Adotas | Edward Barrera | February 11, 2009
Launched in October 2008, Dukky, which is now in beta, is a media platform that uses direct online, point-of-purchase, viral social, data mining and realtime performance reporting in one interface. It combines multiple personalized, trackable gift cards from multiple advertisers into one initial mailing. It’s a customized application that innovates coupons and direct marketing response. I asked Scott Couvillon, president, marketing and product development, some questions about the company.
How does it work?
It starts at the activation center. When a recipient of the 40 personalized offer card mail piece wishes to activate the cards, they enter a personal .url (PURL), which allows retailers to track and to get real time feedback. Retailers can monitor not only receipt and general interest but also specific purchase intent in case a recipient didn’t use it. Maybe they’ll want to buy the product later on but now the retailer can engage the prospect’s purchase intent. It allows brands to build relationships with the customers, engaging them, asking for feedback even allowing customization of offers, not guessing what they want.
Why is this so innovative?
It’s a new way to think about an ‘old’ medium – a channel disruption if you will. Dukky combines direct mail marketing and online tracking by incorporating contemporary tools that consumers are using in their daily lives into a comprehensive program. Tools that allow retailers to learn from the previously unknown period between receipt and redemption. And, it shifts control to the consumer that they can be active participants in the relationship with retailers versus ‘targets’.
What does Dukky’s real-time dashboard enable a retailer to do?
It enables marketers to learn in real-time what consumers want and react to. Without it, you are a slave to your redemption center or POS system to generate a report weeks, even months later. The dashboard also allows retailers to download the activation database into their own CRM systems or to further customize future Dukky programs.
How is this better than a direct marketing coupon?
Traditionally, DM coupons and gift cards are anonymous and do not offer marketers a way to track purchase intent online. Typically, they track back to the mail list or the offer in general but even upon redemption, you don’t know anything more about the original recipient. And you certainly don’t have any dialogue that you can learn from. We created Dukky to solve these problems and facilitate more targeted communications, both online and off, between marketers and potential customers.
How did your partnering with Clearview Mall, a shopping mall located near New Orleans, show the possibilities of Dukky?
Direct Response programs for Clearview had an average response in the 1-3% range. Their goal, as with most mall properties, was to drive traffic through the doors as each individual has an average revenue impact of $75. We did a Dukky with 26 retailers from the mall excluding the major nationals that we thought might skew the numbers. Of the 10,000 piece test drop, Clearview got an 8% activation and drove nearly 200 people to a customer service kiosk to see if they had won one of 16 shopping sprees. Individual retailer redemption varied (we did not tie into their POS systems) but all in all, far exceeded expectations.
What about funding?
We are in the process of securing investment as we speak in the form of Angel investors using Louisiana’s Angel Investor Incentive program (to date, we have only received a seed investment). However, after this round, conservative projections have us being able to fund further product development from revenue relative to the co-op offer card program as we introduce embellishments and continued services and features.
