The 2020 Holiday Campaign is Coming to Access

Who else is enjoying the chill in the air reminding us that the holidays are just around the corner?

Some things might look a little different this year: more holiday gatherings will have partygoers “zooming” in… more gifts will land on doorsteps instead of in shopping carts…

But luckily, we can count on many holiday staples, our personal favorite being the extra deep savings available only once a year.

Last year, we launched the first ever holiday savings campaign, much to the delight of our client organizations and their collective members. 

In 2020, we hope our clients will join hands with us (figuratively, of course) to repeat last year’s success. Our results show that working together on a common goal is the most effective way to spread joy and cheer with extra deep discounts in time for Hanukah, Christmas and “just because.”

2020 Holiday Marketing Campaign – What to Expect

The 2020 holiday marketing campaign will run from November 9-13, with members receiving one specially curated discount via email per day. Participating brands include some of our most popular for holiday gifts, but we’re not going to spoil the surprise just yet.

That’s right. The holidays are coming early this year. Okay… maybe not, but trends are showing that people are planning to shop earlier than ever. We definitely don’t want members stressing over sold-out items or delayed shipping times. And to make sure everyone can save safely, all deals this year will be 100% online.

To add an extra layer of joy, those who participate will have lots of opportunities to win prizes in the form of $100 gift cards to popular brands – gift cards they’ll be able to stretch even further using their regular Access discounts.

“If there’s ever been a year to get the holidays right, it's 2020,” said Melissa Garcia, director of product marketing and leader of the holiday campaign design team. “We don’t want even one person to miss out saving money on the gifts they already want to purchase. When it’s fun, new and relevant, the masses will take notice.”

And this campaign aims to check all those boxes: NEW ways to earn prizes, FUN games to make it more interactive and engaging, and of course, RELEVANT offers to help members stretch those holiday budgets as far as they can.

Member Engagement Skyrockets When We Work Together

samsung dealDuring last year’s campaign, participation was high across the board. In fact, redemptions increased 120% over the previous December. Members clicked through to redeem deals at a rate three times industry standard. And to our clients’ delight, many less active members engaged with their member benefits for the very first time or after a long break because of the special campaign.

Members everywhere expressed appreciation to their respective organizations. One member said, “I LOVED the…Holiday Savings campaign! I thought it was so fun and would watch for the next deal to come. Thank you for doing this!”

For every organization, Access did all the work of designing and sending emails to members on their behalf. with no extra effort from the client required. But the real holiday magic happened with clients worked with us to further spread the word through other channels.

For example, one organization added Access-created web banners and social marketing messaging to their pages. “I was excited when I learned about the Access deals planned for December. I thought it would be a fun and popular giveaway,” said the head of its member engagement team. “Little did I know it would shatter our registration and redemption numbers for the year! We experienced close to a 400% increase in both figures for the month of December.”

Another large education association, which had far and away the highest level of participation, attributed its success to advertising the timely offers via multiple channels to its highly engaged membership.

The Reason for the Seasonal Event

At Access, deals and discounts are our wheelhouse. On this blog, we’ve discussed engagement building ideas, analyzed which elements are shared by the best discount programs, curated huge lists of relevant industry loyalty statistics and more.

It’s all knowledge we’ve gleaned as we worked over the last 30 years to build the nation’s largest exclusive discount network.

In fact, if you’ve been hanging around our blog long enough, you probably know one of our favorite membership engagement tools is the “surprise and delight” campaign. The psychology behind it is simple. People love getting gifts. It makes us feel good, appreciated. And those feelings are often reflected back toward the one giving the gift.

“We love seeing member engagement strategies in action. And when you’re talking about surprise and delight, a little can make a big impact. Especially in a year that I think most people can agree has been a tough one, where every bright spot feels a little extra special,” Garcia said.

Luckily for us, Access has always been uniquely situated to help alleviate some of those financial woes that are affecting more of us than ever this year. We’ve initiated several initiatives aimed at making sure our 20 million members know about and are able to use their discounts on everyday essentials, including the COVID-19 essentials playbook and the summer savings playbook.

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What better time than the holidays to work together to make sure more members than ever can take advantage of all the amazing deals available to them?

How to Share these Good Tidings with Your Members

Current Access clients. You don’t have to do anything more to participate. Access will begin emailing your members on Nov 9 on your behalf. But we want to give everyone the chance to participate fully and maximize the member engagement opportunities provided. Garcia and her team have already done all the heavy lifting.

All current clients now have access to plug-and-play messaging and assets (including social media updates and web banners) and a strategy to really make the campaign sing. Check your email for an invitation to a kickoff webinar to learn how to best inspire member participation.

Not an Access Client Yet? There’s still time… if you hurry. Join the Access family by Oct. 30 (or sooner!) to get the best head start in implementing and executing the holiday savings campaign. It’s the perfect kick off to get your members registered fast and saving right away. Last year’s stats showed that member enthusiasm lasted for months after the holidays were over, with members exploring all the discounts Access has to offer and redeeming more than ever.

That’s what you can expect when you work with Access. Helping members save money on everyday purchases (and letting member organizations take all the credit) is the heart of what Access does. That’s because high-value discounts are a proven way to engage members. And engaged members, or members who regularly interact with your business and any value-added benefits you provide, are more likely to renew year after year AND bring on family and friends. 

We’re excited to work in tangent with our clients and hope that all will join in the effort to inspire some real holiday magic.

In the mean time, here are a few articles to help you get to know Access and our merchant partners a little better:

Happy holidays (soon!) from Access.

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Topics: Member Benefits, surprise and delight, member engagement, associations, association marketing, Membership Organizations, loyalty programs, membership benefits programs

Written by: Kendra Lusty

For over a decade, Kendra Lusty has been a writer for Access Development, and currently focuses her research and writing on topics related to loyalty and engagement.

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