JNR Incorporated used a giveaway of 10,000 tubes of glue to introduce its customer-loyalty and sales-performance services in April 2013. The promotion turned a retention message into a physical object, giving prospective corporate clients a memorable entry point to a broader incentive proposition. [S01]

The campaign promoted customized packages combining travel incentives, debit-card rewards, sales motivation, customer-loyalty services and marketing communications. The glue supplied the metaphor; the commercial offer was JNR's ability to connect those elements around a company's objectives.

Making retention tangible

Kelly Woolsey, JNR's marketing manager at the time, argued that companies devoted considerable attention to winning business while giving less attention to existing customers and sales-team performance.

The giveaway addressed the corporate buyer before any end-customer incentive had been designed. A small, recognizable item made an abstract service easier to discuss: how a business could encourage customers to return and give its salespeople reasons to pursue the desired results.

That distinction explains the campaign's structure. The promotional item introduced JNR itself. The travel and debit-card programs it advertised would then be tailored to the audiences and commercial priorities of JNR's clients.

One message across different reward formats

Travel and card rewards offer different participant experiences, but both require a clear connection between the qualifying behavior and the award. Communications establish that connection by explaining what people need to do, how progress is recognized and what the reward means.

By presenting communications alongside the rewards, JNR's 2013 pitch placed program design around the choice of incentive. Its proposition was broader than supplying an item of value: the company wanted to manage how the incentive was introduced and connected with customer or sales activity.

The campaign also demonstrates how an incentive provider can make its own marketing illustrate the service it sells. JNR used a tangible reward to open a business conversation, then used that conversation to describe more substantial programs. The advertised 10,000-tube giveaway belongs to April 2013; its enduring interest is the way a simple object carried a coordinated customer-retention message.