GiftCard Partners Blog

The IMA Summit is less than a week away!  The 2014 Incentive Marketing Association Summit is in its 15th year and the GiftCard Partners team is gearing up to take the trip to Philadelphia.

The All Payments Expo
(APEX) is already in full swing this morning in Las Vegas and the GiftCard Partners team is looking forward to taking part in the discussions, collaboration, and merging of minds throughout the payments industry this week. The APEX allows a forum for Alternative Financial Services, Emerging Payments, Omnichannel Retail Strategies and Prepaid to come together to focus on areas of growth and convergence in payments. GCP was excited about the opportunity to sponsor a unique luncheon and joint session between
Retail Gift Card Association (RGCA) and
Incentive Gift Card Council (IGCC), of which we are members of both. The IGCC
stated, “Both associations share goals in promoting best practices and helping the industry grow and believe collaborating on the topic of B2B will create a powerful learning opportunity and one that will eliminate redundancy and streamline our message between groups.” Let the collaborations begin!

GiftCard Partners has been a member of the
Incentive Gift Card Council (IGCC) for many years and was excited at the opportunity to help out with their partnership with the Wounded Warrior Project®. We joined many other IGCC members in the IGCC Holiday Gift Campaign to present the Wounded Warriors Project officials with $31,800 in gift cards, ranging from retail, grocery, entertainment and more. In the past four years, the
IGCC campaign has raised more than $100,000 for the organization supporting thousands of injured service members and veterans injured in combat, including providing assistance to their families. To learn more about how you can help donate your time or money to this wonderful cause check out the
Wounded Warriors Project online.

This was my first MoShow. I was struck by how interesting it was to connect the dots between so many gift card industry players and perspectives. Present were partners (tech & business alliances), customers (channel partners & end customers), professional organizations, and clients and prospective clients (retailers/merchants), all whom found the MoShow an important place to be. In that vein; each GiftCard Partners attendee offered me their take-aways from the show. I had a sense that the take-aways would be diverse…and they are!
Ed Shulkin: “Employee Wellness Programs topped the list of programs employers were looking for.”
Deb Merkin: “Our plan was the following and it led to just the kind of activity we wanted from the show. Prepare - Do your homework- know who is attending and reach out and make appointments through Motivation Connect. Penetrate - Penetrate and engage new and old accounts through intimate meetings.Progress – Move potential sales through the sales funnel by following up after the motivation show.”
Melina Balboni: “This year’s Motivation Show proved to be a great ground for networking with potential new clients. We found that several established companies are interested in taking their business to the next level and looking for creative ways of reaching the ever-growing end-user market”.
Diane Freeland: “Overall, this year’s Motivation Show had fewer exhibitors and reduced attendance, but we found it’s becoming a great venue for partner meetings and better networking opportunities. Canada is a continually growing B2B frontier. Several partners asked us about international redemption options with Canada topping the list.”
Kate Balboni: “The new “Final Rule” law issued by FinCEN was a big topic of discussion at the MoShow’s IGCC meeting! The new anti-money laundering regulations will directly impact the Gift Card Industry.  For in-depth information regarding the “Final Rule” by FinCEN, please visit:
http://www.bankbryancave.com/2011/09/fincen-issues-final-rule-on-prepaid-access
 Cynthea Baldwin Florsheim: “The show confirmed to me that plastic cards are here to stay – there is definitely more and more interest in eCerts; however, I believe we will see complimentary growth in that market vs. plastic being replaced.”
Stacey Sicurella: “The show really allowed me to learn about and communicate with the contingents that glue to our industry and our company together. I was also fascinated at how many meetings we had going on, and often at one time…a good sign for gift cards from merchant and customer perspectives. What Did YOU Get out of the 2011 Motivation Show? Please leave us your comments HERE.

Excerpt from Engagement Strategies Magazine:
Gift Card Landscape Has Shifted, Bringing New Vistas, Values
Four industry experts discuss how recent changes in the market are affecting the use of gift cards as a motivational tool
Gift Card Trends What other important trends are we likely to see in the use of gift cards over the near term? The experts we spoke to had some different views and suggested different opportunities, but all agreed that the use of gift cards as incentives and performance and recognition rewards will continue to grow. NGC’s Adam Van Witzenburg expects to see more use of gift cards – especially virtual cards – as incentives to get customers to come into stores or to come to the phone – “things like, ‘If you come in, we’ll turn this card on,’ and ‘If you take this survey, you can have this card’ more proactive marketing with the cards.” For the rest of the article:
http://www.engagementstrategiesonline.com/Gift-Card-Landscape-Has-Shifted-Bringing-New-Vistas-Values.1014.0.html