Why Coupon is Not a Dirty Word with Uniqodo

Welcome to flex your hustle and to the first of our Flex your Hustle Podinars, what is a Podinar you ask? It's a webinar in podcast form of course. The subject matter, the old staple of the marketers toolkit coupons and how advertisers can provide an enriched consumer experience, build brand loyalty and go beyond discounting. This Podinar is hosted by Kate Eringa, from Commission Factory and features Claire van Der Zant, who is the chief operating officer at Uniqodo, the promotion experience platform for brands. So today we're joined by the lovely Claire van Der Zant from Uniqodo. So I might hand over to claire if that's okay.

Absolutely. Um, good afternoon, everyone. Thank you so much for joining Kate and I today. I'm really excited and mildly sleepy, um, to chat to you today, cuz it's 7:00 AM here in the UK. It's my hope that this webinar on reimagining the coupon code gives you one big takeaway. That if you decouple the coupon code from just being a vehicle for discounts, what you have is a tokenized method for issuing promotions that can do so much more than just offer money off. In the IAB Australian affiliate, 2020/21, 2020/21? Report, um, coupons and deals were ranked second to last in the most valuable marketing tactics for brands and agencies. So if we just kind of unpack that a little bit take deals is the first point here. I always like to put my customer hat on and we know customers always love a good deal. I know, I certainly do, um, done in the right way. Deals, incentives, offers can positively impact business objectives so they can drive urgency and impulse. They can increase that overall spend. Um, it can encourage customers to try your brand for the first time and it can increase, spend, and average order value. Furthermore, the deals ecosystem holds a lot of potential for marketers with abundant audiences to tap into all driven by performance, but to circle back on coupons, this is where we believe there is an even bigger opportunity because a code or a coupon can do so much more than just offer a discount. So if we decouple the coupon from discounts. We can continue to leverage the deals market, but with solutions that more closely align with your brand strategies and, you know, take your, uh, take your brand from same old story to writing headlines in, in marketing innovation. This need to drive innovation in the deals industry has been widely acknowledged by leading market researchers. The industry is expected to continue to grow in APAC across the next five years. But customer interest in standard discounts is peaking. And unless we dare to do something different, this rich audience will dwindle. Um, audience is such a critical part in any marketing strategy that it would be such a huge waste to see a rich channel disappear from the mix. So today is really about helping you reimagine the coupon code, not just as a vehicle to serve discounts, but as sort as a sort of tokenization of promotions to help you continue to tap into that ecosystem. But in a way that directly addresses concerns about margins. Brand reputation, incrementality and more. We've called it busting the myths of promotions and have worked closely with the team at Commission Factory to understand the common objections, um, that advertisers are presenting in APAC when it comes to issuing coupon promotions. Let's get into it. So myth number one, there's nothing that we can do to stop codes from leaking. Um, when promotions are leaked or shared, it can negatively impact your margins, um, with more customers accessing incentives than planned. Um, it can also disrupt other marketing activity with codes and campaigns clashing across your different channels. Um, lastly, if promotions go viral, when it wasn't your intention, it can have a negative impact on your brand, both financially and from a brand positioning perspective. So the solution here is fairly simple. Um, unique single use codes cannot be leaked by customers or shared across unintended publishers, giving, you know, you, the advertisers, um, the power of controlled promotions. Across all of your channels. If your in-house tools, don't give you the ability to use unique codes. Um, working with a technology platform can help you advance your promotion capabilities, such as bolt on packages from your eCommerce platform or a third party tech provider. Um, I promise this would be educational and not salesy, but obviously that is something that Uniqodo could help you. Myth number two publishers can't use single use codes so we can't work with them. Distribution is, is a critical part of any promotion setup. And when it comes to issuing unique code promotions via third parties, it can get complicated and quickly. This is likely the case. If you're using, uh, in-house or eCommerce tools to issue unique codes, but with the right promotion platform. Some of the typical challenges here can be addressed in a number of ways. So API integrations across all publisher types, voucher sites, closed group publishers, employee benefits platforms, content media, you name it that can take away the pain of managing manual batches of codes. This is of course the zenith of what we're trying to, uh, trying to achieve. But you know, what, if a publisher can't or won't take an API, um, many publishers can take a CSV batch of codes, which depending on your unique code capabilities can still be fully tracked from issuance to redemption. Um, you'll need to stay on top of the batches, making sure they don't run low or run out, um, with this method. So it's a little bit more manual but still a, a, usually a good workaround. However, sometimes a publisher simply won't be able to import unique codes. And for this, I do have to put my Uniqodo hat on as we have some nifty ways to navigate this particular challenge. We can create a simple HTML snippet, for the publisher to add to their site that generates a click to reveal button that will call our API to issue unique codes to a customer upon request. This is super simple and super quick, and the lightest and fastest integration option that, that we have in our bag of tools. Alternatively, we also build what we call an interstitial page. Um, basically a landing page hosted by Uniqodo to issue unique codes for a promotion. Um, it's sort of a, a step in between somebody clicking to get a deal and landing on your site. So it's just adding a little page into that journey. Absolutely any publisher can use this and Uniqodo do all the work -happy days. Um, as we've shown in this example that I've gotten here for, uh, LifeWorks, a global input, uh, employee benefits platform.

