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10 Nov 2020

Create Direct wins Agency of the Year 2020, Best Creative, Gold, Silver and Bronze Award for its Loyalty & Rewards solutions

This fall we celebrate one of the most important achievements for this year of Create Direct agency: the award for the Agency of the Year 2020, won during the IDN Awards ceremony.

On October 8th, 2020, the IDN Creative & Strategic Forum 2020 conference took place. It’s where Create Direct agency, an exclusive member of InterDirect in Romania, won a total of 6 IDN Awards.

The projects that have enriched the agency’s awards portfolio are Rewardiful.com and Experimenteaza.Rewardiful.com.

The agency’s solutions were awarded with gold in the Best Customer Strategy category, silver in Loyalty category, and bronze in Online Strategy and Innovations categories.

Rewardiful.com, the SaaS solution for developing and managing trade campaigns, rewards and loyalty programs, has been awarded in the Online Strategy, Loyalty and Innovations categories. This is the second year in a row that Rewardiful.com stands out in both the IDN Awards and the IMA – Incentive Awards. Finally, the solution received a double nomination in the categories Best Use of a Technology in a Program and Best Technology Provider or Solution.

Rewardiful.com comes to the aid of customers that are active in the constantly and rapidly changing markets, and offers a valuable competitive advantage, that of Time to Market. With Rewardiful.com, the campaigns are live in maximum 24 hours. Starting with the layout and loading of the customer base, up to the setting of the mechanics, the awards catalog and the logistics, the implementation process is fast and fluid.

In addition, Rewardiful.com now offers a complex package of new technical functions. Prepaid vouchers, card payment points or the “My Wish” module are just some of the new features available through the platform.

Experimenteaza.Rewardiful.com is the second project to bring two major awards to Create Direct. It won gold in the Best Customer Strategy category, but also one of the most significant awards at the IDN Awards, the award for Best Creative.

Experimenteaza.Rewardiful.com is the project through which the Create Direct agency invites customers and prospects to test the Rewardiful.com platform, from the point of view of the final consumer, based on a code. Thus, those interested in the platform, experience the process that their loyal customers will go through when using the accumulated points.

Agency of the year 2020, the most coveted distinction for the agencies participating in the IDN Awards, was won by the agency Create Direct.

The jury, made up of members specializing in strategy and creation, were from several countries: Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Thailand, and Romania.

08 Sep 2020

Create Direct solutions in the Top 3 best incentive solutions in Europe, for a second year in a row

On September 1st, 2020, the IA jury announced the final list of agencies nominated for the IMA Europe Incentive Awards 2020. Create Direct solutions received 3 nominations in two distinct categories.

Rewardiful.com solution received a double nomination in the categories Best Use of a Technology in a Program and Best Technology Provider or Solution. Rewardiful.com is a SaaS solution for developing trade campaigns, rewards, and loyalty programs. The solution offers customers an essential competitive advantage in the ever changing, fast-moving markets: Time to Market. Thus, customer campaigns will be live in maximum 24 hours, with all stages of implementation entirely set, from layout and customer database, to setting the mechanics, the awards catalogue and awards logistics.

Constantly perfected, Rewardiful.com now offers a complex package of new technical features for successful campaigns (prepaid vouchers, card point purchases or “My Wish” module are just some of the new features available through Rewardiful. com).

In the Best Technology Provider or Solution category, Create Direct agency is nominated for the Rewards Direct solution, a complete, customizable, rewards management solution. This is the second year in a row that Rewards Direct stands out in front of the Incentive Awards jury.

Cosmin Lăcătușu, executive director of Create Direct agency: “The nominations obtained within IMA Europe honour us, all the more so as this year, out of 4 solutions nominated in the Best Technology Provider or Solution category, 2 of them belong to Create Direct agency. You know that you offer innovative and quality solutions when you start competing with yourself.

Recognizing our solutions at a prestigious event such as the Incentive Awards is a confirmation that, despite this unpredictable year, our interest in customer needs, our discipline and our enthusiasm always yield excellent results. ”

IMA Europe, the European division of the USA Incentive Marketing Association, is an organization whose goal is to support and develop the benefits that marketing incentives offer to various organizations in Europe.

