Technology Provider: Gratitude Pays Off
Pure Storage, a leading provider of storage solutions, reinforces loyalty in their top-performing partners with an award-winning program.
The Client and Their Past State
The Client
The Audience
The Objectives
- Inspire brand loyalty and show appreciation for top partners
- Elevate transactional loyalty to emotional loyalty
- Drive partner retention
The Challenges
The Client’s Current State and Key Results
Above and Beyond
The program has enabled Pure Storage to gain more mindshare in the market, while recognizing channel partners for creating new opportunities and loyalty.
Highly Engaged
Overall program communications had an open rate of 60%, almost 3x the industry average for B2B communications.
“The quality and creativity of the agency’s marketing campaigns as well as the professionalism and service level of their organization enhances our brand and makes us proud to partner with their team.”
“HMI’s deep expertise and unparalleled creativity has enabled us to deliver a global program that our channel partners love and are truly proud to participate in.”
How They Got Here
Marketing
Program Design
To recognize their longstanding partnership and continued loyalty, Pure Storage invited its top performing partners to join its Pure Rewards VIP Program. Invited participants were given the chance to achieve “VIP” status for meeting their channel-led deals and revenue goals, which came with substantial benefits. These included reward credits, swag, and surprises.
Reward Opportunities:
Rewards catalogs varied by country, but included some or all of the following:
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- VIP merchandise rewards options, featuring the most popular brands in each category
- Virtual events
- VIP concierge experiences
- Additionally, as an extra way to say “thank you” and keep the program top of mind, participants received a custom branded swag box full of high-value surprise rewards.
Orange Ticket Adventure Promotion: to further boost engagement within the program, HMI and Pure Storage worked together to design a highly successful, layered sweepstakes promotion, the Orange Ticket Adventure. Participants were offered the chance to earn “Orange Ticket” entries for engaging in particular preferred activities with Pure Storage and the VIP program. These entries were put towards a sweepstakes for a once-in-a-lifetime experience in one of several premiere destinations, such as the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Strategy and Implementation
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- Ongoing communications to thank and reward partners for their loyalty and remind them of their benefits of VIP
- Gamification, including a “VIP Open” golf game for higher-tier partners as an opportunity to earn extra rewards
- Program overview and premium catalog mailed to house
- Surprise and delight boxes and bonus credit communications to thank them
- Behaviorally triggered communications (eg, for participant birthdays or website activity)
- Special statuses, recognition, and rewards to distinguish partners who earned VIP status multiple years in a row
