NASCAR this past weekend quietly integrated its new loyalty reward program, created by SessionM, into its mobile app. The opt-in program will reward users with points based off of acts like frequent visitation, exploring content or sharing it on social media, signing up for NASCAR’s fantasy game, engaging with brands, checking in at tracks and buying NASCAR merchandise. In exchange, fans can get items such as merchandise, gift cards and the chance to win experiences or the opportunity to donate their points to charity. Fans can visit a specific portion of the app to see the list of opportunities to gain points and, when they have reached a certain achievement or points threshold, receive a notification. SessionM CRO Bill Clifford, whose company originally got in contact with NASCAR through its NFL connections, would not reveal terms of the deal aside from saying both sides “have skin in the game.” Both NASCAR advertisers and SessionM advertisers will be used for the reward program, though to start it will feature just SessionM’s. Clifford said that with some of its previous clients, including the Patriots, SessionM has seen double-digit percentage growth in categories like app launches, time spent on the app, retention of the app and thinks that will translate to this venture. NASCAR VP/Digital Media Colin Smith added, “I think fans will like it. It’s not intrusive and very self explanatory once you get into it. You don’t need a tutorial to use it, so the fans that want to use it will engage very heavily. And those that just want to come in, get the race time and then pop out of the application, they don’t need to interact with it. That’s what we really like about the platform: The flexibility that it gave us.”
