Wow, 2004 was an interesting year for those of us involved with rewards programs! How much of 2004 do YOU remember? Revisit some of the highlights — read on!
2004 — what a year! We saw two programs shut down (Trocamania and ReadersWritersRewards), and we saw five more launch or re-launch (SavingsRegisterRewards, SixQuestions, Sploofus, StockBack, and WinAtlanta). Memolink got into a world of trouble, and yet it somehow survived…maybe thanks in part to its involvement with LuckyPoints and SavingsRegisterRewards. Milesource angered its users by upping redemption costs to a ridiculous level while lowering
what they paid for referrals. And two of the smaller programs, QuickRewards and CreationsRewards, continued to gain favor with users for their customer service. What a long year! Here for your enjoyment (or just to jog your dusty ol’ memory, if yours is like mine), is a recap of the big headlines by month.
January –
David Asseoff, President and CEO of
that
with the email
sent that month to Memolink members saying that
earlier statements from the company that they were a half million dollars in
debt and didn’t know when they’d be able to pay their members long overdue
redemptions. Milesource reduced the amount of
users could earn. And QuickRewards and
to offer CR points as a redemption at QR.
February
Milesource drastically
the points cost of their redemptions.
because SavingsRegisterRewards‘ URL is registered to
out SRR’s redemptions). Oh, the mind
boggles… Memolink, meanwhile,
ton of accounts when users took advantage of a system glitch to get extra
points on the site. Memolink and its sister
sites, SRR and LuckyPoints, all change their terms to
only allow one account per household (though existing multiple-account
households are supposed to be grandfathered in). Also in Feb., I
completed my annual (ugh, means I gotta do this again
soon) report
– Best Rewards Programs for Shopping Rebates. Netflip,
QuickRewards, and ClubMom
were the top 3, by the way.
March –
rewarding for purchases at JCPenney B&M
stores. QuickRewards unveils its new
Shopper Program.
quickly grows in size.
April -
Memolink again catches heat, this time for
the users with multiple accounts in their household that were
grandfathered in after the terms change in Feb. Now they wanted
proof of ID before paying folks, delaying even further many folks’
redemptions. Pointpool
value of the free bitcard they send when you cash out
for a GC, from 200 to 50 points. BabyMint’s
parent company (Vesdia Corp.) buys the old
hats, QuickRewards and CreationsRewards,
both receive the
record of paying their members."
May –
Shoppers Program…must not be too successful, though, as RWR shuts down
entirely in September. Memolink posts a new
"formula
for payments," which gives precedence in receiving their
redemptions to users who complete 3 or more 300-point transactions.
PointPool adds hidden banners for points and
threatens users who go directly to point links without clicking through.
And QuickRewards and ClickToTheMagic
offer CTTM points as a redemption on QR.
June –
with Metareward (owned by Netflip).
Not sure how it’s going to work and as of Jan. 2005, we still haven’t seen
anything come of this "partnership."
launches its program as a trivia game only; they don’t receive a financial
backer to pay for rewards until November. Following in
July.
July –
There hadn’t been much to that site in years, anyway. SixQuestions
adds rewards for
Memolink’s in hot water again, this time it’s listed
as one of only THREE "well-known online organizations"
– out of 1,057 surveyed by ArielSoftware. The
newsletter turns one year old!
August –
send redemptions. SixQuestions draws criticism
from a rival trivia site for
quizzes — but all quizzes are user-submitted, so it turns out the
"bad guys" are the lazy members trying to earn points for submitting
quizzes they found on the other site.
September -
BabyMint adds a redemption option: put your
earnings toward paying off your existing
Adam of SixQuestions guested
in a
some user frustration) on his program. In
(Bonnie), CreationsRewards (Chris), and
to talk about their programs.
October –
program.
returned to MyPoints for weekly visits through 12/20.
November –
launching their own rewards program.
launches
its program.
December -
Subway officially
its Sub Club rewards program as of month end. It’s unclear if they will
revamp the system or offer a lower price menu instead. Employees
complained that their floors would be littered with the little stamps at the
end of the day. (Darnit, y’all, we missed an
opportunity there!) Otherwise…all’s quiet on the rewards program
front. No news is good news? Guess we’ll see in January!