Justin Barrie, Co-founder of Perkler - Interview

Perkler™ is a collaboration between two old mates (co-founders Justin Barrie and Dan Bisa) who shared one problem – they were finding it difficult to get value from their loyalty and rewards programs.

Perkler™ is the online community for loyalty perks and the people who love them!

So, diving straight in to our interview, Justin thanks so much for taking the time to answer our questions. I know our visitors will be really interested to learn more about Perkler and what you guys are up to.

Gary Griffiths (GG): So what is Perkler all about?

Justin Barrie (JB): The Perkler offering is really about unleashing the potential of the loyalty market - empty all the cards from your wallet into Perkler. Always be aware of new loyalty perks. Take everything to the counter on your mobile. By doing this for consumers we then allow retailers to get greater ROI on their programs by interacting with our community.

GG: How did you guys come up with the idea for Perkler?

JB: It sounds like a cliche but Dan and I were having a coffee and I was whining about not getting full value from my Frequent Flyer program as I was travelling a lot and had to work too hard to find out where my hire car discounts were. I had to visit multiple sites in order to ascertain the best deal. We agreed that we should fix this situation. We decided to definitely take on the job of building Perkler when Dan had an awful experience with his credit card program. He needed up buying an iPod he could have used points for simply because their site was terrible to navigate.

GG: You went to the Incentive Show 2009 in Sydney recently. What did you guys get up to there?

JB: The Incentive Show was really interesting. Essentially it is a trade show and we'd just launched so it was good for us to be seen to be part of the industry and be part of a show like that. We made a number of really good contacts with potential technical partners and also potential clients. Another interesting aspect was the fact that they asked to present a seminar on loyalty from our perspective. The presentation was called Drowning Under the Loyalty Wave - a consumer perspective. To stand up at a Show and tell the Trade that you think the market is broken was quite an experience! Amazingly we got some great contacts out of being frank and forward with people.

GG: Perkler was recently featured on A Current Affair. How did you get this great PR?

JB: We engaged a fantastic PR agency in Sydney - Magnum PR to lead our campaign. Perkler has a great message to sell - people using their existing entitlements to save money when times are tough, but we still needed some expert guidance to get us the exposure we've ended up with. As well as ACA we've been on Today, in national newspapers and on radio - all because of a great strategy by Magnum and great product by us. The thing that probably got us over the line was commissioning a survey of consumers about their current experience. This was a great suggestion by Magnum and not only validated our own internal view, but gave journalists some solid, credible stats to work with, and they love that kind of stuff.

GG: What other marketing tactics have you used for Perkler?

JB: We not only have a formal PR strategy but employ detailed SEO strategies. Our forum comments make our content dynamic and gets us great results in Google searches. A couple of weeks ago 20% of our referral traffic came from people searching for the Myer Prospectus! We also have engaged in paid SEM campaigns via facebook and some blog networks. These have been less successful than we anticipated so I think SEO is really the way to go. Our final marketing tactic is to make as much content as possible viral. Members of the site receive a weekly email and we have competitions and offers in there to encourage distribution of the email to friends. We also maintain a Facebook group, Slideshare account and Ning Community to keep our content dynamic.

GG: Have you got any business or marketing 'lessons learnt' you're willing share with our readers?

JB: Talk to as many people as possible as early as possible! We started being very worried about people copying us or getting first move advantage, but in the end the more we've talked to people about our idea the better it has become (and the more lasting relationships we've built).

GG: Finally, what do you enjoy most about being in business?

JB: Taking an idea to market has been an exhausting but exhilarating experience. We've spent two years building a marketplace and the sense of satisfaction is enormous. Having said that, it's a business not a charity, so the thing I'm enjoying most at the moment is signing clients. The service is free for consumers but retailers pay us to be part of the community, and in 8 weeks we've signed 9 clients including great brands like Priceline and Choice Hotels. Seeing a purchase order arrive is my most enjoyable activity at the moment!

GG: Justin Barrie, thanks so much for your time today. All the best with Perkler and your exciting journey!


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