In the past week, business has taken me to Vancouver, BC and San Jose, Costa Rica with a pit stop in South Florida for a day or so at home. None of that was a big deal until my colleague Mike Atkin noted at dinner that we’ve been hitting these spots in conjunction with some pretty big events.

We arrived in Vancouver exactly one week before the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics, landed in South Florida the day before Super Bowl XLIV, and arrived in San Jose on election day as the country was electing the first female President in its history. I’m not sure how I can top that although I have noticed that I arrive back in SoFla just in time to make Valentine’s day special for my wife. Better pull that one off!

I’ve also been using Foursquare for a while and, like a lot of social media waves, I engaged knowing that it would cost me a little time without being sure of a return. I’ve been having some fun with it around my local haunts and have been thinking about how something like Foursquare could intersect with location based offers as part of a loyalty marketing program. My first eye-opener was the blending of Foursquare and Twitter into the Tasti D-Lite rewards program which I talked about in a recent post.

This last jaunt across the continent and back connected a few dots. Checking in to my hotel in Vancouver, I saw a pop-up on my iPhone that said “Special Nearby”. Clicking through, I read “Welcome to the Mill Marine Bistro & Bar. Mayor receives a free beer. Show your server to redeem.”

I wasn’t the Mayor and didn’t get a free beer, but Mike and I did visit the nearby pub to have a quick dinner. The point made was that promotions relevant to someone’s stay could be delivered via this little iPhone application. Better yet, these offers are made to people who have opted-in to receive the offer. in this case, the Mayor might game the offer to get lots of free beer and over time I hope the restaurant will become more creative in the offers made, possibly targeting guests at the hotel next door.

Landing in FLL a day or so later, I switched on the phone and “checked in” to Fort Lauderdale – Hollywood International Airport and received a tip from a local attorney, Leland Garvin. On the verge of the Super Bowl weekend in SoFla, what better message could an attorney send than (paraphrased) “Have fun while in town, but if anything happens from arrest to a speeding ticket, call Leland Garvin, attorney at law.” A phone number was included and if I was a “Who Dat” ready to tear it up for the Super weekend, I would have written it down and tucked it somewhere safe.

With lots of minds grinding on how to incorporate mobile marketing, location based promotions, and social media into loyalty program communication streams, these two “pops” from Foursquare got my attention and sparked some good ideas.

Consider the possibilities. What’s it make you think about?

After spending the last few weeks thinking through reasonable responses to my new favorite question for 2010 “Do you think Social Media is here to stay?“, I’ve recently been re-directed to my “old” favorite question that I have been answering for 12 years “Do loyalty programs work?“

Without disappearing completely down that gopher-hole, I’ll just say that there is enough discomfort in using the “L” word that industry insiders are redirecting the conversation to new labels. Is it any wonder why Customer Engagement has been the buzzword of the year?

Lifecycle marketing in the credit card business has always hinged on the “Activation, Usage Retention” triad. In retail, there is a similar flow with “Awareness, Visit, Purchase, Return“.

I believe that within these lifecycle flows, Customer Engagement has always existed. Activation can be broken down into Awareness & Engagement leading to Activation. You get the idea.

So why is Customer Engagement being given so much attention these days? Maybe because marketers have always found it one of the toughest steps to effectively manage in the relationship value chain. And, maybe it is because in 2010 the job is increasingly difficult as consumer attention spans are shrinking each day.

Not too long ago, I went to see the end-times movie “2012″ and the challenge of customer engagement was made crystal clear. As the final scene faded out, the entire theater full of patrons jumped to their feet and headed to the exits. As I sat comfortably watching the credits scroll by, I noticed that I was literally one of three people still in my seat. I had noticed this behavior before, but finally connected some dots.

You see, consumer attention spans have been shrinking for several years and the pace of shrinkage shows no sign of slowing down. The question is: how do marketers hope to create and maintain “customer engagement” when “customers” (us) can barely pay attention long enough to change the channel?

