Is it worth $5 per customer to turn Millennials into strong brand advocates? Take a look at #discoverjoy. By giving away $5 Starbucks gift cards, Discover is hitting a homerun when it comes to building loyalty and advocacy among its Millennial cardmembers, breakage – or lack thereof as tweets suggests – be damned.
The Discover program recently came to my attention when a thirty-something co-worker received a $5 Starbucks gift card courtesy of Discover. He appreciated the offer, and together we admired the simple packaging and effective communications – minimal branding, affixed gift card and single headline: “Enjoy a $5 treat on us.”
Our conversation turned to what most likely triggered the surprise gift. Did a recent high-ticket purchase trigger the gift card? Was it tied to high-value cardmember status? Profitable behavior? Recent card inactivity? Or is this simply a random act of kindness from Discover?
Here’s what I uncovered in trying to answer the questions:
- #discoverjoy has been around in various permutations since 2011, evolving over the past 18 months to focus on the Starbucks giveaway. Prior #discoverjoy promotions included hand-written customer appreciation notes, the occasional $25 gift card and cupcake giveaways in local markets. All firmly establish the “surprise and delight” aspect of the campaign.
- Platform demographics aside, a review of the hashtag suggests targeting of and engagement by Millennials from college-age cardmembers to those who appear to be in the 20-30+ demographic:
- The overwhelming reaction to the offer and even the packaging (“nice paper,” “no legalese,” etc.) is positive. To Discover’s credit, there are only a handful of tweets that are at all negative, and those are only mildly negative:
- Cardmembers happily accept the gift with little need to question the why behind Discover’s actions. In fact, they freely express their own beliefs about what motivated Discover: card loyalty, random perk, a “well done” for CRM activity or simply the belief that Discover knows them well:
- There are also powerful peer-to-peer recommendations and accolades ranging from superior competitive comparisons, to shout-outs for product benefits and declarations of brand loyalty:
- In addition, the social team at Discover is interacting with cardmembers who use the hashtag. The tone of its replies is indicative of a brand building loyalty and, dare we say, friendship:
Finally, Discover has been sharing the campaign on Twitter and Instagram – social channels that make sense if you want to be in the right places when marketing to Millennials — a segment that’s shifting from Facebook to other platforms.
A delightful offer, smart delivery in a mix of channels and the right social connections are helping Discover turn Millennials into customers for life.