Sweden Post (Posten AB)
and San Francisco-based incentive marketer MyPoints.com Inc. launched a Swedish
version of the Internet direct marketing service MyPoints BonusMail.
The partnership with Sweden’s national post office marks MyPoints.com’s entry
into the international Internet market.
“BonusMail is the first program of its kind to be implemented in Europe,”
said Lars G. Jansson, project manager of Sweden Post. “Traditionally, direct
marketers in Sweden have relied on postal mail, but BonusMail allows them to
reward Swedish consumers to respond to direct advertisements by e-mail.”
BonusMail Sweden has been designed to
serve a population of approximately 9 million adults, more than 50 percent of whom
are already using the Internet, according to a June 1999 report by the
European rating service Sifo.
The program has already enrolled 10,000 members, and aims to reach 100,000
(approximately 3 percent of the country’s Internet users) by the end of 1999, the
companies said. Financial arrangements were not disclosed.
“Our technology and our partner’s position of trust as the country’s post
office makes for a powerful direct marketing combination,” said Steve
Markowitz, Chairman and CEO of MyPoints.com
Sweden Post is a leader in Swedish direct marketing, with a 65 percent market share,
according to the Institute for Advertising and Media Statistics in Sweden.
However, Sweden Post has sought in recent years to strengthen its Internet
presence in advance of diminishing demand for postal mail. It already
operates an e-commerce portal, Torget.
“Sweden Post chose to work with MyPoints.com over other rewards providers
because BonusMail was the only technology that had merged incentives and
e-mail,” Jansson said. “Also, because their program is strictly opt-in it met
our stringent privacy standards.”
MyPoints.com Inc. operates MyPoints, an Internet direct marketing membership
program, as well as other Internet loyalty point programs based on the
company’s technology. MyPoints.com said it serves roughly 2.5 million
consumers and 250 advertisers and partners through its programs.