With tongue only slightly in-cheek, I believe the slide in customer attention span all started with USA Today. The snippet-based paper lowered the bar for people to gather their news, requiring them only to read a paragraph or two and then turn the page. After a while, reading a news story in the New York Times seemed like sitting down to crack War and Peace.

The die was cast and a new standard was set for how consumers gather their news – short entertainment-driven sound bytes that could be absorbed while multi-tasking negated the requirement for thought or analysis. Now we have a “crawler” on everything from CNN to ESPN to summarize our news for us, and we are sharing our subjects of interest with friends through quick SMS messages and IM blasts. Even the outflow of natural disasters as recently occurred in Haiti are threatened by our short attention span.

Compress the communication further by limiting our messages to 140 characters on Twitter and it is clear that there is more emphasis on the announcement than the content inside. In the business world, we are increasingly asked to summarize key thoughts and initiatives into “one pagers”.  Weeks & months of work on strategic plans are being distilled into executive summaries that are shorter by the day. It almost seems as though even a brilliant business plan or strategy is doomed unless there is an effective elevator speech to go with it.

The trends we have seen in Loyalty Marketing include members who want to achieve award status quicker and redeem more often for smaller “attainable” rewards. Converting points for cash back certificates at the point of sale is high on the list for many program operators.

If you agree that attention spans are compressing daily and our own internal communications are being driven by 3 PowerPoint slides and a “one pager”, what tactics can we hope to successfully employ to engage our customers?

I think the answer is two-fold:

• First, we can go back to social media – as we might just have to meet people “where they are” rather than hoping to bring them into our web, our way.
• The second is to never forget that every house has a kitchen table or something akin to it. People still gather and enjoy each other’s company in informal settings. Putting a catalog or brochure on their kitchen table gives them something to talk about – YOU. Personalizing that catalog based on known behaviors makes it even more of a conversation piece, once opened.

Pairing these two unlikely partners – Social Media and Direct Mail – might just work. Give it a try.

Editors Note: Jim Kuschill is a patient man. Patient enough to have architected one of the world’s leading loyalty marketing software platforms while Chief Technology Officer of Frequency Marketing. DIRECTV got his goat and the following is worth a read, especially if you’re the person responsible for customer experience or customer service at your company.

I don’t know when the customer experience scales tipped, but indeed they have – DIRECTV can now claim to be just as lacking as your typical cable company.

My enlightenment started a few months ago…

As is the case with so many of us, my wife and I are pretty busy and we almost never remember pay per view (PPV). On this particular evening, I remembered PPV and even identified a movie that would be fun to watch. I queued it up and was looking forward to some comedy over the coming weekend, or maybe the weekend after.

In case you haven’t heard, the PPV model has changed and the (then) subtle notations on the ordering menu about the “new and improved” model were too subtle for me to comprehend. My movie recorded, my bill was debited, and my movie was erased.

I did some research and discovered this was certainly my fault. Flaming blog entries from a variety of people indicated that the change had taken place some time before. Never mind that there wasn’t anything with my billing statement explaining the change, nor an e-mail, nor a separate communication. It was as if DirecTV and the Studios didn’t want anybody to know about the change. How could it be that they wouldn’t want you to know that “pay per view” had become “pay per download?” Clearly the emphasis was now on “pay per” and viewing be damned.

I spent time wondering about “fair use” and what the Studios were thinking. How does a movie taking up space on somebody’s DVR lose them money? Do they expect thousands of recurring neighborhood parties for Battle of the Smithsonian? Maybe the movie gets tweeted around the world in 4 million little pieces? I just couldn’t figure it out.

I sent an e-mail of complaint to DirecTV and requested a credit to my bill. No response. I sent another. Still nothing. The $4.99 wasn’t worth a call, which sadly I suspect was the plan in not responding to the e-mail, so I simply bit my tongue.

But, I really did want to watch that movie, so I tried to order it again. The DirecTV system, being smarter than I am, decided that because I had already viewed that movie that I couldn’t really want to view it again. Well, that’s not quite correct, it said something was “wrong” and I needed to call them. Sorry, it just wasn’t worth it.

