Activate Rewards

Challenge

Quantum Rewards launched a consumer loyalty reward system and required control over delivery methods of their products, including credit cards, print-at-home movie tickets, and private label gift cards. In order to meet client demands, a flexible and scalable system needed to be constructed from scratch and integrated with their payment card processor. A robust accounting and reporting system also needed to be developed in order to track consumer activations and redemption statistics.

Solution

Hat Trick created ActivateRewards.com, a dynamic website that turns each client's planned promotion into a gift in the consumer's hand.  Each promotion starts as an idea for a benefit to the consumer- a pair of free movie tickets with a receipt number and a UPC, a branded gift card for filling out a survey, a $5-off  coupon for a DVD with the purchase of a similar product- that ActivateRewards.com then processes and manages.  Hat Trick designs and brands the customizable entry point, and depending on the nature of the promotion accepts a variety of input types from the consumer, including credit card numbers presented on gift cards, receipt numbers, purchase dates, and UPCs.  ActivateRewards.com stores consumers' contact information for reporting and promotion-tracking, and clients can additionally specify survey data or extra information they want to collect.  A securely managed connection with the payment card processor then "activates" the Quantum RewardsCard or generates a valid credit card number for the user to print and use.  This means that the RewardsCards and the printed cards are as good as cash to the consumer, and the ease and immediacy of ActivateRewards.com leave both the consumer and the client satisfied.

Print-at-Home movie ticket

Additionally, to handle the high volume of consumers activating their rewards during promotions, Hat Trick set up multiple back-end servers for Quantum Loyalty Systems.  To process the heavy and often unpredictable stream of requests, we set up a load-balancing server to mediate incoming requests between two application servers, and to redirect all traffic to a single server in the case that the other server goes down.

Precautionary measures such as redirecting to the backup server are essential given the sensitive nature of the credit card data ActivateRewards.com manages, and Hat Trick has been instrumental in making sure Quantum Loyalty Systems is compliant with the credit card industry's standards for security.  Hat Trick ensures ActivateRewards.com stays current in every aspect of the Payment Card Industry's guidelines, from employee background checks to database encryption to firewall confguration.

Quantum has been able to expand their product offerings and increase sales because of creation of the rewards platform. Hat Trick has helped Quantum run many successful campaigns, including a Lowe's promotion tied to Twentieth Century Fox's film Night at the Museum that saw over 60,000 consumer activations, a Pepcid sweepstakes giveaway that distributed tens of thousands of dollars, and a charitable drive with Paramount Studio's Charlotte's Web that raised money for the 4-H Club.

The variety of clients and products made possible is only part of the story, though.  The real testament to the style, functionality, and integrity of Hat Trick's work is the fact that many clients done one promotion with ActivateRewards.com, and then come back for more. Clients as large as Walt Disney Studios and Pepsi-Cola have run multiple promotions using the Quantum products built by Hat Trick.