience (tracking spending to qualify) but redeem rewards through a more traditional channel or through mobile.” For more of Goldstein’s views on card linking, click here.

The CardLinx Association, which partnered with us on the report, is going deep on card-linked offers with a great lineup of speakers in New York April 28. We hope to see you there.

The post Thanx CEO Zach Goldstein: ‘Let’s Call Them Card-Linked Services, Not Offers’ appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

BIA/Kelsey is out with my new paper on the status of card-linked offers, which is based on detailed discussions with 14 leaders of the card linking ecosystem, including credit card firms, tech vendors, payment processors, publishers and merchants. Most of the respondents are members of The CardLinx Association. Card-linked offers are promotions based on transactions made on credit cards, debit cards, or loyalty programs. They represent an unprecedented level of media attribution.

This week, I presented report highlights to The CardLinx Association’s Mobile Summit in San Mateo. Among the findings: universal agreement that card linking is seeing momentum among merchants; that some budgets for card-linked offers have begun to move from experimental to seven-figure spending; and that many key categories are participating, including Quick Service and Fast Casual restaurants, specialty retail and subscription services.

Challenges remain, however. Once seen in simple terms as a successor to the prepaid model pioneered by Groupon and Living Social, there have been some slow-downs in the business. As Coupons.com SVP Bruce Sattley noted at The CardLinx Summit, “There is not as much fervor among retailers as I would have thought a year ago.”

Clearly, the ultimate success of card-linked offers will be linked to better coordination among the various segments of the CLO ecosystem; the development of a constant stream of attractive offers; greater awareness of CLOs; the elimination of structural sales blockages; and the development of industry standards for card-linked transactions.

More information about the report, including purchase information, may be accessed here.

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On Demand Local Services — a.k.a the uberfication of everything — continue to expand into new local service verticals. We’re seeing everything from lawyers to weed delivery (you might need those two together). This is the topic of a report I’m writing, and a discussion point in this week’s analyst roundtable.

In addition to ODLS, there’s a report in the works on closed loop marketing by Abid Chaudhry. He discusses in the roundtable how mobile engagement creates a more cross-screen world, making offline attribution increasingly important. We hit on this theme in our last roundtable.

And Charles Laughlin discusses his report in progress on the state of the art of local ad sales. This is a fast moving topic, and a contentious one. Charles examines all schools of thought in the report, co-written by Stacey Sedbrook, including the division of traditional and digital sales forces. Another key topic.

All of these will be published in the coming weeks among other white papers, such as Peter Krasilovsky’s report on card-linked loyalty offers. Though he wasn’t able to join the roundtable, his paper joins the mix with a unique angle that aggregates data and input from the biggest players in the card-linked offers field.

The roundtable video is below and stay tuned for more video (and white papers).

The post Analyst Roundtable: On Demand Local Services; Closed Loop Marketing; and Local Ad Sales appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Card Linked Offers (CLOs) represent a potentially rich opportunity for online and mobile promotions and loyalty. But a lot of work needs to be done before the segment gets seriously underway.

Speaking at the inaugural conference of the CardlinX Association April 7 in Las Vegas, Microsoft GM of Local Advertising Erik Jorgensen noted there are significant opportunities to connect the online world with the offline world, closing the loop for online advertising and loyalty.

There is “broad experimentation with integrated consumer and merchant experiences,” said Jorgensen. “The CPA based ad model highly reasonates with merchants.”

During the past 12 months, Microsoft has launched CLO betas of its Bing Offers in Seattle, Boston and Phoenix. The trials take off on Microsoft’s initial deals efforts, but don’t require pre-payment.

Most of Microsoft’s efforts in the space are focused on the Bing portals — both on the Web and on mobile. Card linked efforts are also included in Bing Local, Bing’s Listings Page and the Bing Search Engine Results Page.

There is also a strong “mobile first” component to the effort. Windows Phone, Skype and Windows 8 are all included in the efforts, which are seen as a marketplace differentiator. “There are five or six places on the phone where we surface offers,” said Jorgensen.

The company is also sending out targeted emails. “We are building up our muscles to understand how we target offers,” noted Jorgensen. “The next phase is not just a pull but a push” via intelligent notification.

This post is an excerpt from a full Briefing on The Cardlinx meeting, which is available to BIA/Kelsey clients.

The post Microsoft's Jorgensen: "We Are Building Our Muscles' in Card Linked Space appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Card Linked Offers (CLOs) represent a potentially rich opportunity for online and mobile promotions and loyalty. But a lot of work needs to be done before the segment gets seriously underway.

Speaking at the inaugural conference of the CardlinX Association April 7 in Las Vegas, Microsoft GM of Local Advertising Erik Jorgensen noted there are significant opportunities to connect the online world with the offline world, closing the loop for online advertising and loyalty.

There is “broad experimentation with integrated consumer and merchant experiences,” said Jorgensen. “The CPA based ad model highly reasonates with merchants.”

During the past 12 months, Microsoft has launched CLO betas of its Bing Offers in Seattle, Boston and Phoenix. The trials take off on Microsoft’s initial deals efforts, but don’t require pre-payment.

Most of Microsoft’s efforts in the space are focused on the Bing portals — both on the Web and on mobile. Card linked efforts are also included in Bing Local, Bing’s Listings Page and the Bing Search Engine Results Page.

There is also a strong “mobile first” component to the effort. Windows Phone, Skype and Windows 8 are all included in the efforts, which are seen as a marketplace differentiator. “There are five or six places on the phone where we surface offers,” said Jorgensen.

The company is also sending out targeted emails. “We are building up our muscles to understand how we target offers,” noted Jorgensen. “The next phase is not just a pull but a push” via intelligent notification.

This post is an excerpt from a full Briefing on The Cardlinx meeting, which is available to BIA/Kelsey clients.

The post Microsoft’s Jorgensen: “We Are Building Our Muscles’ in Card Linked Space appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.