THE CHALLENGE

The council, led by the late Mayor Graaf Leopold Lippens, asked for a campaign specifically to thank inhabitants and second homers for their patience and adherence to the regulations during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Secondly, they also wanted to support the local economy by activating shoppers to shop locally as much as possible.

In collaboration with the council and the departments of ICT, Local Economy, Finance and Tourism/Marketing, a rewards and incentive campaign was launched. During a three-month period, inhabitants and second homers were able to collect ‘credit’ by shopping at local stores. That credit could then be transferred into vouchers to the worth of on average 150€, again to be spent locally.

OUR SOLUTION

The solution in fact consisted of an intelligent 2-phased system.

Firstly, all inhabitants and second homers (40,000 postal addresses) received a magazine with a personalised shopping reward card in the post, allowing them to ‒ once registered ‒ shop at local shops during peak season. After that time, the collected credit was added to the same card as a voucher (with a maximum of 200 euro). This credit could only be spent during low season (beginning of October – beginning of December) at participating shops and restaurants in Knokke-Heist. A true win-win for consumers and shopkeepers!

Making the magazine, printing personalised cards with QR codes as lift-off, a registration website, hosting all digital reward cards, allocating shopping credit based on collected points, a portal for shops, a back office for the council’s departments to manage the credit… designing and implementing this shop & dine campaign was no mean feat. A process in fact we took over entirely from the local council’s admin office. Behind the scenes, we managed all technical aspects; at the same time, we took care of most communication aimed at the shopkeepers.

This time as well, we teamed up with our technology partner Beaver & Eagle to select the best performing software platform. We then got working on configuring all participating traders, as well as the collecting and credit allocation rules. After they downloaded an app, at a first stage the restaurants, bars and shops were able to scan the card when a shopper came in. During a second phase they could register credits to keep track of their reimbursement. They were also given access to a portal, where they could check all transactions. For consumers, we launched a GDPR-proof registration website to activate their personal shopping reward card sent along with the magazine. Unique tax declaration form codes had been linked with national ID numbers. We digitised all physical cards into an online PDF version with QR code and we implemented a secure user portal for consumers to consult their available credit.

Wisely also wrote the manual and communication aimed at the local businesses. We posted a magazine (content and lay-out by Toerisme Knokke-Heist, production by Wisely) to over 40,000 addresses, together with a personal loyalty card with QR code. Once the campaign was up and running, members of our team also manned the secondary helpdesk.

By the way, this project by no means was a walk in the park (or on the beach in this case) … One small mistake in the sorting of the databases and a strike at bpost in fact put the whole first line desk under huge pressure. Nevertheless, the Knokke-Heist team was able to timely process the tickets and could fall back on our second line support team. Check, check and double-check in projects like this is key. As always, all ended well.

The result

In total, 23,799 of the 40,000 cards sent out were activated and used at 615 participating shops and restaurants. Exchanging the credit however has been postponed by the council to ensure all businesses have the opportunity to get the most out of this campaign (at this moment, in May 2021, several businesses still have to abide by the mandatory closure because of COVID-19). The collected credit does remain valid and as soon as all businesses can re-open, the credit can be used.

“Late mayor Graaf Leopold Lippens was a big fan of this loyalty and voucher campaign. He particularly liked the clever way it activated local trade. First during the ‘collecting’ phase, then by exchanging the collected credit. This has been a truly successful initiative to support our local economy as well as to return the favour to our residents and second homers.

The sleepless nights in the lead-up have been entirely compensated by the enormous number of transactions and users. We are happy to have chosen a partner with tremendous expertise, who was at all times prepared to go all the way. Mission accomplished!”

 

Philippe Vlietinck – Schepen IT and Anne Vervarcke-Pattyn – Schepen Lokale Economie Knokke-Heist