Love that, like, when you're talking about all that kind of stuff, it really brings up the word automation. Like you guys sort of automate the entire process for every brand so that we're not having to set reminders to fill or to resend those batches of codes. It's, it's sort of a set and forget. You never have to worry about running out and no one has to really do anything. So you've kind of created this beautifully automated process. For both sides. Really?

Yeah. And, you know, I, automation, you know, is our buzz word in this world, but I always like to think about it then as, um, you know, what does the customer journey look like? And it's about making sure we're not adding friction or, um, you know, just actually creating a really nice seamless customer journey as well with these solutions.

No, absolutely.

Myth number three. Codes are just for giving a discount or money off. This is where we get into the really good stuff. Think of a code as a token that can unlock all sorts of different incentives or experiences. They definitely don't just have to give discounts or money off. Um, here's a few ways that we work with clients who do not want to damage margins by just offering discounts to their customers as that way of driving conversion in sales. So access. A code could be used as an access key to unlock gated content on your site. It could be a deal, um, or it could be an exclusive product or a product launch. Um, it could award loyalty points. So, uh, a code can give your customers, um, air miles. That's probably a bit of an EMEA term, sorry, but you kind of get the point, you know, points for your supermarket points for, for flights and hotels. Um, it can give a voucher. So a code can reward a customer with, um, an e-gift card or a voucher that could be your brand, your branded voucher, or it could be, uh, a third party like an Amazon voucher, or it can unlock a custom journey. So, you know, either a, a bespoke landing page or a, you know, if you're in travel, it could be a, a custom book flow. Or if you're an insurance, it could be an, a custom quote flow. So it can do a lot more than just, just do those discounts. Some of the most successful promotions that we run for our clients, don't give away a discount, but instead provide customers with a unique, great experience such as exclusive, early access to a new product launch or bespoke access to a bespoke rewards page just for your most loyal customers. Um, all of these promotions can be distributed by your affiliate partners and our data tells us they get even higher engagement and conversion than standard discounts and money off in this channel.

I'm quite excited about this, um, topic and webinar, but what I really like what really got me excited and buzzing about this was that a lot of luxury brands can't or a lot of brands in general, not just luxury, but a lot of brands can't or won't use a discount because they don't like that it's associated with the, with the discount. Um, And I love the idea of access. I love the idea of being able to provide custom journey or, or something bespoke. It kind of lifts a code away from a discount to something else. So I love how this kind of, kind of incorporates a, a range of brands. It's not just, you know, to get those new customers or to, to, to what we kind of always associated a code to do, but it kind of, this kind of means all sorts of brands can get involved and use this. And I really love I really love that. We can kind of justify that a little bit.

Yeah. I mean, luxury is a really great example for sure. Yes. Um, you know, that's not a space that you want to be discounting in, but you know, you've still got all of the challenges, how do we drive acquisition? How do we encourage customers to come and shop? How do we drive sales and conversion? And this is a really great way to create, you know, a digital experience. We all know about creating an amazing in-store experience for luxury, but how do you translate that online? And, you know, this is a really good method. And then it also has really practical uses because, um, certainly, uh, in EMEA, Uh, brands like insurance, you can't discount an insurance product, but you can incentivize an insurance product. So you can give away a gift voucher, for example, as, as part of you know, that price comparison journey or that cash back journey. So, you know, it has practical and also brand uses if you can start to decouple this idea of, of the code and the discount.

Yeah, what can really help a brand stand out, especially if brands similar are not using codes, this can really help you design and bespoke, you know, access tool or, or use a journey that your other competitors aren't doing. So, yeah. I love the idea of that. I think there's a lot of things that you could do with it.

