About Us

Laser Focus World is an industry bedrock—first published in 1965 and still going strong. We publish original articles about cutting-edge advances in lasers, optics, photonics, sensors, and quantum technologies, as well as test and measurement, and the shift currently underway to usher in the photonic integrated circuits, optical interconnects, and copackaged electronics and photonics to deliver the speed and efficiency essential for data centers of the future.

Our 80,000 qualified print subscribers—and 130,000 12-month engaged online audience—trust us to dive in and provide original journalism you won’t find elsewhere covering key emerging areas such as laser-driven inertial confinement fusion, lasers in space, integrated photonics, chipscale lasers, LiDAR, metasurfaces, high-energy laser weaponry, photonic crystals, and quantum computing/sensors/communications. We cover the innovations driving these markets.

Laser Focus World is part of Endeavor Business Media, a division of EndeavorB2B.

Laser Focus World Membership

Never miss any articles, videos, podcasts, or webinars by signing up for membership access to Laser Focus World online. You can manage your preferences all in one place—and provide our editorial team with your valued feedback.

Magazine Subscription

Can you subscribe to receive our print issue for free? Yes, you sure can!

Newsletter Subscription

A Laser Focus World newsletter subscription is free to qualified professionals:

The Daily Beam

Showcases the newest content from Laser Focus World, including photonics- and optics-based applications, components, research, and trends. (Daily)

Product Watch

The latest in products within the photonics industry. (9x per year)

Bio & Life Sciences Product Watch

The latest in products within the biophotonics industry. (4x per year)

Laser Processing Product Watch

The latest in products within the laser processing industry. (3x per year)

Get Published!

If you’d like to write an article for us, reach out with a short pitch to Sally Cole Johnson: [email protected]. We love to hear from you.

Photonics Hot List

Laser Focus World produces a video newscast that gives a peek into what’s happening in the world of photonics.

Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast

Following the Photons: A Photonics Podcast dives deep into the fascinating world of photonics. Our weekly episodes feature interviews and discussions with industry and research experts, providing valuable perspectives on the issues, technologies, and trends shaping the photonics community.

Social Media

Bluesky • Facebook • Instagram • LinkedIn • YouTube

Meet the Laser Focus World Team

Editorial

Sales

Editorial Advisory Board

  • Professor Andrea M. Armani, University of Southern California
  • Ruti Ben-Shlomi, Ph.D., LightSolver
  • James Butler, Ph.D., Hamamatsu
  • Natalie Fardian-Melamed, Ph.D., Columbia University
  • Justin Sigley, Ph.D., AmeriCOM
  • Professor Birgit Stiller, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, and Leibniz University of Hannover
  • Professor Stephen Sweeney, University of Glasgow
  • Mohan Wang, Ph.D., University of Oxford
  • Professor Xuchen Wang, Harbin Engineering University
  • Professor Stefan Witte, Delft University of Technology
My Watchlist
Indicators
Industrial Laser Index
Markets
Stocks
ETFs
Tools
Markets:
Overview
News
Currencies
International
Treasuries

Blackhawk Network (BHN) and Extole Join Forces to Power Next Generation Referral Marketing Capabilities and Rewards

By: via Business Wire

As marketers increasingly seek out ways to optimize budgets, capture market share and drive growth, digital referral rewards offer simple, cost-effective solutions for financial services, retail and consumer service organizations.

Consumer companies are struggling to grow in the face of mounting customer acquisition costs, and the most promising source of new buyers is their own existing customer base. To address this growing market demand for refer-a-friend solutions that accelerate customer acquisition, Blackhawk Network (BHN), a global branded payments provider, is now partnered with Extole, a customer engagement technology company. Through the partnership, BHN now empowers its clients to drive increased customer acquisition by delivering automated, near-real-time digital rewards and incentives to their customers for referring friends or completing value-generating activities through Extole’s platform. These rewards can easily integrate into mobile wallets and help meet increasing consumer preferences for on-the-go payment and reward options.

Extole-powered marketing programs, including refer-a-friend, ambassador, and welcome programs, help businesses combat skyrocketing paid media costs by nurturing two-way relationships with existing customers—driving affinity and ongoing engagement while also encouraging loyal customers to support new customer acquisition, awareness, and activation efforts.

