Loyalty Programs: The Next Great Activation

With fierce competition among wireless service providers, there may be no other category where customer loyalty is more crucial to success. One of the most important and effective ways that Verizon engages with and retains consumer subscribers is its Verizon Up rewards program.

In addition to offering discounts, perks and other special offers, at the heart of Verizon Up lies its experiential component known as Super Tickets, offering consumers once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to attend sports events, concerts, music festivals and theatrical productions as a reward for being a Verizon customer.

THE CHALLENGE

Through its many sponsorship, media and content deals, Verizon acquires tens of thousands of tickets annually to give away to consumers by way of Super Ticket daily, weekly and monthly drops.

Each one of those experiences must be fulfilled in a timely and efficient manner that makes it seamless for end users, protects the privacy and integrity of their data, and meets all ethics, compliance, reporting and legal requirements.

THE SOLUTION

Thanks to TicketManager developer APIs, tens of thousands of Verizon Up members each quarter are able to claim tickets and experiences quickly and securely through the My Verizon mobile app. Working entirely behind the scenes, TicketManager fulfills each order, distributing tickets and keeping customers updated with any necessary event information.

On the back end, TicketManager centralizes and provides Verizon with all of the information the company needs regarding which customers are attending which events.

Without the automation and centralized system that TicketManager delivers, it would not have been possible for us to achieve mass scale. TicketManager really helped us streamline and operate the program in a lean way, but also be very nimble and agile.

Josh Kirwin
Director of Experiential Marketing Verizon

THE RESULTS

With TicketManager powering its experiential rewards program, Verizon is able to build powerful consumer connections that build loyalty and business. The company’s research shows that consumers who have engaged with the program have a more positive view of the brand and subsequently:

• Are more likely to remain customers
• Are more likely to promote the company and its services to others
• Have a higher level of trust in the brand and its product and services

Without TicketManager as a partner, I don’t know how Super Tickets would be managed on a daily basis. If we fall short on any element of the delivery of that experience, it would have a really quick negative effect.

Christina Hull
Executive Director, Head of Experiential Marketing Verizon

THE BIG PICTURE

Delivering ROI for Verizon’s consumer business represents only one part of the workload for the company’s corporate tickets (and its TicketManager integration). On the enterprise business side, Verizon sales teams host thousands customers and prospects each year at sports and entertainment events.

Since creating a centralized ticket management system with TicketManager to ensure transparency, compliance and utilization about five years ago, Verizon has greatly improved optimization of ticket assets and understanding of how they are delivering against KPIs.

Relying on TicketManager’s ability to track usage on an individual ticket and customer level—in Verizon’s case integrating with its Salesforce system—the company can determine the impact of client entertainment and hospitality on key account loyalty and growth.

TicketManager also provides a holistic view of ticket activity that enables Verizon decision-makers to see not only which business units and sales channels are maximizing or under-utilizing tickets (and pivot accordingly), but also to determine whether certain tickets and events would perform better as a B2C promotion versus B2B.