CardMarketing 2.0

Card Marketing 2.0 isn't just about how issuers can use the internet to market their products. It also looks at how the more personalised and engaging 'two-way' communication strategies underlying Web 2.0 can be integrated into conventional offline channels. There's no better example of this, at present, than LaSalle Bank of Chicago's use of its Illiniois ATM network to market to new and existing customers.

A person I've never met before sent me a link to a random blog entry on serendipity the other day. I've always been fascinated by chance, contingency and – how Nietzschean of me – throwing the dice, so I read it and it made me think. Well actually, that's not entirely true. It didn't so much make me think as feel, or rather, have a feeling.

The first weekend of March saw the USA Today website redesign go live. Most of the excitement – and there was a lot of it across the blogosphere – surrounded the numerous social networking, or 'community' features. Among other things, USA Today readers can now:

Interesting article in the New York Times on the weekend. It seems Cisco, the Silicon Valley networking giant, has the technology assets of Tribe.net, the social networking site, in its sights. This on top of its February acquisition of Five Across, a platform for social networking and communities. Now, why is a company like Cisco so interested in social networking? Hasn't it got bigger fish to fry?

For a fabulous explanation of Web 2.0, check out this cool little number on Vidipedia, the free video encyclopedia. Web 2.0, it reveals, requires us to rethink a number of key concepts, including copyright, authorship, ethics, aesthetics, governance, privacy, commerce and, if that wasn't enough already, identity and ourselves.

Like Techcrunch's Michael Arrington, I can't see ChaCha ever working. ChaCha, if you haven't come across it yet, is a new breed of search engine that pairs users with a human guide. The idea is that, if you're having trouble finding something, or can't be bothered to find it yourself on Google, Yahoo or whatever other search engine you're using, a battle-hardened 'live search expert' will do it for you, and in real time.

Transparency is the ugly duckling of Web 2.0. It's not as sexy for issuers as the idea of participation, dialogue and viral campaigns, and doesn't have the immediate appeal of an enriched user experience — ploughing hundreds of thousands of dollars, pounds or euros into the latest technologies to make a cards site the best thing since sliced bread. In fact, it may not have even registered on an issuer's radar.

Web 2.0: depending on whether your paycheck depends on it, it’s either (a) the next great thing (b) the future of the internet and/or (c) much, much more. Somewhere online, a skeptic knits a furrowed brow and asks, “Yeah, yeah. What’s in it for me?”

Each issue, we examine a key word or phrase from the ever-evolving Web 2.0 lexicon. Some of these terms are obscure, others may intimidate but once you get up close, none of them will bite. We break them down and show how they are relevant to the world of online card marketing.

Today’s term: Perpetual Beta

We’ve talked in previous issues about how issuers need to use the internet and other convergence technologies, such as digital printing, to monetize the ‘long tail’ of smaller affinity groups and partner organizations. For starters, the smaller the group, the stronger the affinity, which can amount to increased margins and massive cross-selling opportunities.