• by Nina Lentini , August 7, 2008

Eight O'Clock Coffee, which earlier this year pegged wedding a promotion around Friday's date, has launched a new program to ease the economic pain for coffee drinkers. "Accumul8 Rewards" is the first rewards program of its kind, per the company, for the brew-at-home category.

Consumers enter codes found on marked packages of Eight O'Clock Coffee online to get gifts ranging from TV show downloads at Amazon.com to $25 Visa gift cards as they accumulate points.

Says a spokesperson: "It's another way that Eight O'Clock Coffee is keeping wallets happy as well as tastebuds."

The Montvale, N.J.-based company is promoting the program via on-package graphics; FSI/couponing; online advertising; blog outreach; a Web site; and public relations efforts.

In its "Gr8 Wedding D8" contest that it launched in the spring, the company partnered with theknot.com and a celebrity design guru to give a couple a blowout wedding Friday on a Southampton, N.Y. estate.