With capital from the sale of their first company in the gift card industry, Gift Card Market was launched in the Fall of 2024. The first of its kind, this platform gives consumers access to instant gift cards for every local restaurant, spa, salon or service provider nationwide. Yes – every one in the palm of your hand.
In an annual study conducted over the last ten years, consumers rank their trust in categories of business. Results in 2024 found 13% have trust in large national chains, whereas 70% chose local businesses. However, an average of 70% of purchases go to businesses in their communities, while only 5% of gift cards are for those locations.
Gift Card Market is looking to close that gap – in a few taps, you can send an instant, digital gift card via text to a friend hundreds of miles away for their favorite local restaurant. Or schedule an email on your aunt's birthday to her go-to coffee shop. The card is downloaded to their Apple or Google Wallet, and redeemed via tap to pay.
With over 12 million locations and growing, this patent-pending technology is powered by Yelp and Mastercard. Gift Card Market has become the most convenient and accessible way to send personal gifts, and support local.
The challenge was to deliver a new concept to an audience we knew little about from preliminary Yelp research, explain the technological features for convenience, while appealing to the heart strings of supporting local, for a product that (usually) needs an occasion to be purchased, with the rare ability to run promotions – all in a few words.
Our biggest leverage was local restaurants paired with the most consistent occasion – birthdays. Everyone has a favorite local spot, and there are hundreds of thousands of birthdays daily. We ran ad campaigns, testing additional evergreen moments (i.e. thanks for the 6am ride to the airport) against headline keywords to begin the learnings of what was resonating.
Bold, gradient color schemes were used to tie into their logo, but to also stop the scroll and make an impression in your inbox. Establishing trust and awareness at the outset was important, knowing the average cart value for this kind of product would be between $50 and $100 or more.
The creative led with beautiful imagery of food, as well as personas representing gifting occasions. A sans serif font paired with a retro script and hard shadows within the visuals added consistent styling across assets to support that customer relationship. The newsletter list grew quickly through paid and organic traffic, website captures, and giveaways.
Gift Card Market continues to grow in gift card sales each week. The use case is endless, personal, and convenient – with the added bonus of supporting local in a time where small businesses need it most.
