Smartphone manufacturer ZTE is building up its rewards application in a partnership with mobile rewards platform Perks, incorporating seven apps into the preloaded program on the new Axon Phone.

ZTE’s Axon Phone will come already installed with its rewards app, giving users a wider range of ways in earning points through engaging with various brands and completing tasks. Perks’ Appsaholic SDK program will be able to expand the app to create more experiences for consumers to earn rewards.

“Countless studies show how incentives, rewards, influence and encourage people’s behavior,” said Michael Becker, co-founder at mCordis. “To the extent this partnership encourages people to integrate ZTE mobile devices into their daily lives and to share their behavior information with the marketplace this could provide powerful benefits to all parties.

“ZTE can position their devices to be more than a simple utility for communication and entertainment, but personal, scalable, relevant, individual marketing and services delivery platforms,” he said. “Participating individual ZTE users will be rewarded, with minimal to no additional effort, for sharing their daily activities; they may be financially rewarded and exposed to new services, products and experiences they could get no where else.

“Perk will be able to enhance its offering and the value it can offer to possible promotional providers, ZTE and people as the program matures and the community grows.”

ZTE and Perk
The ZTE and Perk partnership is helpful to both, as it expands its relationships with respective users and broadening each platform.

The rewards app lets users win gift cards and prizes from various retail partners such as Amazon, Panera and 1-800 Flowers. Users can watch video ads, engage with certain apps or play games to acquire points within the app to redeem for the gift cards.

The partnership means greater rewards for customers and coincides with the manufacturer’s new social-media based marketing strategy. Brands, apps and retailers that have partnered with the ZTE Rewards app are likely to build larger user bases following these new introductions.

Both organization hope that the addition of more reward incentives will entice more users to leverage to app and in turn drive more engagement for the partnered clients.

Rewards perks
Perks has its own database of advertisers and publishers, offering consumers points to win rewards and digital goods through a variety of platforms. Both developers are aware of the pull that rewards and loyalty programs can bring to the table for both consumer and advertiser.

Consumers are interested in engaging with brands that offer them something in return such as free goods or gift cards.

GameStop also brought new utility to its PowerUp mobile loyalty application users by enabling them to redeem points to save on fuel at participating Shell gas stations via the Fuel Rewards program (see more).

Also, InterContinental Hotels Group became another hospitality marketer to join forces with Uber, allowing new users to receive a rewards points bonus for signing up and integrating ride-hailing abilities into the IHG mobile application (see more).

“Mobile is everything, we are mobile beings today, swapping between devices over 29 times a day by some reports,” Mr. Becker said. “The majority of Black Friday web tacks was mobile and Walmart reported nearly half of its Internet sales were mobile.

“One study recently reported that 51 percent of millennials use some form of mobile payment,” he said. “For many, mobile is the primary, if not only means to access the Internet.

}Given all this evidence is imperative that this program take a mobile first stance.”

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Commerce Daily