New York - Ben Kelly got hooked at Blockbuster. It was July 2007, a time when leaving your home to pick up a movie was still conceivable, and his rental with accompanying soda allotted him 25 free Coca-Cola points. A fan of Sprite and Powerade, Kelly decided to give the beverage behemoth’s loyalty programme a shot.
Over the past decade, the 29-year-old estimates he amassed about 100 000 points, enough to redeem roughly $1 500 worth of Amazon.com gift cards based on today’s exchange rate.
But on July 1, Kelly’s remaining balance, and that of hundreds of thousands of other My Coke Rewards members, will become worthless. The programme is getting an overhaul, Coca-Cola says, but users are worried about what will become of one of the world’s largest and most beloved loyalty programmes.
Coke introduced the My Coke Rewards programme in 2006, touting it as a way for fans to “benefit from their passion for the brand in a unique and special way,” according to Katie Bayne, a senior vice-president for Coca-Cola North America at the time. Four billion codes, most commonly printed inside the cap of a bottle, and prizes worth $50 million (R653 million) were slated to be released that year.
Three of the codes were worth a free music download. More lavish rewards, such as cash, March Madness tickets, a chance to go to the Oscars, and even a diamond ring, were also offered.
Adidas, Delta, and Hilton partnered with the company to offer perks as well.
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The day after the programme was released, Coca-Cola stock ticked up.
Entering a code online was novel in 2006. But in 2017, it’s a pain. “People want to be able to completely handle any aspect of loyalty in the palm of their hand,” said Bryan Leach, whose rewards app Ibotta has doled out $100 million in rebates since 2011.
Entering a code, sending in a receipt, or cutting out a box top feels antiquated. Other companies have evolved or folded their loyalty programmes. General Mills’s Box Tops for Education launched an app last September so users could quickly upload the codes and donate them to schools.
PepsiCo replaced Pepsi Stuff, which required packaging to be mailed in, with Pepsi Pass, an app that allows phone cameras to scan the codes.
Coca-Cola tried to adapt. The company released an app for the My Coke Rewards, but the alphanumeric codes had to be entered manually, a time-consuming task for users. An attempted revamp last year broke users into tiers based on how often they shared Coca-Cola-branded information on their social media accounts. The programme met with user frustration and was rolled back.
Asked whether the revamped programme will allow codes to be scanned, Coca-Cola said it would be announcing new digital engagement platforms later this year.
Bottle caps and paper packaging codes, however, are not going away. Customers can still enter them on the website, Coca-Cola said, after it relaunches as Coke.com in July.
Coca-Cola spent $4 billion on advertising last year. In the past, their advertising has included everything from traditional billboards and television spots to guerrilla stunts such as “happiness” vending machines.
The company has “really embraced digital marketing,” said Bloomberg Intelligence senior consumer products analyst Kenneth Shea.
But “they have a lot on their plate right now. Probably No. 1 for them is to transform this company.”