A Leaderboard, Enticing Incentives, and a Strategic Vision Turned Missouri Wines’ Loyalty Program Into 35,000+ Winery Visits

Background

Missouri Wines is a state-run organization that has two purposes – research that contributes to the long-term sustainability of their product and the marketing of the state’s wine industry. One of the key objectives for the five-person marketing team is to drive traffic to wineries in Missouri, and part of that involves a loyalty program that they built years ago. Marketing Director, Annette Alden, explained, “We had a couple iterations in the past that had worked really well, but they were a little bit antiquated.” 

Their previous program involved physical tickets and an actual book that could get stamped, but Alden saw the opportunity to take the program to another level in 2022. She explained, “While those books were really fun and collectible, we all know that those get lost – and there's a lot more work to keep track of those programs. We wanted to launch into more of a digital experience, and we were looking for a partner to help us build an incentive passport program.” That’s when the relationship with Bandwango began. 

“From the get-go, we had a very positive start. It was a more turnkey program, which we appreciated,” she said.

“The support of Bandwango with the onboarding and customer support helped facilitate some of the stuff that we don't have to do internally now – or we don't have to hire a web developer for.”

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The Leaderboard: Utilizing New Technology to Reach Their Goals

A move from a paper passport to a digital loyalty program allowed them new ways to achieve their goal of keeping things fresh. In addition to making their workload easier and creating a smoother experience for wine enthusiasts, it allowed them to be nimble and incorporate Bandwango’s new features into their experience. One in particular has been especially beneficial for them: the leaderboard. 

The leaderboard is shown on the landing page for the Rewards Uncorked program, and users can see where they rank among other passholders. Victoria Washburn is the Marketing Specialist for Missouri Wines and she shared, “We knew our users were super competitive, so that's something that we wanted to put on there to incentivize them to continue to go to wineries.” 

At one point, Missouri Wines had a four-course dinner that was exclusive to passholders that visited 100 wineries. It was a gathering of some of the state’s biggest wine enthusiasts, and Alden said she noticed something at that dinner. It appeared that many of the passholders had become acquainted as they were traversing the state visiting wineries. At the dinner, she realized they were curious about who had crossed the finish line first. "That was one of the reasons why we put the leaderboard up,” she said. “It's so funny that they have a competitive nature for who's the most loyal to Missouri Wines. We love that, and we want to foster that environment.”

Communication is key, and ongoing surveys have allowed them a chance to understand what motivates their users. Bragging rights were important, and the leaderboard feature has allowed them to accomplish that. It is one way that they are able to keep things fresh, which has incentivized users to stay engaged with the program. 

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Keeping Incentives and Rewards Fresh 

Their research has revealed that other incentives beyond bragging rights are important as well. In surveys to their passholders, they ask questions about rewards that may be of interest and then incorporate that feedback into what they’re offering as incentives. Alden shared, “We have found that they like to have a menu of items to select from, because we know that not everyone is motivated by the same types of rewards and experiences.” 

Their loyalty program is set up to allow users to earn points as they check in at each winery up to six times per year. In order to keep their passholders visiting more wineries, though, they need to keep their rewards fresh. They’ve developed a robust collection of sweepstakes and appealing rewards such as pins, t-shirts, hats, a foil cutter, a stainless steel wine saver, and a candle that is made from real Missouri wine bottles. Another big hit was their mystery bags. “Those were very, very popular,” she shared. “That was a fun thing that we’ll look at doing again because of how excited it got our followers.” The organization also had an opportunity for passholders to cash in their points for tickets to an exclusive wine event at the Governor’s Mansion. 

They also have additional rewards that are donated by some Missouri wineries. Some are physical items, but others include experiences such as private wine tastings. The organization provides ad space within the pass for those wineries who are going above and beyond to donate rewards. While some organizations are using this feature as a way to pay for their Bandwango license, Missouri Wines is using it as a creative thank-you to the wineries who are sponsoring the program. “We want them to get the recognition that they deserve for supporting our efforts,” said Alden. 

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Marketing

Marketing the pass is key, and there have been a few initiatives that have proven to be effective ways for Missouri Wines to promote pass sign-ups and engagement. 

