Jersey Mike's Signs Up 650,000th Rewards Member Powered by SkyPop's™ Mobile Marketing Platform

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SkyPop™ announced today that the restaurant chain Jersey Mike's Subs  has signed up the 650,000^th member of its Shore Points Rewards loyalty program powered by SkyPop's mobile marketing platform. The milestone comes just six months following the April launch of the multi-layered loyalty program, which replaced a paper punch card format that was in use in the company's stores nationwide.

"The SkyPop-powered Shore Points Rewards program has far exceeded all expectations, across the board," said Rich Hope, chief marketing officer, Jersey Mike's. "It was incredibly popular from day one because of how easy it is for customers to sign up, and it resulted in an immediate boost to our loyalty program traffic."

Hope reported that, historically, 7% of all Jersey Mike's customers come in three times or more per month. Among those who have signed up for the Shore Points Rewards program, 11% have come into the stores three times or more per month.

SkyPop's program for Jersey Mike's includes a custom mobile app for Android and iPhones, a customizable smartphone ad manager dashboard, cloud-based message and notification delivery, and text messaging capabilities. The program also offers near field communication (NFC) stickers that can be placed on phones and tapped at the store.

Hope said these elements enable Jersey Mike's to offer a robust marketing platform that engages customers. He said that 93% of Shore Points Rewards members (more than 600,000) have opted in to receive text messages with special local offers. Additionally, more than 40,000 smartphone customers are managing their loyalty points and offers, and receiving special in-app ads and offers, through the branded Jersey Mike's Shore Points Rewards mobile app.

A "Double Points Thursdays" program has generated double-to-triple the normal loyalty club traffic during regional store tests, according to Hope, who said plans are underway for a national roll-out of the double points program.

Joe Poletto, managing partner of SkyPop's parent company, Indie Global, said, "Our platform enables Jersey Mike's to monitor usage on a real time basis throughout all its stores and adapt immediately to market-by-market conditions with special offers."

Jersey Mike's use of the SkyPop platform recently won a Breakthrough Award in the category of Customer Engagement Innovation. Presented by Hospitality Technology Magazine, the Breakthrough Awards honor foodservice companies for outstanding achievement in technological innovation.

Scott Scherer, Jersey Mike's chief information officer, said, "This award represents validation of our innovative Shore Points Rewards program. Our IT team was able to seamlessly integrate our own bar code-based loyalty program with the SkyPop NFC mobile marketing platform to create a truly superior customer loyalty and retention product without impacting in-store operations."

About Jersey Mike's

Jersey Mike's, a fast-casual sub sandwich franchise with more than 750 -locations open and under development nationwide, has a long history of community involvement and support. Started at the Jersey Shore in 1956, Jersey Mike's serves authentic East Coast-style subs on fresh baked bread – the same recipe it started with over 50 years ago.  The company's mission is to bring its customers the highest quality, freshest made sub in the industry and give back to the communities in which it operates. A store locator and franchise information for Jersey Mike's can be found at www.jerseymikes.com.

About SkyPop

SkyPop (www.skypop.com) was founded to help retailers more easily drive foot traffic, reward local loyalty and encourage repeat business while giving customers recognition and timely, relevant offers. The company's loyalty marketing platform won a 2012 Breakthrough Award, presented by Hospitality Technology Magazine, in the category of Customer Engagement Innovation.

Led by a team of mobile communications, app development, operations and marketing industry veterans, SkyPop is the first to offer retailers and sports venue owners a powerful mobile marketing platform that supports location-based advertising and loyalty programs and communication with 100% of a retailer's members. With SkyPop, retailers own and manage their membership programs and member data, while SkyPop provides design, development, integration, data exchange and platform operations services.

SkyPop's deep development bench tailors innovative mobile technologies, apps, and marketing services to each client's unique membership program while enabling instant insight into program activity and results. Solutions "powered by SkyPop" feature cloud-based delivery and open-standards-based development work to enable clients to easily evolve as new proximity-based communication exchange technologies emerge.

SkyPop customers include national retailers with 50 to 500 stores, as well as sports franchises and event venues. SkyPop is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

SOURCE SkyPop