Blackhawk Network Expands Brand Engagement Opportunities Through Social Platforms

PLEASANTON, Calif., July 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackhawk Network, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAWK), a leading provider of prepaid and financial payment products, today announced individual commercial agreements with Ifeelgoods, Boomerang and Treater, three leading digital loyalty and social reward platforms.  These new partners will be able to leverage Blackhawk's digital platform to deliver e-gift and incentives to consumers – as they want them – creating strong promotions and brand engagement opportunities for Blackhawk's network of retail content partners.

"Customers increasingly turn to social networks to interact with their friends and their favorite brands," said Tim Attinger, Group Vice President at Blackhawk Network.  "Blackhawk's APIs enable its retail partners to instantly deliver digital gifts and offers in these emerging social ecosystems."  

Ifeelgoods, a Facebook Preferred Marketing Developer and a leading digital promotions platform, uses its proprietary algorithms and data to deliver targeted content and relevant offers to consumers based on their personal preferences. Through this new arrangement with Blackhawk, Ifeelgoods can extend offers by leveraging Blackhawk's digital network and deliver rewards and deals to customers which can be easily accessed by consumers in their preferred channels.

"Ifeelgoods is proud to partner with Blackhawk Network to make it easier to offer the most relevant digital gift cards to the end customer. Among the vast network of retailer content that Blackhawk Network has to offer, Ifeelgoods will be able to programmatically offer rewards that consumers love,  allowing advertisers the opportunity to increase ROI," said Suchit Dash, Co-Founder of Ifeelgoods, Inc.

The gifting and rewards platform, Boomerang, works with retailers to help them acquire high-quality customers using free and paid gift card incentives. The company distributes promotional gift cards to target audiences through a network of leading online and mobile publishers. Through Blackhawk, Boomerang can now access an extensive network of preferred brands and deliver incentives to consumers throughout the various points of engagement.

"We were impressed by Blackhawk's forward-thinking platforms," said Boomerang CEO Zachary Smith. "We believe that gift cards can serve as powerful customer acquisition tools for retailers and we're excited to be working with a partner who's spreading this message to its network."

Treater is a mobile, social marketing platform for merchants and brands both to acquire new and to engage existing customers. By enabling merchants and brands to send promotions, rewards and gifts, Treater's platform inspires sharing over social networks and drives ecommerce and in-store traffic.

"With Blackhawk Network's array of nationally recognized brands, Treater customizes reward and incentive programs for businesses," said Jeff Ross, Treater CEO. "We are thrilled to partner with Blackhawk to offer businesses marketing solutions leveraging their network's prepaid products."

About Blackhawk Network
Blackhawk is a leading prepaid payment network utilizing proprietary technology to offer a broad range of gift cards, other prepaid products and payment services in the United States and 18 other countries. Blackhawk recognizes gift card purchasing and retailer driven offers as an increasingly valuable way for consumers to engage and shop with brands across their preferred channels. To learn more about Blackhawk Network's digital services, go to: www.blackhawknetwork.com.

About Ifeelgoods
The Ifeelgoods promotions platform helps marketers incent, convert and reward their audiences with instant fulfillment of desirable gifts as a reward for any trackable action – online, offline or mobile. Ifeelgoods has run promotions in 16 countries and has over 150 clients, including Walmart, Coca-Cola, Universal Pictures, GAP, PayPal, Kimberly-Clark and L'Oreal. Ifeelgoods is a hosted technology platform that manages digital goods promotion offers, redemption, social sharing and customer service. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley with locations in New York and Paris. For more information about Ifeelgoods, please visit www.ifeelgoods.com.

About Boomerang (rang.com)
Boomerang's gifting & rewards network provides online publishers with access to free, revenue-generating gift cards from top advertisers like Gilt City, Shutterfly, ModCloth and Ghirardelli. Using Boomerang's robust white label platforms and APIs, publishers can reward and incentivize users with free gift cards and earn revenue from each redemption. The company also operates rang.com, a consumer social gifting application, and helps email and social media marketers run innovative social gifting campaigns. For more information about Boomerang, please visit www.rang.com

About Treater
Treater is a marketing platform that enables merchants, brands and businesses to engage customers and clients with digital incentives delivered through social and mobile channels.  Treater bridges the "clicks to bricks" gap by sending merchants' and brands' customers and social fans transactional promotions and rewards to their mobile phones in a highly trackable, social and cost-effective way. As a result, Treater enhances brand engagement through sharing, drives customer acquisition and increases sales. For more information about Treater, please visit www.treater.com

SOURCE Blackhawk Network, Inc.