I vowed to never again use PPV – we simply couldn’t watch a movie within 24 hours of recording.

I have to imagine many people did just the same and sales tanked quite a bit. I have to imagine that DirecTV noticed, and trying to get viewers back they held a promotion in December offering 4 movies for the price of 2. Frankly, this was enough to get my attention and break my vow – which is usually a bad idea. But I had an ace up my sleeve and since the prior problem I had developed a Rube Goldberg way of recording the movies, so maybe I could beat the system, maybe just a little.

With the hustle of the holidays we forgot about the offer until the morning of December 30th, so we had to move fast so as not to impinge too much on all the football we wanted to watch. I scheduled 2 of the movies for the night of the 30th and the other 2 for the night of the 31st (making certain the last finished recording before the clock ticked over to the 1st). I got up early on the 31st, scheduled a few football games to record, and started my “transcription” process. Did the same thing on the 1st (with the parade this time). Mission accomplished – didn’t miss much of any football game and had 4 movies to watch sometime later for under $10. Such a deal. Well, almost. Turns out I had a media problem with one movie so we got 3 for $10, still not so bad.

Well, I just got my bill. The 2 movies I downloaded on the 30th show up as being downloaded on the 31st. And sadly, the 2 movies I downloaded on the 31st show up as being downloaded on the 1st. So no credit.

I immediately call DirecTV and quickly get through to Customer Service. Mickey confirms that his screens show the movies correctly being ordered/delivered on the 30th and 31st. I ask what seems to be a logical question, “Why does my bill show the 31st and the 1st?” Mickey has no answer. My next question is about the missing credit. Mickey has an answer for this – “DirecTV will mail you a certificate that you need to return.” Huh? “I’m sorry, can you say that again?” Mickey repeats his explanation – they are going to mail a certificate and I need to return it “with my payment.” I mention that I’m on an automatic payment plan, “How will that work?” I ask. Mickey doesn’t know. “Does the certificate come with the bill or will it be in a separate envelope?” Mickey doesn’t know. “When am I getting the certificate?” Mickey is happy he has an answer to this one – “Usually 4 to 6 weeks.” “Usually?” I inquire. “Well, yes, usually 4 to 6 weeks” say’s Mickey.

I ask Mickey if he doesn’t think this is pretty “customer unfriendly.” No response. I ask if I can make a complaint about the process. Mickey offers to forward an e-mail to the complaint department, but his heart isn’t in it. “Mickey, I understand this is not of your doing, but somebody there should really be thinking about this more from the customer perspective.” No comment from Mickey. I wish him a nice weekend and hang up.

DirecTV will pay for people to answer the phones because the bills are wrong. DirecTV will pay for people to answer the phones to explain that a certificate will come in the mail, sometime in the future. DirecTV will pay for the certificate stock. DirecTV will pay people to print and mail the certificates. DirecTV will make their customers spend time and money to return the certificates. DirecTV will pay people to answer calls about where the certificates are. DirecTV will pay people to open the envelopes that the certificates are in and post them to accounts. And, inevitably, when certificates are lost or damaged in distribution, lost or damaged in return, or credited to the wrong account, DirecTV will again pay for people to resolve these problems.

DirecTV could have given their customers a warm fuzzy by giving a direct credit. They could have described the process up front (in readable type) and then people could have made an informed decision. Nope. Somebody at DirecTV created an equation that said the promotion wouldn’t cost them as much by doing it this way. Clearly the equation didn’t take into account the loss of customer lifetime value.

As I said, DirecTV is now officially a cable company.

And so much for being a DirecTV advocate.

I need to do some consumer research. Do minor consumer revolts against good sense constitute a leading indicator of good times returning, or confirm that the economy is still struggling with frustration leading people to make irrational choices?

