Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group Partners With Epsilon; MSP To Support Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group's Customer Loyalty Programs

Business Wire, Dec 5, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 2000

Leading Marketing Solutions Provider (MSP) Epsilon will team with Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group, a client-based loyalty marketing division of Hallmark, to design and deliver sophisticated loyalty programs to its business clients. Epsilon will build and manage the intelligence-based marketing solution that will enable Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group to target its clients' high value and high potential customers for its innovative online and offline marketing campaigns. Hallmark Loyalty selected Epsilon for its ability to provide a complete database solution spanning advanced analytics and comprehensive database hosting and management, as well as its commitment to adapt its service to the evolving needs of Hallmark Loyalty's clients.

"The Epsilon-Hallmark Loyalty partnership makes sense; both companies are committed to marketing innovation based on a deep understanding of their customers. During this Internet-enabled age of fickle customers and abbreviated relationships, Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group and Epsilon remain focused on the value of retaining customer relationships. The fact that they are collaborating to combine New Economy creativity with proven traditional marketing approaches should ensure effective loyalty marketing solutions for their clients," stated analyst Gareth Herschel of the Gartner Group.

Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group strengthens customer relationships by establishing emotional connections with its clients' brands to generate quantifiable business results, transcending incentive-based marketing campaigns. Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group provides its business clients with turnkey loyalty marketing solutions including marketing consulting, program development, custom creative, production, personalization and mailing services. Hallmark Loyalty develops targeted, personalized communications including cards, letters, welcome kits, e-mail and electronic greetings. For example, Hallmark Loyalty might send an appreciation card or electronic greeting to credit card customers for recent card activation and activity, or to wireless customers one month prior to contract renewal.

Epsilon's solution begins with the development of a powerful new database integrating legacy customer data with prospective customer data for the clients of Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group. Epsilon will perform advanced marketing analytics using the reorganized data, including customer segmentation, profiling, modeling and program tracking and reporting. The technology and analytics provided by Epsilon will help Hallmark Loyalty grow its clients' customer bases, deepen relationships with existing customers and facilitate more profitable communications.

"In our search for a partner, Epsilon emerged as the premier choice because of its marketing and technological expertise and proven history of delivering measurable business results. We were impressed by Epsilon's willingness to be--even insistence upon being--held accountable for the success of its technological implementation and marketing recommendations," stated Scott Robinette, president of Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group.

"We look forward to working with Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group to optimize loyalty solutions for its business clients. Not only do we share deep marketing experience and a customer-centric vision, but we have developed common business relationships with Fortune 500 clients across similar verticals such as retail, telecommunications, financial services and healthcare. Partnering with Hallmark Loyalty allows us to leverage our marketing and technological experience to provide its clients with a seamless and fully scaleable solution," said Corey V. Torrence, president and CEO of Epsilon.

Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group believes the partnership will allow it to create increasingly focused, effective loyalty marketing campaigns for its business customers, and generate further business opportunities for both Hallmark Loyalty and Epsilon as the campaigns produce measurable results.

About Hallmark Cards

Kansas City-based Hallmark is known throughout the world for its greeting cards, related personal expression products, and television's most honored and enduring dramatic series, the "Hallmark Hall of Fame." The company's Hallmark Entertainment, Inc. subsidiary is the world's leading producer of movies and mini-series for television; its Binney & Smith subsidiary, maker of Crayola(R) crayons, is the leading producer of student and professional art materials. Through licensing leadership and joint ventures, Hallmark continues to expand its product formats and distribution avenues. The company, which has wholly owned subsidiaries in 12 countries, publishes products in 30 languages and distributes them in more than 100 countries. In 1999, Hallmark reported consolidated net revenues of $4.2 billion.

About Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group

Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group is full-service provider of relationship marketing solutions for Fortune 500 clients. Services provided include marketing consulting and program development, creative strategy, custom design and copy, customer research, personalization, production, fulfillment and mailing. Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group draws upon Hallmark's rich history of relationship-building and expertise in loyalty initiatives to help clients across a variety of industries improve retention, activation, share of customer and profitability. To contact Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group, email comments to: loyaltysolutions@hallmark.com.