Accolades for innovative fuel discount scheme

30 August 2013

Accolades for innovative fuel discount scheme

AA Smartfuel is on a path towards creating a new discount currency in New Zealand.

At the TVNZ NZ Marketing Awards held in Auckland last night, AA Smartfuel picked up the Industry Consumer Products and Service Category for its acquisition strategy during the 2012/13 financial year.

AA Smartfuel provides cardholders with the ability to earn fuel discounts in the form of cents off per litre by swiping their card with participating retailers. Each swipe adds to the discount which can be redeemed at BP and Caltex fuel outlets when customers buy fuel.

Discounts can be collected by customers of more than 1900 retail outlets throughout New Zealand and the programme is welcoming about 20,000 new cardholders each month.

Managing Director Scott Fitchett says the award is recognition of a lot of work in a short space of time.

“We started Smartfuel with an idea in Palmerston North at the end of 2010 and the concept did extremely well there. Then we partnered with the AA and launched to the whole of New Zealand a year later with 1000 retailers on board,” Mr Fitchett says.

“The challenge for us was growing the retailer village encouraging outlets to capitalise on our rapidly expanding cardholder base. We’ve nearly doubled the number of retailers in that time.”

AA Smartfuel has delivered more than $85 million worth of fuel savings to its cardholder base of 1.6 million in New Zealand.

“Our programme works because it encourages continued participation from consumers by rewarding them for spending with participating retailers.

“Generally the qualifying spends to earn fuel discounts with AA Smartfuel are less than the supermarkets and the rewards are greater, which makes it more accessible to Kiwis on a tight budget,” Mr Fitchett says.

Mr Fitchett says the small AA Smartfuel team needed to be smart in order to competitive in the fuel discount game.

“People get fed up with rewards programmes which ensure they have bulging wallets to store loyalty cards, but no real measurable benefits as a result. Our challenge was to help minimise that clutter and provide something meaningful that people can bank on with tangible, real time fuel discounts – it’s like building a better mousetrap.”

Meanwhile retailers can build customer loyalty by offering fuel discounts in different ways to acquire customers, drive sales and retention. Retailers can also mine the data acquired by AA Smartfuel during the transactions to strengthening their offering and hone their approach.

For more information visit www.aasmartfuel.co.nz

ENDS

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