Times launches Times Rewards; creative duties go to RK Swamy

Times Rewards is a loyalty programme based on a coupon system. It claims to be the first ever tie-up of its kind in India between a media company and multiple brands

Times Response has launched a coupon based loyalty programme for its readers called Times Rewards. The creative duties have been awarded to RK Swamy/BBDO.

The service was launched in November 2006 and since then the business has been handled by iContract. But with the revamp of this service and the introduction of the coupon system, the media major decided to review the creative duties and awarded the business to RK Swamy/BBDO.

The effort is considered to be a key marketing tool that allows brands to blend media advertising with consumer spend, helping brands track usage patterns and the effectiveness of promotions.

Globally, this concept is called ‘couponing’, and it aids brands to promote themselves and also build on sales volume. This concept is so popular in the US that nearly three out of four households use such loyalty and discount coupons to make purchases. In India, the potential of the concept is still to be explored, and now, with the current retail boom, the time could be right.

“This could be the first initiative of its kind in India, when a media house has successfully married the benefits of mass media communications to measurable results at the ground level,” a Times Rewards spokesperson said.

As per this initiative, Times readers need to register for the programme either through short message service (SMS), online, or interactive voice response services (IVRS). Once registered, their profiles are captured at the back-end through an ongoing contact programme. The offers from brands will be carried in the Times Rewards pages of city-specific editions of ‘The Times of India’, and interested consumers will have to send an SMS with a special code on the paper to get an M-coupon. The M-coupon has a unique number, which is linked to the consumer and can be used only once. To facilitate this process, Times Rewards has developed cutting-edge real-time technology that connects merchants across various cities to a central server.

Additionally, the database of consumers and their preferences will help brands to make informed decisions on promotion type and timing by studying consumer preferences. Through this programme, Times Rewards wishes to bring readers, advertisers and retailers on to a common platform, thereby ensuring a win-win situation for all, the spokesperson added.

The reward programme will begin with Bangalore, and Delhi and Mumbai will follow suit. The initial communication will be focused mainly on Bangalore with media releases in ‘The Times of India’, Bangalore, ‘Vijay Karnataka’ and ‘Bangalore Mirror’.

After these three cities, the programme will be launched in several other cities, including Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Surat.

Several facilities of Bennett Coleman & Co. will be used for communication, including the group’s publications, its radio platform, Radio Mirchi, and its outdoor platform, Times OOH.

Besides the Times Rewards business, RK Swamy has also won the creative duties for K Raheja Universal, the Mumbai-based real estate company, following a multi-agency pitch. The media duties for that account have also been assigned to RK Swamy’s media division, Media Direction. The agency is expected to support corporate brand building as well as the marketing of the company’s projects across the country.