We’d love to hear a little bit about your role at Airtime Rewards and it would be great to hear about your journey. Can you give us a quick overview of how you got to your current role at Airtime Rewards?
Oliver Johnson: I came from an affiliate marketing background having previously worked in sales for an affiliate network. I met Josh, one of the founders of Airtime at a networking event where we had mutual contacts within the industry. I was really interested in Airtime’s different spin of using card tracking technology and loved the direction and existing partnerships they had in place.
Additionally, I had always wanted to work on the publisher side so I jumped at the opportunity. My day to day role involves approaching networks and advertisers as well as managing our existing partnerships. I also spend my time on increasing our awareness within the industry through promoting our partnerships and positive case studies.
Can you tell us how Airtime Rewards fits into the affiliate marketing ecosystem? How do you work with publishers and merchants?
OJ: We partner with retailers and help them to incentivise sales on a performance basis. Our 750k members are offered a % reward for shopping with our partner brands and we issue rewards to our members on each purchase. We differ from standard publishers because the tech we use enables us to also drive in-store spend as well as online.
How does Airtime Rewards create loyalty and member confidence in a space that is dominated by established brands/carriers?
OJ: We generate incremental sales for all of our partners through increased frequency of purchase and AOV. The more our members shop, the more they earn., this all benefits our brand partners. One of the main ways we achieve this is through segmentation of our database, incentivising various cohorts with various offers based on their spend behaviour. This enables us to more accurately spend our partners marketing budgets and deliver the right type of incentive to the right shopper.
All this means that on average, we increase the average customer spend by up to 23%. We have also created a unique currency that we feel is in many ways more relevant to our target age group and members. We are the only programme that has integrations with the top five telco providers to enable redemption back our members monthly mobile bills. A powerful and highly relevant method of incentivising the younger generation.
What opportunity does Airtime Rewards offer brands and retailers, when working with Partnerize, other platforms and networks?
OJ: They have the opportunity for a swift launch as we dont require traditional integration with brand partners. We also offer a real-time view of incentivised transactions within the Partnerize dashboard which is a first for a CLO partner. The nature of our service also gives brands the opportunity to target a younger audience than the typical cash back / voucher shopper with an average of 26.
How does Airtime Rewards go above and beyond to leverage its data when creating value for advertisers and users alike?
OJ: We have a deep understanding of our members purchasing behaviour and their interests. We operate a hyper-personalised programme where the service and communications are tailored to our members spending history. This drives high engagement and a strong ROI for our retailers.
Can you give us an example of a co-branded partnership campaign that Airtime Rewards has facilitated and how it worked?
OJ: We have marketing partnerships with O2 and EE where the networks promote our service and our brand partners to millions of their customers. It is a huge marketing channel into potential new customers.
What are Airtime Rewards’ plans for focus for the second half of 2020?
OJ: Despite the obvious challenges faced for everyone this year we remain positive and the second half of 2020 is an exciting period for Airtime. Our community is still growing really quickly and we are on track to reach over 1m members before the end of the year. We also have some exciting partnerships to announce which will take us over 100 major retail partners.
From a product point of view, we have a huge new app update launching in July, it’s a big update and a real step change for the business. It includes loads of new features that will benefit both our members as well as advertisers.
Lastly, do you have any parting advice for brands and/or partners?
OJ: Have an open mind about card-linked rewards and give us a go. We are experts in the field, having been working in the space for five years and we know how to maximise value and ROI. Let us show you how our dedicated membership can help generate incrementality and not only drive online sales but also help increase footfall in stores.