Whatever the answer, it seems a minor groundswell is taking place in the restaurant business with new chains opening that advocate consuming lots of calories in the form of “food to die for”.  A local eatery known as Heart Stoppers Sports Grill has attracted quite a following for its “Chili Chest Pain Fries“, “Heart Stopper 3 lb. Killer” burger and “Heart Dogs“. I guess waitress’ dressed as nurses with fishnets aren’t hurting business either.

Heart Stoppers attracted more than my attention as the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel reported today that the Heart Attack Grill, an Arizona chain claiming to have ownership of  “Taste Worth Dying For” and all other things related to pumping out “fat food”  is asking Heart Stoppers to cease and desist the operation of its business model.

Heart Attack Grill touts its own brand of greasy aspirations including an array of “Bypass Burgers” and “Flatliner Fries”. If you visit their website, you’ll notice that the burgers are complemented by “No filter” Lucky Strike cigarettes and Jolt Cola. I have to wonder if both of those brands are comfortable with being thrown into the “bad health” food bin, but maybe I just think too much.

I scoured both web sites for any signs of rewards programs but didn’t see even a punch card or similar offers. One thing I did see is that the Heart Attack Grill promises that if you’re over 350 lbs., you eat for free. Apparently Heart Stoppers makes the same offer, one of many alleged copycat violations in the litigation between the two companies.

In direct marketing-speak, does this translate to an aspirational loyalty program tightly focused on a target market? Or, is crossing the threshold of 350 like being crowned a Platinum cardholder with your new tier offering soft benefits (perks) that others can’t have? I’ll leave it to you to sort out that debate. Meanwhile, I’m just worried that customers aspiring to reach the magic number that qualifies them for free food may not fare well thereafter!

I know we’re all “dying” to build customer loyalty and that many consumers are “dying” to earn enough points for that big freebie, but watching those that attain the highest tier in a program drop like flies isn’t my idea of achieving an acceptable return on investment.

Enough said, I’m going to pick up some Rolaids at CVS and earn a few more ExtraCare points! I think it’s safer.

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed by the author are influenced by his 40 mile bike ride earlier in the day and are not those of the target audience of these two restaurant chains!

A celebrity endorsement—for a loyalty program?

The pros and cons of using a celebrity spokesperson in advertising have been long established.

• The pros? A celebrity draws attention
• The cons? A celebrity draws attention—away from your product or service

What’s more, as we recently saw with golfing legend you-know-who, there’s the potential downside of aligning your company with a celebrity whose reputation takes a sudden nosedive. So when I learned that restaurant chain Outback Steakhouse had signed country music star Tim McGraw as a celebrity spokesperson, I was doubly surprised. You see, his job is not to pitch the brand, but to help launch their new loyalty effort My Outback Rewards.

As explained on the Outback Web site: “Fans of Tim McGraw and Outback Steakhouse will have the chance to win exclusive Tim McGraw memorabilia, downloads, tickets to the upcoming Southern Voice Tour and VIP access, great offers from Outback Steakhouse and even a chance to travel to Australia to see Tim McGraw perform live in the Land Down Under!”

Another thing that’s different about My Outback Rewards are the rules:

• The program has no loyalty cards, as it’s based totally online
• Once users register at the program Web site, they simply collect their Outback receipts–and then record numerical codes from the receipts on the rewards site
• A point is earned for each dollar spent, and points can be redeemed for prizes

The choice of McGraw as Outback’s loyalty program spokesman comes as less of a surprise when you learn the program was developed by event marketing agency Rally Marketing Group, whose specialty is experiential marketing.

In the loyalty business we’ve long talked about the value of experiential rewards. But I wondered about putting the Tim McGraw experience on the same level as the Outback dining experience. So it was with great interest that I visited the My Outback Rewards site on the program’s January 25th launch date. Just how would they incorporate McGraw into their communications? Would he be strumming an Outback inspired tune? Be shown chomping on a ribeye or a Bloomin’ Onion®?

