The trick, says the chef-owner of Restaurant Michael, is putting restrictions around the deals—limiting when they can be redeemed and how many are available to purchase. With the revenue generated by these deals, Lachowicz built an addition onto his restaurant—and he says 30 percent of the people who’ve bought his coupons have turned into repeat customers.

Read more at Portfolio.com

Jeffery Fagel, VP, Marketing & Brand Development

NASHVILLE (January 10, 2012) – Brand, CPG and retail marketing expert Jeffrey E. Fagel has joined digital marketing technology innovator EDO Interactive as Vice President, Marketing & Brand Development announced the company’s chief executive officer, Ed Braswell, today.

EDO Interactive is a leader in digital advertising solutions, leveraging everyday payment networks to connect advertisers (large and small) with consumers. EDO’s Prewards® platform enables financial institutions to increase loyalty by rewarding consumers with merchant-funded offers delivered via their existing credit, debit and prepaid cards. To redeem offers, consumers simply swipe their card and the rebate is automatically deposited back into their account.

“To take EDO to the next level we were looking for a leader with deep brand and customer experience. Jeff will help us build a solid brand story with a focus on initiating and growing relationships with customers,” said Braswell.

“Beyond EDO’s first-to-market technology, we’re building a new marketing channel that allows advertisers deep customer targeting while delivering strong ROI for financial institutions and advertisers. From mobile to social media platforms, we have many opportunities to build the EDO brand story and change the way marketers think about leveraging the EDO Prewards platform,” said Fagel.

Fagel has more than 15 years of brand marketing, consumer packaged goods and retail experience. Most recently, he was responsible for strategic leadership across the Kmart brand and private-label portfolio with a focus on customer, competitor, digital and social media strategy.

In addition to managing the $1 Billion Kmart-Martha Stewart licensed brand partnership, Fagel also crafted the exit strategy for the Martha Stewart business that ended January 2010.  He also has to his credit multiple industry firsts, including Kmartdesign.com, an interactive website that received numerous awards and was recognized by the marketing industry as a breakthrough approach to attracting new customers to Kmart.  Fagel also led development of the first brand-produced, Spanish-language web series distributed through YouTube, which was recognized as a finalist for Best Web Series of 2011.

An innovator in multi-channel brand development, prior to Sears Holdings, Fagel spent more than 10 years in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry.  Passionate about innovation, Jeff began his career in public relations and then progressed to product management and innovation leadership positions at Gatorade, Frito-Lay and ConAgra.

A graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Sports Marketing and Journalism. He earned his MBA from Loyola University Chicago in marketing strategy and e-commerce.

For more information, contact Jonathan Dyke on 615.297.6080 x130

CONTACT
Jonathan Dyke, Chief Operation Officer
Jonathan.Dyke@edointeractive.com
615.297.6080 x130

About EDO Interactive, Inc.
EDO Interactive is a leader in digital and mobile advertising solutions, leveraging everyday payment networks to connect brands with consumers. EDO’s Prewards® marketing platform employs advanced analytics and loyalty solutions to create value for consumers, brand advertisers and financial institutions.  For more information, please visit www.edointeractive.com.

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NASHVILLE (December 19, 2011) – Mobile payments technology and financial industry expert Steven J. Kietz has joined digital marketing technology innovator EDO Interactive as general manager and executive vice president of Strategic Partnerships, today announced the company’s chief executive officer, Ed Braswell.

EDO Interactive is a leader in digital advertising solutions, leveraging everyday payment networks to connect brands with consumers. EDO’s Prewards® platform enables financial institutions to increase loyalty by rewarding consumers with merchant-funded offers delivered via their existing credit, debit and prepaid cards. The Prewards® platform is the only solution in-market today that delivers a real-time redemption experience to consumers across the web, email and mobile applications.

“Prewards® offers a tremendous opportunity for financial institutions to build their brands and increase loyalty through merchant-funded card-linked offers. Steve will help financial services leaders understand the potential of Prewards® and leverage the platform to create consistent value for their customers,” said Braswell.

“Merchant-funded rewards provide value at every touchpoint, enabling consumers to save money, merchants to maximize the return on their marketing spend, and banks to keep their customers engaged. As for the EDO Prewards platform, no one has better technology and our approach to advertisers is spot on. It’s a best-in-class solution for financial institutions looking for ways to reinvigorate their card portfolios and reward consumer loyalty,” said Kietz.

