Nataki Edwards, Vice President of Digital Strategy & Operations, AARP, told attendees at the Engagement & Experience Expo, which was hosted by Loyalty360, that the nonprofit organization that helps people 50 and older improve the quality of their lives, faced an important challenge: How to motivate its nearly 40 million members to actively engage with aarp.org to learn about the many ways they can ensure that they and their families live the best life they can.
“We had been looking for a loyalty program for over a decade,” Edwards said during her session, The Road to an Engaged and Active Community Through Personalized and Rewarding Experiences. “This is really about active engagement.”
Edwards said AARP saw a need for a more loyal customer base because users saw little reason to register or stay logged in when they did.
“Time spent on site was declining,” she said during her session. “Engagement with social mission content was lower than desired.”
Enter AARP’s Rewards for Good loyalty program that launched in February 2014.
It was a first-of-its-kind program that rewards AARP Members for engaging with exclusive tools and information that deliver meaningful impact to their lives. It’s free, easy, valuable, and has real value. The program has more than 200,000 rewards including discounts, gift cards, and merchandise.
Members receive 50% more points to join or renew. There are hundreds of ways to accumulate points.
AARP’s “Rewards for Good” loyalty program is unique because, unlike other loyalty programs, there is no purchase necessary to earn points toward savings for various products and services. Users just need to register on AARP.org to get started. Points can be earned simply by engaging with online tools, such as webinars or quizzes which will benefit them by delivering meaningful information that will positively impact their lives.
AARP partnered with Deluxe Rewards, a full-service provider that understands AARP’s focus on social mission engagement and uses a deep data integration for a 360-degree view of the customer, accompanied by a robust catalog of offers.
Targeted messaging is based on: Program activated vs. not; points but never redeemed; member vs. non-member.
“We have an always-on approach to the program,” Edwards said. “We will spend more than $1 million on the loyalty program this year.”
Rewards for Good offers tiered prizing and the program currently has 5.6 million earners and 1.1 million activated members.
Edwards offered the following statistics from members:
48% of people say the program has increased knowledge of health issues
39% are more educated about Social
31% say the program helped save them money
26% report that diet and nutrition has improved
What’s more, Edwards said the program constantly chases the most engaged users; newness is added monthly and communicated broadly; social mission is a mandate; and expansion across the enterprise is key to continued success.
Edwards said program expectations are high and members are very vocal due to trust in the AARP brand.
“This program is the cheese on your broccoli,” Edwards said.
An interesting sidebar surfaced: AARP is no longer an acronym that stands for American Association of Retired Persons. AARP is the official name of the organization and half of its members are, in fact, not retired because they don’t want to retire or can’t afford to retire.