Bauer Media makes data play for casual readers with launch of Reader Rewards app

Bauer Media is launching what it claims is an Australian first with a consumer loyalty app which will allow it to collect data on casual magazine buyers and send out marketing messages to drive them back into newsagents.

The Reader Rewards scheme is a free smartphone app requiring readers to register their name and email address, as well as some statistics such as their date of birth, and in return receive a point for buying any of Bauer’s 55 titles at participating newsagents, with the ninth magazine free for the customer and the newsagent redeeming the cost from the publisher.

Eugene Varricchio, Bauer Media’s director of operations and retail sales, said the app, set to be launched on June 2, has been launched with two key strategies. One is to drive purchasers back to the newsagencies, and the second is to gather data on consumers.

“The more we understand about consumer shopping behaviour, the more we can target offers to drive them into retail,” he told Mumbrella.