Following on the heels of other recent announcements of prepaid debit and credit cards, Scotiabank has collaborated with Berkeley Payment Solutions to launch a new suite of corporate prepaid Visa cards. Hugely popular in the United States, prepaid Visa card payment solutions benefit companies seeking proven cost-effective payment solutions that extend their company's brand and resonate with employees, customers, and partners.
This new suite of payment solutions features branded, re-loadable prepaid Visa cards that provide the ease-of-use of a credit card with the universal appeal of cash and the satisfaction of a personal reward. By allowing cardholders to redeem their reward any way and anywhere they want, prepaid Visa cards can be seen as the ultimate win-win solution: employees, customers and partners want to receive meaningful and convenient reward and incentive options (based on choice and flexibility) while companies want to eliminate the time, cost and hassle associated with the disbursement of checks and/or merchandise.
Scotiabank and Berkeley believe that using the prepaid Visa platform (featuring all the security and flexibility associated with the Visa brand) and providing timely, useful and accurate reporting metrics to measure the success of each payment program, can both increase program participation and motivate participants to exceed program goals. Other important results could include increased marketing return on investment, significant lifts in sales, enhanced employee motivation and enhanced employee retention.
Nissan Canada selected Scotiabank and Berkeley to spearhead two recent reward programs. In October 2007, the "Nissan Rogue Test Drive Direct-mail" program invited customers to test drive the all-new Nissan Rogue and gave them the option of being rewarded with a Nissan prepaid Visa card. In addition, and among the first programs of its kind in Canada, Nissan launched its "Bonus Days" program in December 2007 which provided customers with the choice of receiving either a Nissan-branded prepaid Visa gift card or a rebate upon the purchase of one of four Nissan vehicles (Rogue, Altima, Sentra or Versa).
Scotiabank and Berkeley also worked closely with LG Electronics Canada to launch its LG Shine cell phone in October 2007. As part of its "Born to Shine" campaign, an LG-branded re-loadable prepaid Visa card was issued to more than 1,500 retail sales associates at cellular dealerships across Canada. The reward structure was clearly communicated by LG's national sales team at the launch of the campaign and funds were regularly loaded onto each person's card based on the volume of all LG cell phones sold.
"The LG Shine prepaid Visa campaign is seen as a tremendous success on every level by both our Canadian management team and our head office in Korea," explained Beverley Battram, director of national accounts, LG Canada. "Not only was our lift in sales much higher than anticipated, it was one of the easiest incentive programs for our national sales team to both implement and communicate to dealer sales associates. This program delivered such outstanding results and such a win-win proposition for everyone involved ? both internally and externally ? that we intend to re-launch a similar program in May," concluded Battram.
Full Article at Workplace Magazine
