Telus has picked loyalty and data marketing company Aimia to drive its rewards program.
The telecommunications company will use what Aimia calls its “Smart Button” software platform to implement and manage the credit card based program, the two companies announced on Monday. The Telus program started as a pilot project last fall in some markets and is now being rolled out nationwide.
Gary Filan, Aimia’s vice-president of business development, said Telus would be able to “pick and play” what features and functions they want to use with the platform.
The program will be managed by the internal marketing team at Telus, helping them to review and analyze customer data in real time and to develop deeper relationship with their customers.
“By using Smart Button they are able to capture and retain a lot of the data associated with the transactions. It allows them to offer very personalized reports to their members,” said Filan.
Filan said Aimia would not only provide the platform for Telus, but also a series of analytics products and services.
“We make sure the data is leveraged to the point where our customers get the most value out of it,” he said.
Telus customers participating in the program can earn and redeem points to save money on new smartphones, tablets, roaming travel passes, prepaid cards and accessories, the telecom company said in a release.
“We wanted to offer a loyalty program that provided added value to our customers,” stated Simone Lumsden, vice-president customer relationship marketing and engagement at Telus. “Aimia provided us with the expertise and marketing technology to fulfill this commitment.”
Telus is the first telecommunications company to use Aimia’s Smart Button program, which launched in 2013. Smart Button was developed largely for the retail market and the large software-as-a-service (SaaS) market in North America. Aimia said Smart Button has about 50 clients including brands such as fashion retailers Hot Topic and Aeropostale, well-known American thoroughbred racetrack Churchill Downs and KOA Campgrounds.
Aimia has a variety of loyalty platforms and businesses such as Aeroplan, Club Premier in Latin America and U.S.-based Cardlytics, a transaction-driven marketing for electronic banking.
Aimia hired its first chief marketing officer last year, former Rogers executive John Boynton, to help boost its business-to-business marketing operations, including the growing use of data analytics. The company also hired Josephine Allan earlier this year as director of loyalty design to help reshape some of its global loyalty programs.