“Your customer base is an untapped army of advocates waiting to be activated,” said Matthew Roche, CEO at Extole. “Social media traffic is reliable but shockingly expensive, while customer-led growth has lower acquisition cost and higher long-term value. Our data has shown that friend referrals drive significantly more ROI than other marketing channels with 3 to 6 times higher conversion rates, 115% higher spend and 125% higher lifetime value. BHN can delight its clients’ customers by providing a huge range of rewards delivered quickly and conveniently, building loyalty for brands. We appreciate BHN’s leadership and expertise in the rewards industry; its breadth of digital prepaid and gift card options enable more meaningful connections between its partner brands and their customers, no matter where they are.”

With lower customer acquisition costs than other traditional marketing tactics, BHN’s new refer-a-friend capabilities offer customizable, turnkey referral marketing program templates, flexible integration options and exceptional service. Optimal ROI is possible in 90 days or less, and thanks to the seamless integration between BHN’s solutions portfolio and Extole’s platform, users do not have to hassle with traditionally cumbersome processes to manually issue payouts since the process is fully automated in near-real-time.

“People want the ability to choose their own reward and have it quickly delivered no matter where they are. Our research1 found that one reward in particular stands out above the rest: 63% of respondents want digital rewards in the form of prepaid cards or egifts,” said Bill Warshauer, Vice President, North America Incentives at BHN. “Modern, secure, evolving SaaS solutions can help businesses by simplifying business operations to deliver more powerful marketing applications. Our compelling rewards and incentives help brands in those endeavors, and now, through our partnership with Extole, we can help marketers drive awareness, acquisition and retention through engagement programs targeted to existing customers. Our collaboration empowers brands to identify, activate and motivate engagement with existing customers at a holistic level—creating bigger deals, happier customers and supercharged growth in the long run.”

BHN’s robust rewards solutions, now seamlessly integrated with Extole’s platform, offer a highly disciplined go-to-market approach that can help retailers, financial services (e.g., banks, credit unions) and consumer services companies (e.g., travel, hospitality) reshape the way they approach customers and increase their lifetime value.

About Blackhawk Network (BHN)

Blackhawk Network (BHN) is the leader in global branded payment technologies. We strengthen relationships between brands and their customers, employees, and partners by transforming transactions into connections. BHN’s portfolio includes Gift Card & eGift products, promotions and distribution that grow revenue faster; Rewards & Incentives that build loyalty and acquisition and are integrated into today’s leading platforms; and Payments that enable businesses and customers to access and disburse funds in convenient and innovative ways. BHN’s network spans across the globe with over 400,000 consumer touchpoints. Learn more at BHN.com.

About Extole

Extole is the Customer-led Growth platform. With Extole, marketers fight skyrocketing paid media costs by turning their customers into a primary source for acquisition, awareness, and activation. With Extole’s SaaS platform and expert services, marketers rapidly launch programs such as refer-a-friend, ambassador, and welcome programs, personalized to important behavioral segments. Customer-Led Growth drives revenue, lowers customer acquisition cost, and generates an important source of first-party data. To date, Extole boasts 500+ customers at leading enterprise brands, 30+B events per day via 1.4B consumer relationships. Learn more at Extole.com.

1 The Global State of the Union Insights study was conducted on behalf of Blackhawk Network (BHN) in March 2022. The sample size included 2,165 respondents ages 18+.

Contacts

More News

View More
How IREN is Building an AI Powerhouse on a Bitcoin Foundation
Via MarketBeat
Topics Artificial Intelligence Supply Chain
Tickers IREN NVDA
3 Healthcare Stocks Using AI to Drive Growth
Via MarketBeat
Topics Artificial Intelligence
Tickers BSX HIMS TEM
Get Exposure to Millennials' Purchasing Power With This ETF
Via MarketBeat
Topics ETFs
Tickers AAPL DASH DIS GOOGL META MILN
Why a $4.5 Billion Smart Debt Move Is Fueling Dell’s AI Ambitions
Via MarketBeat
Topics Artificial Intelligence
Tickers DELL
Beam Global Gets Buy Rating With 101% Upside Potential
Via MarketBeat
Topics Intellectual Property
Tickers BEEM
Stock Quote API & Stock News API supplied by www.cloudquote.io
Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes.
By accessing this page, you agree to the following
Privacy Policy and Terms Of Service.