Well, I can say they’ve done a nice job of integrating Tim McGraw into the My Outback Rewards Web site. The site is clean and easy to navigate, they do a good job of explaining step-by-step how the program works, and they have successfully linked Tim with the Outback brand by identifying several dishes that are “Tim’s choices”.

Still, I can’t help but wonder why Outback chose to put all its loyalty program eggs in the Tim McGraw basket. An e-mail welcoming me into the program came written and signed by Tim McGraw himself. A view of the reward list shows more Tim McGraw-related rewards than Outback options. And with the program so closely linked to McGraw, I’m left wondering if they have a fall back plan should the unthinkable happen. I personally think Tim McGraw seems like a stand-up guy. Who doesn’t love his wife Faith Hill? And I really think they’ve done a beautiful job with the My Outback Rewards site.

But in some ways the whole thing sure feels closer to a Tim McGraw loyalty program than one for Outback.

Tom Rapsas is a 20 year direct and loyalty marketing veteran and heads up Creative Services at Hanifin Loyalty. He can be reached on Twitter @tomrapsas

Editor’s Note: We trust that Rally Marketing Group has determined through research that ardent Outback Steakhouse customers are country music fans with a special love for Tim McGraw.  I dined at an Outback 1 week ago and saw no sign of MyOutback Rewards. Even with star power, a multi-channel approach to loyalty is mandatory for success. Let’s see how this unfolds and hope, for the sake of  Outback Steakhouse, that Tim continues to hit only the high notes!

I’ve been in way too many meetings lately where I have been asked the question “Is Social Media just a fad that will soon blow away?”

Fortunately, I’m well schooled in responding to skeptics since, for the past dozen years, I’ve been answering the classic question in my core business, “Does this Loyalty stuff really work?”

I have a well-practiced response to the second question, but at times when asked about the staying power of social media, I feel like the kid who was just caught by his parents looking at a magazine not on his school reading list – as if I should feel guilty because I’m making a case for understanding how to incorporate social media into the traditional world of data-driven communication strategies.

Convictions aside, it is fortifying when we see offline businesses wading deeper into the social media pond. We’ve seen plenty of our favorite brands open a Twitter account and establish a public Facebook page. But really linking these venues with their mainline customer acquisition and retention efforts? Well, we are just beginning to see examples in the market.

A great one that I came across, courtesy of @ragythomas is the TastiRewards loyalty program, where customers can not only earn points for enjoying tasty ice cream treats, but can also earn extra rewards by connecting their accounts to  Twitter and Foursquare.

The program is really simple and has adopted what I consider a QSR chain best practice by offering a dual-function gift and loyalty card. In this case, the card can be used across participating locations first to facilitate purchase, but with the added value of registering at MyTasti.com to qualify for extra points through social media updates.

TastiRewards members earn 1 point for each pre-tax dollar spent on qualified Tasti D-Lite products. Members become eligible for rewards once 50 points are accumulated and are eligible to receive a free medium Tasti cup or cone.   Extra points can be earned for registering the card online and checking points balances.  Providing a date of birth qualifies you to receive a free medium Tasti cup or cone on the big day.

The success of the TastiRewards program won’t hinge on its linkage to Twitter and Foursquare but, like most programs, will be judged by consumers on its overall value proposition. Points don’t expire, but earning is only possible when the physical card is presented at time of purchase. And there are questions of just how Tasti D-Lite will protect itself against members who try to use the social media option to game the system. As far as value is concerned, the social media point-accelerator seems to boost the perceived value of the program to 8-10% back, above average among today’s loyalty programs.

Tasti D-Lite has taken the important step of doing something with social media instead of just talking about social media. If their treats are as tasty as their innovative TastiRewards, good things should be in store for the chain. I found a store nearby and plan to visit soon.

In case you’ve been going to sleep early these days and you’ve been missing all the buzz on both Facebook and Twitter about what’s going on in the late night TV world,  NBC “Promoted” Conan O’Brien to the big chair of late night, The Tonight Show.  But for some reason, they wanted to keep Jay Leno in the NBC fold and put him in a prime time 10 PM slot before the local news.  The reasoning for this is very simple.  Producing one show with one star is 100 times cheaper than producing five quality prime-time shows with multiple casts, crews, directors and teamsters for five 10 PM prime time slots.

