PLEASANTON, Calif.,
May 31, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- Blackhawk Network, Inc., a global financial technology
company, has announced the winners of its 12th annual
Hawk Awards, which recognize the U.S. payments industry's most
innovative leaders.
"For more than a decade, the Hawk Awards have given Blackhawk the opportunity to highlight the
innovative work of our partners and programs," said Talbott Roche, chief executive officer and
president of Blackhawk Network. "As the best in the industry, our
partners continue to set the standard for excellence each year and
we are honored to once again celebrate the impressive achievements
of the Hawk Award winners and finalists."
Category winners were named during Blackhawk's 2018 Summit at the Hawk Awards
Gala on April 25, 2018 in
Colorado Springs, Colo. For the
first time, Blackhawk Summit attendees were invited to cast their
votes for several categories on-site via the event app. The
following organizations were among those recognized:
Industry Achievement: Recognizes a company or individual
making the greatest contribution to the advancement of the
industry.
- Sephora: Honored for its innovation, collaboration and
leadership in driving partnerships that create a personalized
gifting experience for its clients. By continually seeking what is
new, exciting and fun, Sephora has leveraged strategic marketing
efforts to drive additional in-store and online traffic.
Most Impactful Marketing Program: Recognizes the
retailer, content partner and CashStar customer that developed and
executed a marketing program or promotion that met or exceeded its
business objectives.
- Albertsons: Honored in the retailer category for its
digital just for U® program. This highly-flexible platform promotes
innovation in testing new marketing strategies, and drove sales and
consumer engagement of gift cards.
- Amazon: Honored in the content partner category for the
Amazon Box Shipper. The unique packaging features an Amazon gift
card in a signature Amazon mini shipping box and was a consumer
favorite during the 2017 holiday season.
- Dunkin' Donuts: Honored in the CashStar customer
category for its partnership with T-Mobile Tuesdays, a promotion
that thanks T-Mobile customers with free offers and a chance to win
prizes. On every Tuesday for a five-week span, app users could
choose to receive an egift card from Dunkin' Donuts. The
partnership drove a significant amount of DD Card redemptions, as
well as omni-channel impressions for both brands.
Best Gift Card Design: Recognizes the most creative,
innovative and impactful physical or egift design within the
industry.
- Delta Air Lines: Honored for its The Gift of Go™ card
featuring iconic images from five well-known travel destinations
around the world. The airline's focus on sustainability also means
the card was produced from 100 percent eco-friendly paper.
Most Collaborative: Recognizing a company and/or vendor
who pushed boundaries and seized opportunities to implement new
product in the industry.
- Regal, AMC Theatres, Fandango and The Kroger Company:
Honored for their partnership on a "destination shipper"
highlighting six months of blockbuster movie releases, with two new
movies featured every month. The dynamic packaging drove customer
engagement and sales.
Best Use of Reward Innovation: Recognizes the Hawk
Incentives partner implementing the best use of reward innovation
in a rewards-based incentive program.
- Sprint: Honored for its early adoption of Hawk
Incentives' new single-use, open-loop Mastercard Prepaid Card that
can be added to a mobile wallet. This exciting new product can
increase the speed of reward delivery, promote smart phone/digital
wallet adoption within the Sprint customer base and increase
customer satisfaction.
Best Use of Rewards in a Consumer Promotion: Recognizes
the Hawk Incentives partner implementing the best use of a
rewards-based program to drive customer activation or
acquisition.
- Discount Tire: Honored for its rebate payment timeline,
which is one of the fastest in the country. Through Discount Tires'
partnership with Hawk Incentives, customers' rebate submissions are
validated in real time.
Best Customer Engagement Initiative: Recognizing CashStar
clients who transform customer experiences with branded value and
gift cards, creating engaging interactions and meaningful outcomes
for their customers.
- Ulta Beauty: Honored for being among the first of
CashStar's clients to leverage On Demand Activation in a marketing
promotion. By targeting select customer segments while promoting
gift card activation during key gifting seasons, Ulta Beauty
experienced impressive sales, higher load values and incremental
purchases.
First Party Innovation Award: Recognizing CashStar
clients that embrace innovative strategies, new technologies or
first-to-market solutions.
- Uber: Honored for leading the way among CashStar's
clients, Uber was first to market with the enhanced CashStar
Consumer experience for both desktop and mobile app, as well as one
of the first brands to engage Velocity B2B to grow its gift card
program.
About Blackhawk Network
Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAWK) is a global
financial technology company and a leader in connecting brands and
people through branded value solutions. Blackhawk platforms
and solutions enable the management of stored value products,
promotions and rewards programs in retail, ecommerce, financial
services and mobile wallets. Blackhawk's Hawk Commerce division
offers technology solutions to businesses and direct to consumers.
The Hawk Incentives division offers enterprise, SMB and
reseller partners an array of platforms and branded value products
to incent and reward consumers, employees and sales channels.
Headquartered in Pleasanton,
Calif., Blackhawk operates
in 26 countries. For more information, please
visit blackhawknetwork.com,
cashstar.com, hawkcommerce.com, hawkincentives.com or
our product
websites GiftCards.com, giftcardmall.com, Cardpool.com, GiftCardLab.com
and OmniCard.com.
CONTACT:
Courtney
Brunkow
courtney@fletchergroupllc.com
303-717-9575
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SOURCE Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc.