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November 29 2007
Online loyalty association launched
Three UK-based online loyalty scheme operators have formed the Online Loyalty Association in an attempt to raise standards.
The first online loyalty scheme we remember seeing at IR was Beenz, and although it garnered a lot of positive publicity it was hard to see how they were ever going to make any money. It seemed to be too easy to rack up points by doing no more than filling in a form or visiting a website, and then it was far too hard to find any retailer who was willing to take the points as payment. Beenz failed and we were able to say a smug “I told you so.” We still think that a lot of the lessons from Beenz are still being re-learnt however a new initiative may help shake up the industry.
The Online Loyalty Association has been founded by MutualPoints, Rpoints and GreasyPalm, is a not-for-profit organisation that has been set up to increase consumer confidence in loyalty schemes.
Richard Yendall, chief executive officer of Rpoints, has been made chairman of the association, and the association has also drawn up a code of practice for cashback, points and rewards schemes, and will aim to promote the sector to other industries.
Prospective members must pass the association's code of practice in order to be accepted.
The code requires that all members must adhere to the Data Protection Act; information about the true value of rewards schemes must always be transparent; members must demonstrate they have a reliable monitoring system for rewards programmes, and all companies with accreditation must carry out an annual audit of their programmes.
Yendall said:
"Online affiliate loyalty marketing is fast growing and our priority is that quality keeps up, for everyone's benefit. It's a challenging time for the industry but by taking this positive step we aim to improve perceptions and accelerate the industry's growth."
The loyalty market has come a long way since Beenz, although it’s still hard to see anything reaching the level of the Green Shield stamp , but this initiative maybe a good building block.
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