How to use gift cards for marketing

Tips from the top

Andrew Johnson is director general of the UK Gift Card & Voucher Association

1. If you’re planning a promotion or incentive scheme, remember the best results emerge when the reward appeals strongly to the taste of the audience, whether they are teenagers or retiring soon. Research the target audience carefully and choose a gift card to match – a vast range is available.

2. Consider a solution such as a multi-retailer gift card with wider appeal if you are marketing across all age groups and genres. Although the campaign won’t be as highly tailored, it will enable you to appeal to a larger audience.

3. Gift cards can make excellent rewards and prizes in on-pack and in-pack promotions and offers, delivering that appealing incentive to the consumer when making a purchase. For instance, Magnum ice cream harnessed the benefits of pre-paid gift cards as prizes in a competition, offering loaded Mastercards that consumers could use to spend as and where they chose.

4. Targeted schemes are effective. Industry statistics reveal that women are more likely to buy gift cards and vouchers than men, so it is important to factor this into all branding and messaging.

5. Use the power of partnership offers to leverage a brand. The ideal way to offer real rewards is to invest in voucher partnership offers. For example, to boost subscriptions, promotions could entice new subscribers with a voucher from a well-loved household retailer, ensuring the offer works harder.

6. Maximise the branding opportunities. Gift cards and gift vouchers offer huge scope for brand personalisation and an excellent way to communicate your brand’s identity when used as part of a customer incentive or loyalty scheme.

7. Deliver a flexible and attractive incentive to the consumer. In times of recession, consumer budgets for entertainment and leisure purposes are likely to be the first outgoing slashed. Creating positive brand association can be achieved through offering the “carrot” of a spa day or restaurant voucher as part of a promotion. If a consumer sees a direct result, and an enjoyable and flexible benefit from purchasing one brand over its competitor, they will likely go for that if it delivers added value.