System and method for administering marketing programs

Abstract

A system and method provide rewards or loyalty incentives to transaction account customers. The system includes a computing platform comprising application programming interfaces that enable users to define marketing programs. The system thus enables an efficient, automated and extensible platform for creating, managing and executing rewards and other marketing related programs.

1 . An automated marketing system, comprising:
 a network interface communicating with a memory;   the memory communicating with a processor for automated marketing, wherein the memory stores a computer program and a plurality of application programming interfaces (APIs); and   the processor, when executing the computer program, performs operations comprising:
 receiving, by the processor and via an offer setup API, a first offer setup request, wherein the offer setup API is from the plurality of APIs; 
 parsing, by the processor, the offer set up request into a plurality of first offer parameters; 
 validating, by the processor, at least one of the offer setup request and the first offer parameters; 
 notifying, by the processor and in response to the validating, a first approver of the offer setup request; 
 receiving, by the processor and from the first approver, an approval of the offer set up request; 
 saving, by the processor and to the memory, a first offer comprising the first offer parameters, wherein the first offer is associated with a first marketing program; and 
 determining, by the processor, a first population comprising a plurality of transaction accounts that comply with first offer criteria, wherein the first offer parameters comprise the first offer criteria. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the first offer criteria comprise at least one of a customer identifier, a customer demographic, a customer location, spend frequency, a spend threshold, a spend history, an award cap, a tiered reward requirement, a product identifier, a product category, a stock-keeping unit (SKU), a universal product code (UPC), a QR code, a merchant, a merchant type, an industry, a merchant location. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , the operations further comprising receiving, via an enrollment API and from the plurality of APIs, a first enrollment setup-request. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 3 , the operations further comprising validating the first enrollment setup-request, wherein the validating comprises determining that the first enrollment setup request is associated with at least one of the first offer and a second offer. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , the operations further comprising receiving an approval of the first enrollment setup-request from at least one of the first approver and a second approver. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 4 , the operations further comprising parsing the first enrollment setup request into first enrollment parameters and saving the first offer enrollment parameters to the memory. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 6 , the operations further comprising, receiving a first offer acceptance from a first user associated with a first transaction account from the first population. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the first user receives a first offer solicitation via at least one of an email message, a link, a uniform resource locator (URL), a customized web page, a web page hosted by the automated marketing system, a social networking web site, an app, a text message and a mobile application. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the first offer solicitation is defined by the first enrollment parameters. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 3 , wherein the first enrollment parameters comprise at least one of a partner enrollment process, instructions for generating a hosted enrollment page, a referral uniform resource locator (URL), a user id, a password, a passcode, an enrollment timeframe, and an enrollment cap, and enrollee tracking data requirements. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the enrollee tracking data requirements define enrollment tracking data comprising at least one of user id, email address, password, product code, and transaction location. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 7 , the operations further comprising receiving, via a transaction API, a data sharing opt-in associated with the first transaction account, wherein the data sharing opt-in defines data sharing transactions for which the first user authorizes personal data sharing. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 12 , the operations further comprising obtaining transaction notification data for transaction authorization request associated with the first transaction account and determining that the transaction authorization request qualifies as a data sharing transaction. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , the operations further comprising sending shared data to at least one of a web site, a social networking site, a social networking application, a third party, an individual, and a social networking account of a friend, wherein the shared data is associated with the transaction authorization request. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 14 , the operations further comprising receiving, via a trigger API, a triggered event request defining triggered alert parameters for triggered offer alerts, wherein the triggered event parameters define offer alerts based upon at least one of: a number of enrollments for an offer; a number of authorization requests associated with an offer, a number of authorization requests associated with a transaction account, an award cap, an award threshold, a tiered reward requirement, a product identifier, a product category, a stock-keeping unit (SKU), a QR code, a universal product code (UPC), a merchant, a merchant type, an industry, a merchant location, and an marketing program result. 
     
     
         16 . The system of  claim 14 , the operations further comprising receiving, via a trigger API, a triggered event request defining triggered alert parameters for triggered customer alerts, wherein the triggered event parameters define customer alerts based upon at least one of: offer progress, program progress, authorization requests associated with an offer, spend associated with an offer, spend associated with a program, spend associated with a merchant, a cross promotion, a second offer, an offer achievement and a customized message. 
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
 receiving, via a partner registration API, a registration request from a partner user;   generating, based upon the registration request, a partner user ID and a security key, wherein the securing key enables the partner user to submit requests via the plurality of APIs; and,   saving a partner profile based upon the registration request;   sending a message to the partner user comprising at least one of the partner user ID and the security key.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
 receiving, via a reporting API, a reporting request defining reporting parameters for reports based upon at least one of program metrics, offer metrics, average spend, discounts awarded, cumulative discount percentage, enrollment metrics, report format, report frequency, report delivery method and number of qualifying transactions; and   generating a report based upon the reporting parameters.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 1 , the operations further comprising:
 receiving, from a requestor and via a marketing channel API, a marketing channel request for a list of at least one of marketing channels, offers and programs;   sending, via the marketing channel API, the list to the requestor associated with the marketing channel request, wherein the list comprises at least one of a merchant name, program details, offer details, offer terms and conditions, an advertisement, a logo and a merchant location;   receiving, via the marketing channel API, a marketing channel opt-in request; and   associating the requestor with at least one of a marketing channel, a program and an offer.   
     
     
         20 . The system of  claim 7 , the operations further comprising:
 monitoring, a transaction of the first transaction account;   comparing, by the computer based system, the transaction with reward criteria, wherein the first offer parameters comprise the reward criteria; and   determining a reward based the transaction complying the reward criteria.   
     
     
         21 . The system of  claim 20 , the operations further comprising applying the reward to the first transaction account, wherein the applying comprises at least one of crediting the first transaction account, crediting a second transaction account, crediting a rewards account associated with the first transaction account, crediting a social networking currency and sending reward data to a third party, wherein the third party applies the reward based upon the reward data. 
     
     
         22 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising determining a second population based on real time spend data, wherein the second population comprises a second plurality of transaction accounts that comply with first offer criteria and automatically initiating first offer solicitations to the second population. 
     
     
         23 . A computer based method, comprising:
 receiving, by a marketing promotions computer via an offer setup API, a first offer setup request, wherein the offer setup API is from the plurality of APIs;   parsing, by the computer, the offer set up request into a plurality of first offer parameters;   validating, by the computer, at least one of the offer setup request and the first offer parameters;   notifying, by the computer and in response to the validating, a first approver of the offer setup request;   receiving, by the computer and from the first approver, an approval of the offer set up request;   saving, by the computer and to the memory, a first offer comprising the first offer parameters, wherein the first offer is associated with a first marketing program; and   determining, by the computer, a first population comprising a plurality of transaction accounts that comply with first offer criteria, wherein the first offer parameters comprise the first offer criteria.   
     
     
         24 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a marketing promotions computer, causes the computer perform a operations comprising:
 receiving, by the computer via an offer setup API, a first offer setup request, wherein the offer setup API is from the plurality of APIs;   parsing, by the computer, the offer set up request into a plurality of first offer parameters;   validating, by the computer, at least one of the offer setup request and the first offer parameters;   notifying, by the computer and in response to the validating, a first approver of the offer setup request;   receiving, by the computer and from the first approver, an approval of the offer set up request;   saving, by the computer and to the memory, a first offer comprising the first offer parameters, wherein the first offer is associated with a first marketing program; and   determining, by the computer, a first population comprising a plurality of transaction accounts that comply with first offer criteria, wherein the first offer parameters comprise the first offer criteria.