After a very short run, a simple domino effect is in play.  Leno “failed” in the 10PM time slot which led to lower ratings for the local news and lower ratings for The Tonight Show. NBC Failed to provide good shows before the local news. And now, it seems that rather than accept responsibility, the NBC execs have thrown the blame on Conan.

Was this Conan’s fault?  Maybe a little.  He didn’t ask about the prime-time line up and his lawyers didn’t go through his contract with a fine tooth comb.  Conan has a pretty iron clad contract BUT they missed the detail of what time the new Tonight Show was supposed to start.

“I believe that delaying The Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show.”  - Conan O’Brien

“I left NBC prime-time the same way I found it: a complete disaster.” – Jay Leno

Considering what happened when Johnny Carson left the Tonight Show and the fallout between Letterman and Leno and now with the flip flop between Leno and Conan and back to Leno again, NBC is losing trust within the industry and Loyalty with its viewers.  And if NBC screws over Conan after what they did to Letterman the last go around, who’s going to want replace Leno AGAIN?  If Leno failed in a prime time slot why is NBC giving him a 30 min show at 11:35 going to help the Tonight Show or NBC?  What’s the point?  Carson didn’t do anything to compete directly with the Tonight Show when he left.  Why let Leno compete at all?

I'm with Coco

This can either go down as the biggest disaster in TV history; bigger than when NBC passed Letterman over for the Tonight Show gig, bigger than when NBC Let Star Trek the original series die in 60s, or it’s a fiendishly brilliant viral marketing plan to boost NBC’s lagging ratings (wishful thinking on my part, but we can hope right?).

Where is everyone’s Brand Loyalty?  Is it with NBC, Leno or Conan?  There’s no apparent popular effort to bring Leno back to the Tonight Show – but there is a whole lot of buzz on the Social Media web sites in support of Conan.  Simply put, NBC would be stupid to let Conan go. He would most likely end up on either Fox, ABC or, even worse CBS, where he could team up with Letterman and later on replace him on his show.  Everyone in Late Night is getting a leg up except for Leno and NBC.  Needless to say, I’m with Coco.

Dean Bairaktaris – The Greatest Living American Dude: Evil Power Digger, SEO Consultant, Social Media Maverick, Web Developer and Elite Space Monkey in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Think Green.

In the midst of holiday preparations, you might have missed the Cards and Loyalty Payment Conference held in New York on December 2.  I was able to attend in my capacity as North American Contributing Editor of the Wise Marketer and filed this report with the WiseMarketer.

Source Media’s second annual ‘Cards and Payments’ loyalty conference was held in New York earlier this month, addressing the theme of ‘the intersection of cost management and rewards programme repositioning’, as detailed here by The Wise Marketer’s contributing editor, Bill Hanifin.

The proceedings began with Rob Rosenblatt of Chase Card Services, who presented an overview of Chases’ new flagship rewards programme, ‘Ultimate Rewards’, which is offered on Chase Freedom as well as the new Chase Sapphire and Chase Ink (small business) products. Launched earlier in 2009, Ultimate Rewards was built as a unified platform that would help drive customer engagement while improving operating efficiency and also strengthening the brand.

An expert panel debated cost-per-point reduction strategies, with experts from SunTrust Banks, Merrill Lynch, Wyndham Hotels and US Bank explaining a variety of techniques that can be used to lower cost-per-point while keeping programme members engaged with the brand. The panel concluded that forming strategic partnerships with providers, using redemption targeting campaigns, and fine tuning programme rules should all lead to positive results even in a tough economy.

