Alliance Data Retail Services, one of the nation's leading providers of branded credit card programs, recently collaborated with Locaid, the world's largest LaaS (Location-as-a-Service) company, to run an opt-in geofence pilot program between Black Friday and New Year's Eve in 2012. Alliance Data provides marketing-driven private label, co-brand and commercial programs in partnership with many of North America's best-known retail brands. During the campaign, Alliance Data Retail Services sent over 20,000 opt-in email invitations to cardholders of select branded credit programs, asking them to join in a text message pilot campaign at Easton Town Center, a Columbus, Ohio, shopping mall. Initial findings from the pilot revealed that participating cardholders spent an average of 24 percent more in a shopping trip triggered by a text message than the average cardholder. Credit sales were up 2.5 percent over projected sales for the pilot period and up 4.9 percent over projected sales for Black Friday alone.

Working with Locaid, Alliance Data implemented a virtual geofence around the mall designed to trigger SMS text messages to participants who had opted in to the campaign when they were within a pre-determined proximity of the mall. These communications engaged participants with various types of messaging and encouraged them to use their store-branded credit cards for a chance to win a shopping spree at one of the participating retailers. The proximity-based messages influenced the purchase decisions of 39 percent of the participants; 37 percent reported the messages influenced them to visit a specific brand. Following the pilot program, 68 percent of participants indicated they would sign up for future location-based SMS campaigns.

"Location is becoming an integral driver of any mobile campaign," said Rip Gerber, president and chief executive officer of Locaid. "The results of this pilot prove that location increases relevancy and in return increases share of wallet for those retailers using it correctly: to create another level of engagement with their best customers."

"We have known that text message campaigns are powerful—but when combined with location and personalization, our retailers can achieve real relevance," says Jim Walz , director of mobile solutions for Alliance Data Retail Services. "These are real, tangible results for the participating retailers. Using location-based text message campaigns can be a strong driver in lifting incremental sales for a brand, but it's essential the right message is sent to the right person at the right time to truly resonate on a one-to-one level."

To find out more about Alliance Data visit www.alliancedata.com.

To find out more about Locaid visit www.loc-aid.com.

ABOUT ALLIANCE DATA RETAIL SERVICES 
Alliance Data Retail Services is one of the nation's leading providers of branded credit card programs, with over 100 marketing-driven private label, co-brand and commercial programs in partnership with many of North America's best-known brands. The business delivers upon its Know More. Sell More.® commitment by leveraging customer insight to drive sales for its client partners. Leveraging deep-rooted retail industry expertise, transaction-based customer data, and advanced analytics, Alliance Data Retail Services creates turnkey, multichannel credit programs designed to help its clients develop stronger, more profitable customer relationships. Alliance Data Retail Services is part of the Alliance Data family of companies. To learn more about Alliance Data Retail Services visit www.alliancedata.com.

ABOUT LOCAID
Locaid is the world's largest Location-as-a-Service (LaaS) company.  Locaid runs "location in the cloud" with the most robust, privacy-protected, multi-source location platform available. Locaid can determine the physical location of your customers, employees or assets, anywhere, instantly.  With a footprint that extends to over 4.8 billion connected devices across the globe, including network mobile location on 404 million mobile devices, Locaid helps enterprises and developers be hyper-local, reduce fraud, increase productivity gain consumer insight, comply with regulations, drive revenue and save lives.  Locaid is the largest and preferred location gateway for the major carriers in the Americas, including AT&T, Bell, Boost Mobile, Cricket, Rogers, Sprint, TELUS, T-Mobile, Verizon and others.  The world's biggest brands, agencies, financial institutions, software companies, enterprise infrastructure providers, mobile app developers and M2M platforms get location from Locaid. Location Matters™.  Locate us at http://www.loc-aid.com, @locaid and www.facebook.com/Locaid.