Leading nicely onto myth number four. Codes devalue our brand, um, with a different approach codes can actually be used to build your brand, not devalue it. A great example of how you leverage control campaigns with a creative approach is a recent campaign that we ran for global beauty retailer beauty bay. Having teamed up with a beauty YouTuber, Nicki tutorials on a new pressed pigment palette. Beauty bay wanted to use this launch of this collaboration to drive awareness acquisition, and a huge social buzz. Beauty Bay launched a teaser campaign to encourage people to sign up to a waiting list, uh, to get exclusive early access to the product before it went on general release. Two hours before that palette. Sorry. And I should say that teaser campaign was something that they seeded across their paid search, paid social. You can go and leverage that performance space in a really cool way. Uh, with this type of campaign two hours before the palette went on sale, Uniqodo sent unique codes via email to everybody who had signed up 87,000 people on the waiting list, um, and built a content gate, on the product page that only allowed access with the code, um, over six and a half thousand people bought the palette in that early access shopping window, delivering quarter a million pounds in revenue, no discount in sight. Just lots of super, super happy customers and, you know, that's kind of how you deliver promotions like a boss, just to kind of reiterate there 87,000 people. Some of them might have been, you know, existing beauty bay customers, but a, a big chunk of that will be brand new. And it's about giving them an experience, not, you know, discounting or money off or devaluing your brand in any way, actually building your brand. Myth number five. Codes, just erode margins. So using a discount as a tactic to convert sales will impact margins. However, they can be a really useful tool in specific business objectives. So for us, this is about using discounts wisely and in ways that supports targets rather than impacting margin. I'm gonna talk about another example here to bring this to life. But another great example, um, is the black Friday campaign we ran for Samsung. Where they wanted to capitalize on early search traffic before black Friday, as well as getting rid of, um, aged and overstocked products. Using a waiting list teaser campaign, we signed up 300,000, um, 200,000 of which were brand new to Samsung, uh, to this waiting list. And customers were sent a unique code to access an early bird campaign page. Eligible products were curated into four different tiers, 10, 15, 20, and 40% off. And customers could pick one product from each tier. Creating an early access campaign. So coming out before black Friday, and we know how noisy black Friday's getting now, black Friday, isn't just Friday. It's like a week. And then there's cyber Monday. And it's a week after that. There's a lot of noise around this big promotional period. Um, so they wanted to find ways to stand out. So came out really early, created this buzz around, signing customers up to get early access to the sale. And, you know, it was actually about how they mitigate some of the, the, you know, business challenges of, do we write this product off because it's aging and it's overstocked, or do we find a really creative way to take this to customers that actually drives engagement and excitement and adding the tiers meant that we were driving customers to add more than one product to their basket. The code also allowed customers to come and shop this campaign page up to five times. So, you know, they might have put a few bits in and, and done a shop and done a bit more research online and thought, oh, do you know what? I should have done some more and bought some more bits and pieces from Samsung and they can come back and they can shop again. So, you know, creating this, this campaign enabled Samsung to acquire customer demand, you know, encourage customers to buy more than one product. And then plus selling distressed stock, the margin loss was mitigated against having to potentially write off, uh, what they were doing, uh, with these products.

I love how they've just basically created FOMO for a product that consumers didn't know they wanted or would not have otherwise wanted.

Absolutely.

So smart.

Myth number six. We don't have promo code field in the checkout, so we can't run code campaigns. Um, so just because you don't have a promotional code field in your checkout to avoid customers code seeking, we get it. Um, it doesn't mean you, you can't still run exclusive promotions with affiliates and close group publishers. Um, you can either set up a separate landing page on your website, or we create you a custom landing page and use Uniqodo's content gate that only allows access to customers who have been issued with a unique code as part of a campaign. Um, PS Uniqodo builds, tests, deploys, and manages all of these solutions. So absolutely no tech requirement on the advertiser side for the win. Um, the page might have, um, special deals or offers. It could be a new product range, uh, of products, not yet on general release or a special reward for VIP customers, whatever you want to put as, as part of that page. Um, once a customer has access the page with their unique code and added products to their basket. They just check out as normal. So no code required in that checkout journey. And it's as simple as that, you know, it's not affecting how your, uh, your buy funnel works in any way. It's just creating an entry point rather than exit point with that code. It's great for luxury brands who don't want to discount. You know, we've already talked about that as a, a as a good example. Um, or any advertiser really, who's looking to seek to protect brand reputation. You know, you don't want to be seen out there discounting like maniacs. But like I said, you know, you still have that need to drive brand awareness, to drive customer acquisition, to encourage customers to come and buy and try with you and tap into that big deal's ecosystem of that rich audience ready and waiting for great opportunities. So, you know, this is just, how do you think more creatively about how you can use a code to give customers great experiences, you know, bit of VIP treatment, bit of early access, cuz we all like to be first and just do things a little bit differently.