Crista Dewire and John Kryczka of PriceWaterhouseCoopers offered an in-depth discussion of loyalty programme liability management, outlining the actuarial methods used to project redemption rates and help programme operators manage liability. They pointed out that, while no conclusions have yet been reached on the treatment of loyalty liability within Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), another body – the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRIC) – has issued guidelines for currency management that are quite restrictive and could potentially impact the future of the loyalty industry.

Indeed, loyalty operators in Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia have already felt the effects of the IFRIC standards as they must now account for points on a “fair value” basis rather than actual internal cost. In addition, the guidelines mean that companies must account separately for the award portion of each sales transaction. The end result of these guidelines is to defer revenue and increase point cost, squeezing margins for loyalty marketers. It was concluded that loyalty software suppliers will also feel the impact of these guidelines because they will need to track every point issued with a time/date stamp, and be able to process redeemed points on a FIFO (first-in-first-out) basis.

Geri Green of Barclaycard US shared a number of loyalty strategies that should not be forgotten in tough economic times, including the principles of transparency, consistency, value, messaging, and trust. Rick Ferguson of Colloquy and Andrew Pyper of Saks Fifth Avenue presented a case study showing how retailers can use store charge cards as points-earning accelerators for programme members.

US Bank senior vice president Bob Daly explained how the bank reacted to the merger of Delta and Northwest Airlines by launching ‘Flexperks’ – a travel rewards programme designed to retain its portfolio of cardholders from the Northwest Worldperks programme that was being closed down. Daly noted how the bank had included benefits specifically to help cardholders with unbundled air travel, such as offering an ‘allowance’ with a redeemed ticket to help pay for baggage and seat selection charges. He also mentioned that employee training in the call centre had been a subtle but important key to the success of the programme.

The event ended with a discussion of the proliferation of debit card rewards programmes. According to research from First Annapolis Consulting, 53% of the top 100 debit card issuers already have debit rewards programmes, although there is a contrast in penetration by bank size (90% of the top 20 issuers offer debit rewards, while only 35% of the remaining 80 issuers do so).

The structure of debit rewards is also evolving along a line that begins with generic rewards (e.g. points or cash-back) and heads toward cobranded rewards (e.g. with airlines) and relationship rewards. It seems clear that US debit card issuers are anticipating the continued growth of debit card transaction growth and sales volume, and are crafting increasingly sophisticated rewards programmes to help drive consumer engagement, card usage, and to gather deposits.

This article is copyright 2009 TheWiseMarketer.com

Over the recent holidays, my friend Bill Hanifin pointed out a post written by the person arguably at the forefront of the whole social media movement, Chris Brogan. In the post, Brogan said, “People are slowing down to turn their thoughts to family and to their own development, and to what worked and what didn’t in 2009. Not me.”

While he did leave an escape hatch for those choosing to bail out during the holidays “You don’t have to do it this way”, Brogan was working as hard as ever, holidays or no holidays.

It got me thinking about Napolean Hill, author of the classic Think and Grow Rich. Although it was first published in 1937, the book’s message about gaining monetary success through hard work, determination and positive thinking, still rings true today. The popularity of the book endures as well, as it ranks in the top 1,000 books on Amazon.

What a lot of people may not know is that in 1967, three decades after the publication of his magnum opus, an 80-year old Hill put out a book with a more expansive view of the role of work in our lives. Its title: Grow Rich—with Peace of Mind.

While offering many of the same valuable lessons on self improvement as Think and Grow Rich, Hill adapted his message to basically say, grow rich—but have a life, too. We’re not talking 4-hour workweek here, but Hill did suggest we “make a time budget”.

Spread out over a 24-hour day, his time budget looks like this:

• 8 hours a day for sleep and rest
• 8 hours a day for work at your business or profession (but as your success grows, less work)
• 8 “particularly precious” hours “devoted to things you wish to do, not have to do”

Hill’s suggested list for the final 8 hours includes: “play, social life, reading, writing, playing a musical instrument, tending a garden, or just sitting and watching the clouds or the stars.” (I would add “spending time with family.”)

