As members of a newly created advisory board, Tobaccowala, Thacker and McKesson will be evangelists for EDO’s Prewards performance marketing platform. The trio will help educate the marketing and advertising community on the role of card-connected offers in the marketing mix and provide strategic thinking and crucial marketer feedback to fuel product development efforts.

(October 10, 2011) – EDO Interactive has named marketing innovators Rishad Tobaccowala, Bob Thacker and Kim McKesson to its newly created advisory board, today announced Ed Braswell, EDO’s chief executive officer.

EDO Interactive is a leader in digital advertising solutions, leveraging everyday payment networks to connect brands with consumers. EDO’s Prewards® platform enables advertisers to offer digital deals and incentives that consumers can redeem by using their existing credit, debit or prepaid cards from participating financial institutions. To date, EDO has signed contractual arrangements with financial institutions having an aggregate reach of over 100 million cardholders. The company also recently completed a $20MM Series B investment round.

“Rishad, Bob and Kim bring significant advertising and marketing perspective and experience to EDO. They will be evangelists for EDO’s platform and help educate the marketing and advertising community on the role of card-connected offers in the marketing mix. This group will also provide EDO with the strategic thinking and crucial marketer feedback that will enable us to quickly evolve and improve what we offer to merchants,” said Braswell.

Unlike the first generation of digital coupon/daily deal providers, the offers from EDO are based on advanced analytics and so are hyper-targeted and more relevant and meaningful to the consumer. There is no payment in advance for the consumer, no need to present a coupon or code at the time of purchase and no point of sale hassle for the merchant. For the advertiser, Prewards open up a cost effective channel to provide customized relevant offers that address a number of marketing goals, from loyalty and repeat business to new customer acquisition and share shift.

Prewards works by alerting consumers to offers via web portal and their choice of email, SMS text or mobile application, prompting them to purchase. Once they do, savings are immediately deposited back into their account, whereas competing providers require consumers to wait up to 45-days before redeposit. Consumers holding cards from financial institutions across the United States already have redeemed Prewards® from top brands such as Sur La Table, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, PetSmart, Subway, Kroger and Dick’s Sporting Goods. To date, EDO has experienced redemption rates that are significantly exceeding those achieved by less targeted programs. Additionally, EDO programs have driven impressive jumps in average order per store visit.

“EDO brings great innovation to the offers and incentives market,” said Tobaccowala. He notes: “They have a unique team that understands the intersection of payment and advertising technologies and they are well-positioned to address merchant pain points, including deal relevance and ease of redemption.” Tobaccowala, a world-class expert on advertising and branding in the digital and social media space, also serves as Chief Strategy and Innovation officer on VivaKi’s executive management board.

Also joining the advisory board is marketing and advertising veteran Bob Thacker. He said, “I am incredibly impressed with EDO’s vision and what it has to offer the advertising and marketing community. The volume and depth of customer data EDO offers provides marketers with an incredible array of insights and ensures all promotional touches are both personalized and relevant.” Thacker, who is currently executive director of Adopt-A-Classroom, a non-profit organization devoted to helping teachers, brings deep marketing and advertising expertise gleaned from senior executive roles at retail giants OfficeMax, Sears Roebuck & Co. and Target as well as ad agency BBDO.

Contributing her deep retail and branding experience is former Home Depot marketing and merchandising executive, Kim McKesson. She said, “EDO’s technology solves a real problem for merchants by digitizing offer content and connecting a brand’s deal to a bank payment card. This program can also scale very quickly since EDO’s technology doesn’t ask the merchant to upgrade the POS or change their store operations.” McKesson currently is a member of search industry leader Spencer Stuart’s global consumer goods practice and specializes in the retail, apparel and luxury goods sectors.

For more information visit www.edointeractive.com or contact Ed Braswell on 615.281.9421.