Such a big thing that I hear pushback from brands as well, is that I'd love to run campaigns like this, but they don't have the ability to do it themselves if they had to put it into their tech queue it takes months. So almost putting my Uniqodo hat on at the moment, but, you know, partnering with someone who can create those custom learning pages or house those means that they can, brands can do a bit more testing. They can be a bit more agile and they can, you know, see for themselves. Does this work, do we wanna keep doing it? So I love that it kind of takes the responsibility off internal tech teams. They can keep doing what they need to do. Um, but brands and affiliate managers can be a little bit more agile still. They can do some testing. They can, yeah. They can kind of play around a little bit more, which is a bit fun too.

Yeah. I mean, it's a bit cliche to say that, you know, a supplier agency is an extension of your team. Cause we've heard that before, but you know, in reality, we are kind of like your in-house outhouse, um, build whatever you need team. And we do know from, you know, working really closely with our clients that uh, unfortunately the marketing requirements do tend to drop to the bottom of the prioritization or backlog. Um, you know, there's always something, uh, another burning platform that, that needs to be addressed by, by the in-house team. So, you know, it is just a way to get things done and as marketeers, we know that getting things done is, is really powerful. So. Sorry, bit, bit salesy there, but yeah, just following on from UK. So myth number seven. If you start using codes, it's a hard route to come back from. Well, look we agree. Um, if you're just using codes to issue discounts, it's, it's gonna be a bit of a downward spiral. So hopefully some of the solutions that we've shared with you today have opened up some thoughts on different ways to use codes, to not discount or, or certainly to use codes in a much more targeted way. So in conclusion, let's start from a foundation of, of getting control of your promotions. You know, when stuff's leaking and being copied by the publishers that you, you haven't approved, um, that's when you know, things start to spiral for sure. But then the big kind of takeaway is think of the code as a way of tokenizing promotions to do more than just discounts. VIP access, awarding loyalty points, giving away gift cards or vouchers or unlocking that kind of bespoke VIP journey or experience.

Thanks Claire that was really incredibly detailed. Um, just the million ways that you can kind of use codes in different ways as well. I think it just shows that codes can actually be used to reward, incentivise, promote, you know, create FOMO, um, and bespoke customer journeys, which isn't always at the forefront of our minds when we think codes and discounts is it? So that was, that was great. Yeah, I'm gonna dive into questions cause we've got quite a few. So I'll read out the first one. Are there any complications for tracking via Commission Factory when you use an inter yeah, I'm gonna struggle

interstitial no. Uh, so, so many of the, uh, clients that we work with, um, certainly in EMEA are Awin advertisers. And we use a range of these different tools and solutions to issue, distribute, managed, uh, promotions and campaigns. And we are quite well wedded to, uh, the, Awin commission process. So actually what we can do more so than, you know, not being tracked is, is add. Additional tracking options to Awin's links. Um, because the code in itself is like a click-less, link-less, cookie-less tracking method. So it gives you more data, not less.

Next one. As partners receive a commission on sales, combining those with a discount for customers means there is a double hip of margin. How can you overcome this?

Yeah. Um, I guess it kind of comes back to a bit of my wrap up really, which is. Part of this challenge and this question is discounting. However, you know, follow some of the principles that we, we surface today using codes to create exclusive or early access so that, you know, whilst you are gonna have to pay commission to your affiliates, whether it's last or first or soft or whatever, click you a model, you've got set up. You're not then sort of double hitting on discounting as well as part of that strategy. So the example for beauty bay is a great one to kind of keep in your mind, because that was just about, you know, creating a buzz around people, being able to access this hotly demanded product first, no discounts.

Agree. How can you use codes with influences without it going onto other channels?