Hill further amplifies the point with this passage: “Do not let a day go by without taking some time for yourself — some time you spend in pure pleasure, as you see it.” He adds, “With increasing success, increase your hours of pure enjoyment, do not allow these hours to be eaten away by business or anything else.”

God bless Chris Brogan, he’s an inspiration to all of us. But there’s something to be said about the whole work-life balance thing. And while I have personally set business goals for 2010, following Hill’s lead, I’ve set leisure ones as well.

The bottom line: Sure, let’s get rich. But let’s not forget that success is measured by more than the balance in our bank accounts.

Tom Rapsas is a 20 year direct and loyalty marketing veteran and heads up Creative Services at Hanifin Loyalty. He can be reached on Twitter @tomrapsas

Editor’s Note: Tom’s post made me think that the most desirable rewards in loyalty programs are often the experiences and exclusive content or access to an event which can be earned as a freebie, but aren’t always available for public consumption.  It seems that learning more about what drives human emotion, happiness, and satisfaction will lead to more effective marketing strategies as well.

I read some really great year end posts during the week leading up to New Year’s Day. Amidst the “Top 10/50/100″ lists, there were thoughtful, humorous, and motivational takes on how to evaluate 2009 and approach 2010 with energy and enthusiasm.

One or two that caused me to take my finger off the mouse and pause for a second read-through had to do with the pace at which we work.  The net-net message was that those people who work around the clock, never take their eye off the ball, and keep their energy switch constantly in the “On” position, will achieve the highest level of success in today’s always-connected world. One post went further, bragging about the pace they were keeping and implying that if the reader isn’t doing the same, you could count on falling, not only out of the race, but off the competitive map.

While there have always been overachievers and workaholics in our midst (and I admit to being in at least the first category), this year’s version of the “never take your foot off the pedal” message was heavily influenced by our steady adoption of social media. After two solid years (or 3?) of absorbing social media serum into our blood stream, we are a people possessed. Possessed by activity, by multi-tasking, by to-do lists, and by immediacy.

My take on how we interact with social media and other technologies – and how we advise our clients to interact with them – is that we have to remain constantly vigilant about who is in charge.

• Do we own the blackberry/iPhone, or does it own us?
• Does a ringing phone cause us to drop eye contact with a prospective customer to see who’s calling?
• Can we manage our social media presence as part of our work day, or does social media become our day?
• Are we creating another reason to procrastinate on tasks more closely correlated with revenue generation than SM so-far?

Don’t get excited, I’m not walking away from continuing to build social media communication strategies as part of my client’s customer strategies, but I am advising people to keep things in balance. If you’re not convinced, I have two resources to share with you, one older and more current.

The more time that goes by, the more I applaud the brilliance of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. Covey encourages people to prioritize the “critical” tasks of the day ahead of the “important”. In plain English, I am always going to complete and deliver a promised deliverable for a paying client before catching up on my Twitter email or posting to this blog.

The second resource is evidence of a growing body of evidence that multi-tasking is just not good for us as human beings.

• I saw the first commercial from a wireless company discouraging texting while driving over the holidays. Congratulations to Verizon on that ad which you can see here.
• The Harvard Business Review published an article during 2009 on “The Dangers of Distraction” and I have read other summaries of research that indicates we humans do our best work in linear, not multi-threading style.

With all the attention given by Marketers today to Customer Engagement, the issue of attention spans is critical to understand, dissect, and integrate into our communication plans. Our success in reaching and building loyalty with Generation Y (the Millennial Generation) is highly dependent on our commitment to addressing this key issue.

In my opinion, we need to build some space into our own lives if we are to successfully design and execute effective strategies for our clients. Building space into our lives means that we need to create some “margin” in the day. You know the one inch or so of white space around the typical page full of copy? Well, we need to put a version of that into our calendars, drop the to-do list to the ground, and reside peacefully there for enough time that it takes to refocus on the strategic, the critical, and the longer term view.

I’ve got lots more to share on how to drive Customer Engagement in an over-stimulated consumer environment.

Stay tuned.