• Digital ads: “From time to time, we have done some promotions on Pandora radio or Spotify, but Meta seems to have the biggest return on our investment, as far as ad spend goes,” she said. “We also asked Bandwango to collect certain information upon pass sign-up, so that really helps with our targeting. If we know what typical audiences are signing up, we can match our ad targeting to reflect those.” Bandwango’s reporting dashboard shows Missouri Wines this zero-party data about their passholders. 
• On-site promotional collateral at wineries: Each of the wineries has a window cling and posters that remind people to check in when they’re there. They also have displays that hold cards with information about Rewards Uncorked. These are supplied by Missouri Wines as a way to promote the program onsite. 
• Newsletters: Missouri Wines sends out monthly newsletters that have information on wine events, recipes, craft ideas, and more. It includes a little snippet about Rewards Uncorked, but they also do dedicated newsletters about the loyalty program 4-7 times per year. The majority of passholders opt-in to receive ongoing communication from Missouri Wines, and they are able to retrieve that contact information in their Bandwango reporting data. 
• Events: The organization participates in multiple events throughout the year and utilizes those opportunities to promote their Rewards Uncorked loyalty program while on site. 
• Text messaging: This is a new addition to their marketing plan, and they’ll be using text messaging as a way to encourage passholders to keep visiting more wineries. “It's not something that we had done in the past, but we're setting aside some budget now and looking at how we can leverage those.” 

Timing of marketing campaigns is important also. Missouri Wines knows that Oktoberfest is a busy time of year, and they run ads during those peak times when people will be visiting wineries. However, Alden also shared that her team does extra marketing during slower times of year as well. “January is a pretty slow time, so we run some incentives at that time to keep wineries busy and entice people to go out and visit them.”

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Results

“Just getting rid of all the paper has been a huge game changer,”

she said. “And allowing Bandwango to facilitate some of that customer service has just made it so much easier to manage from our side of things. The analytics and the onboarding have been two of the things that really have made this an easier program to work with than what it had been. Rewards Uncorked is just a portion of what we're doing to educate and promote Missouri wines in general. So when Bandwango can take some of that work off of our plate, that's been immensely helpful.”

In addition to helping with the workload of their staff, the Rewards Uncorked loyalty program has produced some impressive results.

• 7,454 passholders

• 35,431 check ins

• 406 coupons redeemed 

There’s also been some encouraging remarks from their passholders that have served as a way of proving this initiative is supporting their goals. “Our most loyal participants have told us, ‘Wow, I never would have found this off the beaten path winery had the program not made me go there to get the points,” said Alden.

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Missouri Wines’ Five Tips for Creating a Successful Loyalty Rewards Program

The Missouri Wines team has worked with Bandwango for more than four years and has had a positive experience with their Rewards Uncorked loyalty program. The wineries are happy, and so are their wine-loving consumers. Their marketing team has been strategic with their direction and has done an excellent job of keeping their passholders interested and engaged. Alden shared a few of her tips for other beverage associations, or any business, that are looking to develop their own loyalty program. 

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Be clear about what your objectives are for your organization 

“Is it short-term? Is it long-term? Do you just want to get exposure that shows these businesses are out there? Do you want to create a loyal fan base? Do you want repeat visits? Think about what you're actually going after, and then build the experience to curate that.” 

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Think about what motivates your customers

“Different folks like different incentives. So think about that, and your budget. Keep the rewards fresh so that they're always working towards something different. That has been really helpful in keeping that excitement going.”

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Use the leaderboard feature to foster competitiveness 

“They look at it as a personal challenge, and say ‘OK now I need to get out there because so-and-so has more points than me.”

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Use surveys to ask your audience what they want 

“We really think that hearing feedback will help us shape and improve. We want to make sure if we're investing so much of our budget and time into a program, that it's successful and is actually meaningful to the participants and to the wineries.”

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Share data with your stakeholders

"We do an analytics report each quarter, and look at where our visitors are coming from, the demographics, their age, gender, how many new visits are they doing, how many repeat visits have they done, what are they redeeming points for, and see if they are taking advantage of the offers. We compile all of those analytics into a report, and we send it out to the wineries. They're excited when they get those reports and see they are getting some traffic from this. We're sharing that information with our board and marketing committee as well, so that we can make informed decisions to improve it year after year.”

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Conclusion

The digital loyalty program has been a successful transition for Missouri Wines. They’ve continued to evolve their Rewards Uncorked pass as new features have been launched, like the leaderboard, and have found a way to keep their passholders engaged. When asked what’s next, Alden said, “We're looking at doing a second pass next fall, and we're looking at some additional partners beyond wineries, so stay tuned to see.”

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If you’re an association or business that wants to create a loyalty rewards program for your customers, we encourage you to book a demo with our team to learn more.  

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