the first club, a London-based digital rewards and loyalty solutions company, is partnering with Canal+ to deliver video-on-demand in France, the first of many such partnerships expected worldwide. the first club works with other companies, like hotel chains, to offer digital downloads as reward options.
Denis Hure, CEO of the first club, told Loyalty 360 that CANALPLAY, Canal+ Group’s legal video downloading platform, offers the best solution for the French market. Other providers may be used in other markets. the first club is still evaluating which provider works best in different markets, depending on size of library, and different country-by-country intellectual property, copyright and digital distribution rules.
“This is the first milestone in our offerings,” Hure said. “We wanted to work with the best VOD provider in each country. We think that CANAPLAY has the best VOD catalogue for France.”
the first club and CANALPLAY platforms will be linked under the agreement, making the CANALPLAY video library available to First Club loyalty partners.
A similar program for Spain is already in the pipeline, according to Hure. Programs for other countries are in various stages of development. Hure said he expects a U.S.-based program to go live sometime in the first quarter of 2013.
“We didn’t want to just offer low-end video,” Hure said. “We want to be able to offer high-end video across the world. And we want to be able to offer thousands of videos, not just a few. We strive to provide diverse content which continues to be a tremendous benefit in expanding our loyalty and rewards solution across the world, and comes at a critical time when loyalty programs are looking to differentiate themselves.”
Hure pointed out that one of the biggest shifts taking place in the loyalty world today is the digitization of rewards and loyalty programs. He expects that downloadable digital content increasingly being used by companies to promote brand loyalty and to incentivize customers to instantly redeem their rewards.
The partnership with Canal+’s CANALPLAY service enables all members of each loyalty program powered by the the first club solution to access to this very large film and television content catalogue of recent hits and cult films from CANALPLAY in France under the film section of www.thefirstclub.com site using any program currency. This content is available through the first club’s digital rewards solution including its B2C site thefirstclub.com, as well as brand-specific loyalty programs.