Case Study: Ridley’s R3 Rewards Program

Ridley approached Stamp Loyalty to develop and build a customised loyalty rewards program as a marketing tool to help retain, understand, engage and communicate with its customers.

About Ridley AgriProducts

Ridley AgriProducts have been a cornerstone of Australia’s agriculture for nearly three decades, helping farmers to maintain a healthy and nutritious diet for their livestock nationwide.Having built solid relationships with suppliers, customers and local communities, Ridley caters for farmers of all kinds, on every scale. From the commercial-class pastoral farms of Northern Australia, to the small backyard farming projects of hobbyists, enthusiasts and entrepreneurs.Ridley has grown to become Australia’s leading provider of high performance animal nutrition solutions. You may have come across their numerous products under brand names like Barastoc, Cobber, Rumevite and Primo, available in 3000+ outlets.Ridley provides a one-stop shop solution to keeping livestock well-fed with everything they need for a healthy and nutritious diet; be it dairy cows, poultry, pigs, horses, sheep, fish or dogs.

Why did Ridley want a customised loyalty program?

The challenge Ridley faced was that because its products are sold through various intermediaries, Ridley was unable to directly engage its customers.

How do you communicate with your customers when they’re not coming to you directly for your product?

Whilst Ridley could easily create a large scale advertising program to build awareness of its brands, the problem is that it’s a one-off; using external channels that Ridley has no control over.For the huge costs associated with mass advertising, this strategy still wouldn’t achieve the following goals.

• build stronger relationships with its supply partners, as well as the end consumer

• capture customer data in order to gain valuable insights into consumer behaviour

• communicate directly with the end consumer, for the promotion of new products, events, news and other information

Whatever this platform was, it also needed to:

• enable partner promotions and facilitate opportunities for increased revenue

• be quick and easy to activate and implement across a nationwide network of outlets

Stamp Me worked closely with Ridley to create a customised loyalty program that would suit Ridley’s specific needs. This ultimately became the R3 Loyalty Program.

How does Ridley’s R3 Loyalty Program work?

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Check out this video for a quick overview of how the Ridley R3 loyalty program works.

The R3 rewards program is ingeniously simple.The customer downloads the Ridley app, and every time they purchase a Ridley product in participating supply stores, they earn a stamp (which is stored in the app).Upon collecting five stamps, the customer receives a digital $10 voucher, which they can use on their next Ridley purchase. It’s as simple as that.However, while the R3 program has proven itself to be an effective brand loyalty and customer retention tool. It’s also provided Ridley with a very powerful marketing tool in which it can directly engage its customers in new, creative ways. For example…

1.     The “Barastoc Scratch & Win” Campaign

Over the summer, customers with the Ridley app were sent a text, email or push notification to their phone. It offered them a digital Scratch & Win card with the purchase of any two bags of Barastoc Poultry Feed.

The in-app Scratch & Win card gave away prizes varying from $2 off the next purchase to a $10,000 Visa Gift Card.The objective behind the campaign was to use gamification to create some hype around the product. Scratch & Win is a standard feature of Stamp Me, that allows brands to directly engage their customers with fun, spontaneous prizes.It was also aimed at upselling during this peak period, and encouraging repeat transactions with the “discount off your next purchase” offers.

2.     The “Hardworking Sole” Campaign

Ridley ran a simple (but quite unique) campaign specifically aimed at its dog food customers.Customers who purchased Cobber Working Dog, Puppy, Country Dog or Lazy Aussie Dog products were instructed to take a picture of their receipt and upload it through the app, along with one of their foot on a “hardworking sole” panel on the floor of participating stores.This action automatically entered customers into the draw to win various prizes, including $7,500 worth of vouchers for renowned bootmaker, R.M. Williams.The idea behind this campaign was to build brand awareness in a fun and creative way. Valuable insights and analytics were also gained into the who’s, what’s, when’s and where’s of customers.

3.     The “Spring into Summer Rewards” Promotion

This promotion made good use of Stamp Me’s Stamp Mate feature. Customers who purchased any Ridley product at participating retailers were instructed to open the Ridley app and place their device on the R3 Hub. Doing so meant they’d be eligible for rewards such as $1,000 Gift Card to Barbecues Galore, Bunnings, BCF, JB Hi-Fi and more.The motives behind this promotion were obviously to increase awareness of the R3 rewards program, and to encourage customers to make the switch to Ridley from competing brands.

4.     The “Cobber Keeps Tails Wagging” Promotion

This was another fun little campaign Ridley did for its “Cobber” brand.Customers who purchased two 20kg bags of either Cobber Country Dog or Cobber Lazy Aussie Dog instantly received a Ridley-branded 'windscreen wagger' (essentially, turning your windscreen wiper into a dog tail). Participants were also eligible to win various prizes like customised socks, free dog food or a bobble-head.Ridley hoped that this campaign would highlight that the Cobber brand produces more than just the popular Cobber Working Dog product.It was also created to convert customers, re-engage lapsed customers, get the Country Dog and Lazy Aussie Dog products on more shelves nationwide and increase subscriptions to the R3 loyalty program.

Is your business all about pets? Read how Zoetis created a customised 'Paw Club' pet program with us.

Have Stamp Me’s digital loyalty solutions achieved Ridley’s goals?

Short answer? Yes.Rather than invest in costly mass advertising techniques, Ridley was able to directly target its customers for a fraction of the price.

The Ridley R3 Loyalty Program has achieved the following goals:

• encourage repeat purchases from a growing database of brand advocates

• support Ridley’s partner distributors

• raise awareness of its brands with ad-hoc promotional campaigns

• build intelligence around its customers – this includes what and where the products are bought, by whom and when

• gain additional granular information such as the types of devices its customers use, date and time transactions occur, whether they’re open to receiving push notifications, and so on

• establish a direct communication channel with the end consumer, whereby each customer receives tailored offers and messages based on their

Ridley’s loyalty program illustrates how rewards apps can be used as an unparalleled marketing tool for directly engaging your prime customers and creating an emotional connection with your brand without resorting to mass advertising.