Previous to EDO, Kietz was Managing Partner of Woodbury Advisors, LLC, a strategic consulting firm focused on the financial services industry. Prior to Woodbury Advisors, Kietz was chief executive officer at Mobile Money Ventures, LLC, builder of mobile financial services applications. The company, a joint venture between Citigroup and SK Telecom, was acquired by Intuit in June 2011.

Kietz brings deep financial industry experience, having served in senior executive roles at both Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase. His management experience includes traditional retail banking, all aspects of credit card and prepaid card marketing, Internet banking, and mobile software creation and distribution. Kietz has also had a successful agency career, serving in senior roles at OgilvyOne, Young & Rubicam and Saatchi & Saatchi Direct. In 2008, Bank Systems and Technology named Kietz to the Elite 8, most innovative bankers of the year.

Kietz holds an MBA in marketing from City University of New York-Baruch College and a BA from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He serves on the board of the Dysautonomia Foundation, and is a strategic advisor to Doughmain.com and Zipmark.

For more information contact Jonathan Dyke.

CONTACTS
Ed Braswell, President/CEO ed.braswell@edointeractive.com 615.281.9421
Jonathan Dyke Jonathan.Dyke@edointeractive.com 615.297.6080, x. 130

About EDO Interactive, Inc. EDO Interactive is a leader in digital and mobile advertising solutions, leveraging everyday payment networks to connect brands with consumers. EDO’s Prewards® marketing platform employs advanced analytics and loyalty solutions to create value for consumers, brand advertisers and financial institutions. For more information, please visit www.edointeractive.com.

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(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.

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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.

“The Prewards® Marketing Platform offers a tremendous opportunity for agencies to help their clients build brands and increase loyalty through immediately redeemable hyper-targeted deals and incentives. Vanessa will help agency leaders from all areas understand the potential of Prewards and leverage the platform to create high-impact, sustainable campaigns that create consistent value for consumers,” said Braswell.

Prior to EDO, Kentris Smith was VP/Director, Marketing at Digitas. Previous to Digitas, Kentris Smith served in senior director positions at Tribal DDB and Alloy Media + Marketing. She holds a masters degree in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University and a bachelor of science in mass communications from Miami University. Kentris Smith also is a member of the executive leadership team for the American Heart Association’s “Go RED for Women” movement.

For more information contact Mark Marinacci at 312.550.6275.

 
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has named digital marketing technology provider EDO Interactive the Early Stage Winner as well as the 2011 DMA Innovation Award winner in the Real Time and Trigger Marketing category for its Prewards Performance Marketing Platform, today announced EDO’s chief executive officer, Ed Braswell.

The DMA Innovation Awards celebrate the advancement in direct and digital marketing technology and the Early Stage award provides recognition of the advancement of direct and digital marketing technology for companies less than three years old. The honors will be presented during DMA2011 Annual Conference & Exhibition, the Global Event for Real-Time Marketers, which will be held October 1-6 in Boston.

“No one knows the multi-channel marketing space better than the DMA and so we’re very gratified by their selection of EDO Prewards and the recognition of the impact that the technology already is having on merchants and the deals and incentives market. We look forward to accepting these awards in person next month in Boston,” said Braswell.

The DMA Innovation Awards, co-sponsored by Google and Canoe Ventures, recognize the innovative advances being made in marketing technology. Innovation can be in the form of new-to-market offers, standing solutions addressing complex business problems, market-leading solutions, or a new approach that improves the efficiency or effectiveness of the programs. Winners are selected by a distinguished panel of judges.

“The proliferation of leading-edge solutions and technologies has made this the toughest year of selections in the three years since the program started,” said Bruce Biegel, managing director, Winterberry Group, and an Innovation Awards judge. “We are extremely proud of the winners, as I know their solutions will be the new game changing moments in marketing technology.”

The DMA2011 Annual Conference & Exhibition The Global Event for Real-Time Marketers is the world’s largest gathering of cross- media/channel marketing professionals. DMA2011, which will be held October 1-6 in Boston, will feature keynote presentations, educational sessions, roundtables, case studies, white papers, and research reports. DMA2011’s exhibit hall will feature hundreds of exhibiting companies. For additional information, or to register for the six-day multichannel marketing event of the year, please visit http://www.dma11.org

For more information about EDO Interactive, contact Mark Marinacci at 312.550.6275.

For Street Fight Magazine, EDO COO Jonathan Dyke explains how new banking technologies have created a powerful alternative to the traditional daily deals model.

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