Oh, I love this question cuz it's just one of those big challenges that everybody's facing at the moment. So look influencers is, is tricky because they tend to operate on open platforms. And by that, I mean it's YouTube, it's Insta, it's TikTok, and you know, if you put a, a campaign on there and then anybody can see it. So this is about how you think cleverly about creating and crafting your campaigns. Um, in the example of beauty bay, there wasn't a code as part of the buzz and awareness that they were driving, um, through social. It was actually to get people to come and sign up to a waiting list. So that's one way of, of doing something like that. And then you can give those people on the waiting list, that promotional experience, be it early access or a discount or a deal, um, and issue that via a unique code. And it's also quite a nice way to then, um, establish some data. Share between you and the influencer. Um, the other one to use is the interstitial page. So, you know, from the influencers blog or link or, or, you know, content that they're creating with you. Customers then click through to your site, but get this interstitial page in the journey, which serves them with a, unique code. And then they can carry on through the journey. Um, whatever that is, you are, you are creating as part of those campaigns. So it's not as seamless as publisher to advertiser because of the very nature of the platforms being open. But there are ways to do this with a little bit of clever tech and ingenuity.

You did like that question, didn't you? Um, ,

it's just such a hot topic because, you know, uh, I can't necessarily, uh, attest to the, the Australian market, but I mean over here in, in the UK, certainly through lockdown, it, the influencer channel has just boomed, once upon a time, it used to kind of sit in the, the PR space, which is a bit weird. Um, Definitely kind of moved into that affiliate world now, which makes infinitely more sense, but it is one of the channels that just completely took off throughout lockdown, um, as a way for brands to connect in a really authentic way with audiences. So it's something that has then, you know, surfaced as one of the big challenges that the advertisers are looking to address. Um, and to more effectively leverage understand the performance of, of particular influencers cuz they can get pricey. So, you know, you do, you do want to know that your, your media spend and your commitments with these influences is doing the right thing for you. So yeah, it's a, it's a nice challenge that we've been getting our heads around here.

As a premium brand, why would we participate in coupon code discounting via the affiliate channel?

Yeah. So again, let's decouple that question. Um, why would you participate in the affiliate channel? Well, look, it's a really great way to tap into different audiences. Doesn't have to be voucher sites, you know, you might want to tap into, um, employee benefits platforms or closed user groups. So, you know, you might be wanting to interact with a youth or student audience, or you might be wanting to reward, um, key worker or health worker, you know, what, whatever it is as part of your strategy for where, you know, want you want to build audiences. That's, that's why, you know that part of the question affiliate. It's just a really great way to tap into, um, audiences. And then why codes will, you know, codes can, as we've kind of chatted through unlock all sorts of different things, be it rewards or early access or, um, uh, loyalty points or whatever it is you want to do is that incentive to kind, uh, to get people to come and visit site and go on a journey and, and convert with you. Um, I'll just take discount out of that question because you know, let's definitely try and disassociate the fact that a code always has to do a discount. And especially in that premium brand section, if discount, isn't part of your strategy, then that's great. You know, that's great. That's cool loads of different things that you can do, um, to tap into that, that affiliate ecosystem without discounting.

I think the next, um, question kind of feeds quite nicely into that one a little bit. Um, how do you bypass the tackiness given codes as well?

Yeah, the tackiness, I mean, They've become tacky or I'm gonna be really controversial here I'm sorry. It's early in the morning. You can blame that. Um, they've become tacky because we've become a bit lazy as marketeers, you know, just wang in a load of discounts on a voucher site and hoping for the best is, is never gonna be a, an exciting or standout way to market. Also customers secret, you know, 10% off, blah, blah, blah. It's boring. You know, I've already scrolled past it, it's not engaging, it's not personalized, I kind of don't care. And that's for me, sort of where tacky. Comes into play here. So if you want to tap into those channels and there's nothing wrong with the voucher sites, I think it's just the way that we've been using them to throw campaigns out left, right and centre. If we just take a moment to be a little bit more creative with how we leverage these audiences, there's a whole wealth of things that we can do in this space that is definitely not tacky. Um, but I think some of that challenge is definitely on us as marketeers as, as much as anything else.

Thank you so much. This has been really informative and I hope everyone kind of walks away and takes something that they're gonna try and implement, um, in their own kind of strategies as well. So Claire, go grab a really big cuppa, um, and enjoy the rest of your morning or head back to bed. No, one's gonna know. Um, but thank you so much this has been awesome and, um, thanks everyone for joining us today. We really appreciate it and we hope it's been helpful.

Thanks everybody.