Create Direct agency was founded in 2004 and is owned by Mediapost Hit Mail, which is part of the French Post group (La Poste).

Create Direct is the leader of the Romanian market for marketing incentive solutions and specializes in the development of business solutions for loyalty clubs, lead generation campaigns, performance marketing and GDPR marketing compliancy.

21 Jan 2020

How to create a motivational program for retailers

reward program

Retailers are the critical point of connection between your brand and the end customer.

No matter how well thought out a product is or how good it is, it almost doesn’t matter if it’s not available at the right time and the right locations. Training staff in stores is still a practice that offers results, but with all the turnover of retail staff lately, you cannot sustain a long-term motivation strategy. In addition, the more complex the retailer network, the more difficult it is to sustain such a program.

How do you measure the success of the program, how do you keep your retail partners motivated, what is the real cost of the program and what actions are needed for optimization? Before starting a motivational program, you must first have the answers to all these questions. Let’s discuss some key elements that a program must contain.

1. Create a motivation system based on value thresholds, depending on the size and profitability of the retailer for your brand. For example, if the retailer’s sales are 20,000 Euros every month, an increase of 15-20% to offer a reward can be considered acceptable. Rewarding is most often done by offering cash back, other clearing products, points that can be converted into IT and home appliances or even vacation trips.

2. Create a communication program within the campaign through which retailers can provide valuable feedback to optimize the program, and more. Just as we mentioned in the beginning, the retailers are closest to the consumer and their feedback is important. A successful motivation program is not just based on incentive and support. For example, a constant number of complaints from a product packaging design problem will cause the retailer or sales staff to avoid recommending it.

3. Reward or offer extra bonuses for retailers that ensure good visibility of your product or promotional campaign. The leaflets of the campaign displayed, the exhibition on the shelf, the posters displayed in the shops, are elements that you cannot quantify immediately, but they contribute to the visibility of your product and the long-term awareness. How exactly do you monitor this? You are about to find out.

4. Facilitate access to the program. Create multiple levels within the program. A purchasing manager within a chain of stores wants to have access to the total turnover and the bonus obtained for the purchases of the month, while the sales staff wants to have access to the points obtained individually and to the prizes they can receive.

5. Provide fast reaction time. Keep in mind that new generations expect to receive an item as quickly as a great online store would react to their demands. When you offer a prize for reaching a goal, make sure the delivery is done in a similar time, even faster if possible.

 

A motivational program for the retail channel created through Rewardiful is easy to manage, you can set value thresholds or different reward segments, ensure communication with retailers in real time and monitor the performance of the program. Let’s say you start a motivational program tomorrow, here’s what you need to know:

– We create your program interface;
– You upload the database on various levels of management;
– Set the reward thresholds and prizes, choosing from our catalogue of prizes;
– Send an email blast announcing the start of the program;
– Monitor the activity within the program;
– Once the points are awarded and the prize claimed, we deal with the delivery of the prize.

Grant points to retailers that ensure good visibility of your product. It’s simple! All you have to do is upload photos in Rewardiful with the shelf product, promotional posters, leaflets and other items that you consider important. Any other ideas are always welcomed.

07 Oct 2019

How to create a strong long-term connection through your incentive program

Successful companies invest time and money not only to attract new customers, but to keep the current ones as well. Studies have shown that attracting a new client is 25 times more expensive than keeping the existing clients, which means the marketing investment made for maintaining the existing clients is far more profitable.

Improving customer retention rate will always result in higher profits for the company. The 20/80 rule applies here, which means 20% of the existing clients will generate 80% of the company’s profits.
A loyalty program is the best way to maintain a long-term relationship with clients and partners. Basically, rewarding customers for repeat purchases and partners for reaching certain performances in selling the product are ways to build a relationship meant to last.

However, it is a big challenge. How can you create a long-term relationship using your rewards program?
A popular idea is that B2B clients choose a brand or a company for rational reasons like instant offers or volume discounts. We agree with that, however we think there’s more to it.

