Groan. Reward cards. First your key chain was weighed down with a slew of punch cards. Then you updated to using apps in lieu of rewards cards. But those created a cacophony of beeps as they filled up your email with notifications and offers. Now loyalty to your favorite brands just got easier. Adored in Manchester wraps punch cards, individual company apps and pesky email notifications all into one app that tracks your buying activity at numerous businesses and offers customized rewards.
Launched last November, Adored has quickly lived up to its name, with 15 businesses signed on and over 3,000 users. It has received close to $1 million in venture capital funds, with more opportunities in the works. “It’s about how we can connect the merchant and the consumer in a different way,” says Cory von Wallenstein, who founded the company with Tim Thyne and four others. “One great experience that works everywhere is far more powerful than an individual experience that is one app per brand.”
The Adored app is free to customers and available on both Apple and Android platforms. It does not require any personal information and instead uses beacons at a business to connect anonymously with the bluetooth signals emitted by smart phones that have downloaded the app. Both customers visiting once a month and those currently visiting once a week will see a tailored experience designed to strengthen their relationship and make their experience more memorable. So if you bought a ski lift ticket for a day and are on the chairlift, you’d receive a message in the app that snow is forecast the next day and you can upgrade to a two-day pass for a discount. And engagement is not always about a financial deal. A local café that supports the arts might send a message thanking you for your support after you visit for a drink. To date, Von Wallenstein says 1 in 20 upsell offers made in the app are accepted.
“We use the visits as a measure of behavior and then tailor the experience with the app,” he says, adding Adored's end goal is to provide “kickass automatic loyalty.”
The idea for Adored sprang from the “app fatigue” and “check-in fatigue” that von Wallenstein noticed. There are hundreds of businesses that have an exclusive app for customer loyalty that require either the customer to check in through social media or to give out personal information. When von Wallenstein asked ski resorts the worst thing they did for marketing, he says everyone says it was creating their own app, as nobody uses them.
In mid-February, Adored launched at the Hooksett Welcome Center on Interstate 93. Adored rolled out street teams of college students who approached visitors about downloading the app as well as marketing its app with posters. When people join, they receive a free cup of coffee each time they visit. Adored also recently launched a new feature inviting users to ask friends to download the app. If they do, the person who invited them receives a reward.
While the app is free to consumers, businesses pay between $200 and thousands of dollars a month depending on how many beacons they and how much engagement they do through Adored.
Formerly an executive at Dyn, von Wallenstein chose Manchester because that is where he wants to live and start his business. Adored plans to expand further toward the Boston area; there is now one client in Cambridge, Mass.. “There is tremendous opportunity if we can help and pull people together.”
Adored can be found on Twitter at @getadored or on the website, www.getadored.com.
By Kristin Boelzner of the Young Reporters Project, a partnership between University of NH Manchester and Business NH Magazine. Associate Editor Erika Cohen contributed to this article.
Current Issue - May 2024