Commentary

Just An Online Minute... AIM Rewards

  • by March 18, 2004
Earlier this month, a source sent me a link to a survey via AOL. It was an odd little thing and I didn't know quite what to make of it, but it might be indicative of the kinds of marketing and promotions AOL is attempting.

The survey, targeting users of AIM (AOL Instant Messenger), asked them to answer 10 questions for a chance to win an Apple iPod mini. A couple of the questions--"Where do you use the AIM feature most--home, office, or school?" and "Please select any other instant messaging services that you use--Yahoo!, MSN, ICQ, other?" Another query: "How interested would you be in seeing each of the following types of products included as rewards in the program--AOL Anti-Virus, CDs, CD Players, Downloadable Music," and so forth. Users are queried about their age, sex, and household income.

If participants choose to submit their survey anonymously, they don't get entered into the sweepstakes.

I asked AOL about the rewards program and I was told it was merely a test. The idea, it seems, is to reward AIM users for purchases or activities that they engage in while on AIM. Similar to airline reward programs, only in real-time via the Internet, an AIM user, for example, who purchases a DVD, or registers for personals would earn a certain number of points. The points accrue and can be used toward the purchase of various products offered by AOL partners. Advertising, would no doubt, help support the program.

It's a good program and one that should be implemented soon. Besides dangling products from big brands--for example, MP3 players from Samsung and luggage from Tumi, it would be wise for AOL to offer some of its own premium services as "rewards" for limited trial offers. There's plenty of AOL and Time Warner "stuff" a rewards program could hawk--magazine subscriptions, movie passes, extra storage, virus protection software, etc. AOL could start charging for pay-per-view events on broadband and count them as rewards. The sky's the limit.

AOL still has 24 million members. It should rev this program now.

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