Consistent prizes. Cutting off prices, rebates or spot offers are money savers and quite attractive, but they have a time limit. This type of promotion is a channel incentive type in which the customers take action only on short term. The disadvantage is that you cannot build a long-term relationship using this type of mechanism. Furthermore, it can be easily copied by the competition.
A program through which clients accumulate points and have the option of choosing the products they are interested in from a personalized catalogue are important elements for the customer. The consistency and uniqueness of the catalogue products will influence the perceived value of the program in the eyes of the customer. A successful prize catalogue is the one we created for Rewards Direct. It is being used by over 150 clients because its perceived value is very high.

Creating an emotional bond. Customers often choose to stay in a program because they feel part of a community and have developed a strong emotional connection with the brand. If you are a salesman, you have probably been in the situation where customers have chosen some other brand over yours, even though your offer was better.

An emotional connection is created when the customer feels that he’s receiving a complete experience that is based on motivation, communication, genuine interest in their business and access to useful information. It seems hard to believe, but many customers make purchase decisions based on emotions. A brand communicates and is actively present in the day to day life of their clients and partners.

Access to the program. The easier is the program to access, the more trustworthy it becomes for clients and partners. Access from mobile devices is crucial and the program must be present online as well.

Clients and partners must always have access to their account, their messages and notifications sent via email, access to accumulated points, news or the prize catalogue. An integrated communication where a simple click on an URL received on email, WhatsApp or text message leading the user to the desired page is an important component of a successful program.

Just as important is the time it takes for the page to load. It must be very fast so that the users don’t lose interest and leave the page.

The pages we have developed over time for our clients on Rewards Direct and Rewardiful are optimized for any type of device, no matter the complexity of the program or the volume of information.

Loyalty programs are an excellent way of creating a long-lasting relationship with your clients and partners. All you have to do is follow our recommendations above, add a sprinkle of creativity and constant communication. Long term bonds are built in time and with consistency.

04 Oct 2019

Create Direct’s solutions in TOP 5 best rewards solutions in Europe

Incentive Awards 2019
The rewards solutions created by the agency Create Direct have been shortlisted for two categories at IMA Europe’s Incentive Awards 2019 that took place in London on September 26th. Each category had 5 shortlisted projects, the best 5 of all projects submitted for Incentive Awards.

For the category Best Use of a Technology in a Programme, Create Direct was shortlisted for Rewardiful, a Saas solution for developing trade campaigns, loyalty and rewards programmes.

The second nomination was for Rewards Direct in the category Best Technology Provider or Solution. Rewards Direct is a complete, customizable, rewards management solution.

Create Direct’s solutions have been shortlisted alongside projects from Germany, UK, Italy, Belgium, Sweden and Norway. Almost 2 weeks before, the agency’s loyalty & rewards solutions have been awarded with one gold and two silvers at the IDN Creative & Strategic Forum 2019 that took place this September in Bucharest. The awards won by the agency were for Innovations, Loyalty and Best Customer Strategy.

Cosmin Lăcătușu, CEO at Create Direct: `The awards and nominations we have received are a confirmation that we are market leaders not just on the local market, but on the Eastern European market as well. Our solutions are already being used by prominent brands in countries like Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Turkey and Romania. The solutions we offer cover a wide spectrum of business objectives and are suitable for any type of business, region or industry. Furthermore, we have the expertise of handling the marketing communication, as well as the logistics behind the programmes. We have the resources of being the logistics supplier for all the Eastern European countries. So, when it comes down to it, we offer much more than software solutions. We offer a complete business solution that ensures long-term success. `

IMA Europe acts as a Strategic Industry Group within the USA based Incentive Marketing Association and its purpose is to develop the benefits that incentive marketing offers to all kind of organizations across Europe. The shortlisted solutions proposed for the Incentive Awards have been judged by a panel of industry leaders and experts like Mark Smith – Head of Microsoft Solutions, Alan Price – Group Operations Director Peninsula, and Jonathan Grey – CEO Ovation Incentives.

Create Direct agency is specialized in developing business solutions for loyalty & rewards programmes, lead generation campaigns, performance marketing and GDPR marketing compliancy.