Behind the Idea: Airtime Rewards

Amid a value of dwelling disaster, throughout which the pockets of customers are feeling the pinch and retailers’ budgets are being squeezed, model loyalty has by no means been extra vital.

Airtime Rewards, a data-led loyalty and rewards platform, incentivises customers to buy whereas enabling retailers to amass and retain consumers. To study extra concerning the firm and its choices, we sat down with Josh Graham, co-founder and chief advertising officer.

Inform us extra about your organization and its providing

Airtime Rewards is a fintech firm with roots on this planet of cell advertising and retail loyalty. Our journey began in retail loyalty and cell advertising even earlier than cell apps have been a factor, with the aim of leaning into the untapped potential of cell networks to create a brand new forex for smartphone customers to offset their telephone payments.

As we grew, we developed an revolutionary expertise which powers a easy and environment friendly rewards program, with our platform appearing as a bridge connecting customers, retailers, and cell networks. By means of this, we provide frictionless and revolutionary rewards to all concerned events.

What drawback was your organization set as much as clear up?

We’re all about simplifying the method of accessing gives and saving cash on cell phone payments, whereas serving to retailers accrue and retain new clients. We’ve made it simple for our members to redeem the rewards they earn and get a refund, with out the same old complexities. When signing up, all you want is your telephone quantity, and we’ll care for deducting reductions instantly out of your telephone payments. It’s a win-win for each retailers and clients.

Our inclusive method ensures that everybody, irrespective of their technical experience, can get pleasure from the advantages of saving cash whereas purchasing with ease and comfort. We take pleasure in being a user-friendly and environment friendly platform for retailers and members alike.

We additionally know that loyalty is vital for retailers; clients anticipate personalisation so it’s basic they perceive their clients. To deal with this, we wished to supply focused buyer segmentation with our clever knowledge, to assist them accrue and retain new clients.

 Since launch, how has your organization developed?

We’ve come a good distance since our launch in 2015. Beginning as a retail loyalty firm with a give attention to cell advertising, we’ve developed into a worldwide expertise platform, led by data-driven advertising. Beginning as a retail loyalty firm, we’ve developed right into a advertising expertise platform, pushed by transactional knowledge.

Our purpose is to develop into new areas and empower retailers to focus on and incentivise clients extra successfully. We wish to be the platform that drives gross sales and gives retailers with useful insights into their buyer base and buying behaviours, all via intensive transactional expertise.

What has been the largest problem or most ‘tough second’ to beat?

As a co-founder, one of the crucial difficult moments for us was gaining preliminary traction and convincing retailers to affix our platform. It was a little bit of a ‘rooster and egg’ state of affairs, the place we wanted each retailers and customers to return on board concurrently for our enterprise mannequin to thrive.

Overcoming this demanded relentless effort and revolutionary considering. We needed to promote our distinctive idea to retailers, demonstrating to them the advantages our expertise might deliver to their companies. We knew we needed to reveal worth from totally different views to realize their belief.

Partnering with main cell networks proved to be a game-changer. It not solely boosted our credibility but in addition helped us acquire important traction available in the market and construct belief with potential retailers.

What are your largest achievements or ‘proudest moments’ up to now?

Trying again on our journey, I really feel extremely happy with the numerous milestones we’ve reached. These moments are a testomony to the dedication of our workforce’s arduous work and the unwavering assist of our three million members and 150+ retailer companions so far.

Reaching the one-millionth redemption in December 2021 was a serious milestone for us. Seeing the satisfaction our members expertise is actually fulfilling and motivates us to push even additional.

Celebrating £1billion in incentivised spend in November final 12 months was one other unbelievable achievement that showcased the effectiveness and worth of our platform for retailers, in addition to the excessive engagement of our rising member base.

Most lately, in June this 12 months we welcomed our three millionth member onto our platform. Our increasing neighborhood has grow to be the guts of what drives our progress, and their belief evokes us to maintain innovating and delivering the perfect rewards.

How would you describe the tradition of your organization?

Our firm tradition is all a few shared ardour and mission. We’re genuinely enthusiastic concerning the rewards we provide as a result of we all know they make a significant influence in individuals’s lives – particularly in occasions like these when client funds are being squeezed by the price of dwelling disaster. This ardour is clear in each facet of our enterprise, from our product improvement course of to how we prioritise distinctive buyer experiences.

We worth the enter and imaginative and prescient of every workforce member and imagine that everybody contributes considerably to our success. Inclusivity fosters a way of possession and belonging, making us all really feel like valued contributors to the corporate’s progress. Our tradition additionally embraces innovation and a fast-paced mindset. We love being a disruptive pressure in our trade, all the time searching for new and higher methods to enhance our product and providers.

What’s in retailer for the longer term

We now have bold plans to develop our rewards expertise and forex on a worldwide scale, giving clients worldwide the chance to learn from Airtime Rewards. Our aim is to grow to be the market-leading advertising expertise platform for main retailers, providing revolutionary and efficient options to satisfy their wants. We’re additionally actually enthusiastic about introducing a premium account tier with unique options and advantages for our most valued members as part of this.

Trying forward, hyper-personalisation and hyper-relevance is our primary focus for each our retailer companions and members. Placing them on the coronary heart of what we do requires us to continually evolve our performance to make sure all our companions are getting related insights and rewards primarily based on their wants.

We envision a future the place we strengthen our international presence and proceed to steer the trade in offering distinctive rewards and advantages to our members and retailers alike.