The objectives of the J-Rewards Programme are to generate incremental revenue through the program for EX, SRX and product bundles and to reward partners for both sales and non-sales related activities. These include achieving certifications, registering new opportunities, participating in the J-Xchange Programme, submitting customer reference stories, registering e-certificates and referring colleagues into the program.
Juniper wanted a programme that they could use as a vehicle to communicate varying messages to their global partner community and to ensure that these mixed media messages continued to provide the correct information at the correct time.
The infrastructure that was created has enabled Juniper to use the program in a very strategic way, offering ongoing visibility into sales trends throughout EMEA and allowing them to continue to target areas that are failing to deliver. An additional benefit is the monitoring of the education of members on Juniper products through certifications.
The introduction of a tactical themed World Cup promotion ‘J-Rewards Sports’ has ensured that the J-Rewards Program remains fresh and engaging.
The client company and products/services offered
Juniper Networks leads the industry in enabling secure, assured communications over a single IP network. The company delivers products for building networks tailored to the individual needs of their users, services and applications.
Campaign objectives
- Broaden the appeal and create a new “look and feel” for the J-Rewards Programme
- Generate incremental revenue through the programme by driving partners to increase sales of switching and security products
- Drive sales and technical certifications
- Enable effective management of the program and partner base
- Maintain the already steady increase in member registration
- Use J-Rewards as a vehicle to promote other Juniper programs
Campaign Strategy
The J-Rewards Programme was created as a long-term fully integrated online programme, developed to reward individual J-Partners for their continued commitment to Juniper.
Emails were used to recruit and engage with new partners and included promotional codes awarding points for registration. Promotional codes were tracked, and coupled with ongoing analysis, we were able to identify J-Partners with development potential (based on alignment to pre-specified criteria), thus enabling us to increase the relevance and effectiveness of all future channel sales and marketing activities.
The programme is now in its fourth year, and following member feedback, the prize catalogue was replaced by a wide variety of American Express travellers cheques.
The claiming process is fully integrated and has been streamlined so that the partner experience commences as soon as they have registered. A tactical J-Rewards Sports programme teaser email was despatched to J-Partners prior to the launch of the initiative to create excitement and build awareness. J-Rewards Sports was created in a tournament structure and ran in parallel to the main J-Rewards Program in 107 countries across EMEA. Members with approved points for SRX and EX products registered in J-Rewards were tracked in a league table format. The top four partners moved through to the next rounds culminating in a semi-final and a final in May 2010.
Finalists either won an all inclusive four day trip to the World Cup semi-final or final in South Africa. Members could also redeem against a range of sports related goods listed in the J-Rewards Sports catalogue. Distributors participated in J-Reward Sports with their league position dependent on their revenue targets using the general business targets set by Juniper.
A follow up email communicated that the promotion was live and provided details of how J-Partners could register for J-Rewards Sports. J-Partners registered via the Juniper Partner Center member website and once registered had access to J-Rewards Sports pages.
Target Audience
The J-Rewards Program targeted J-Partner sales representatives and sales engineers within Juniper’s Reseller, Select and Elite J-Partner community across EMEA.
Distributors were not eligible to participate in the J-Rewards Programme but can access a demonstration site which allows them to obtain an understanding of how the program works.
Partners and distributors were both eligible to participate in J-Rewards Sports.
Media
Juniper and the J-Rewards Program underwent a re-brand in 2009; Juniper said goodbye to Captain J and hello to a more corporate style. A comprehensive media campaign was implemented to promote the newly re-branded Program and J-Rewards Sports.
Member Website:
A dynamically generated website was created, personalised to each individual in the program, showing pending and approved points and a selection of prizes that can be redeemed for points earned. Some areas of the site are also available in French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Emails:
Email has been used throughout the program to increase awareness and interest. The immediacy of the medium aligned well with the call to action for registering in J-Rewards and J-Rewards Sports programmes.
Direct Mail:
A direct mail campaign has been implemented to ensure that interest in J-Rewards is constantly refreshed, and that any updates within the program are communicated. This took the form of a dummy American Express travellers cheques that was already made payable to the individual target
Launch Kits:
A flyer containing information about J-Rewards Sports, branded water bottles and stress balls ensured that the program was attention-grabbing and stayed in the minds of it’s target audience.
Toolkits:
A marketing toolkit was made available through the Juniper Marketing Resource Center. This allowed distributors to download J-Rewards materials and co-brand them for dispatch to their databases.
Event Kits:
A penguin stand and flyers were produced to promote the J-Rewards Programme at Juniper events across EMEA. The flyers included a promotional code to encourage J-Partners to register.
Campaign Timescale
The J-Rewards program was re-launched in January 2009 and the J-Rewards Sports Programme launched in October 2009 and finished in May 2010.
Campaign Results
- Enabled access to J-Rewards via single sign on through Juniper’s Partner Center.
- Members rewarded for positive sales and other behaviours
- Continually broadened the appeal of the program by extending methods of collecting points and the inclusion oftactical short-term promotions
- Registered members = 2,187
- Registered claims = 3,630
- Redeemed rewards = 918
- Engagement with previously untouched Juniper ‘focus’ partners and recruiting them into J-Rewards
- Registered members who participated in J-Reward Sports = 150
- EX product revenue = c. $30million
- SRX product revenue = c. $1.75 million
Client Testimonial
“J-Rewards has provided us with a truly holistic programme to totally inspire loyalty in our customer base. It has provided us with a platform in which to reshape our interactions with our valued customers, as well as provide us with a mechanism for driving incremental business.
J-Rewards Sports was designed to provide a clear focus on driving incremental, measureable revenue as well as inspiring partners loyalty – the program has over exceeded these objectives. Our partners will be talking about this program for a long time to come.
Working closely with Planet, we were able to design and execute a successful program that was not only fully aligned with our strategic business objectives, but also provide us with measurable return on investment metrics. The Planet Group engaged with us on strategic thinking as well as a tactical execution to ensure the program was a succes” Tim Watson, EMEA channel programmes manager
