Catch Millennial eyes with electronic coupons

To get your printed coupon in front of a Millennial is hard work, to make them cut it out and use it is almost impossible. Why? Because the majority of Millennials get their information, and therefore marketing messages, online or via their mobile phones.

by Helen Leggatt

So how do you get kids aged between 7 and 26 to use coupons? By presenting them in a format that they are familiar with and interact with daily - electronic. For some time it's been possible to provide targeted coupons to Internet users for redemption via email and mobile. Some even allow users to print out coupons and use them at a store.

But recently, it has been speciality debit cards that are taking coupons a step deeper into the digital realm that Millennials inhabit.

Enter Facecard, from Edo Interactive and issued by Metabank. Facecard is a debit card developed specifically to target Millennials. It is available to anyone over the age of 13 and operates across multiple platforms thus merging online, offline and mobile. New users are currently subscribing at a rate of around 5,000 per month.

Furthermore, Facecard functions as a social as well as a financial network. Once a user creates a profile they can send and receive money from others in their network. With many teenagers using the Internet but not able to qualify for credit cards, Facecard offers a way in which Millennials can spend what amounts to around $200 billion annually both online and in the real world.

"This is a non-traditional bank product that is more geared toward leveraging the technology that the target market is used to," said Ed Braswell, president and CEO of Edo Interactive.

Of interest to retailers is the ability to load Facecard with electronic coupons, or small dollar amounts that can be redeemed according to set limitations such as location, date or product.

Called "prewards", these incentives can be highly targeted thanks to Facecard's user profile data, and have thus far been found highly effective. Some preward campaigns have yielded response rates of 17%, reports BusinessWeek.