FOUR COMPETING FOR PHONE CARD BUSINESS
By Adnews Staff
Four Toronto agencies are vying for the $5-million Loyalty Telecommunications account: Bates O'Rourke, Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising, Genesis Media and the Wolf Group, all based in Toronto. A decision will be made in a month. Within the next few months, Loyalty of Toronto will launch a customer rewards program offering free long-distance phone service as a bonus for patronizing certain businesses. The company will buy long-distance time from phone companies with money that Loyalty's clients divert from their advertising and promotional budgets. These companies will give their customers calling cards that can be used to collect free long-distance minutes with each purchase. They cash in these minutes by dialling a 1-800 number when they want to make a long distance call. Loyalty is a private company owned by a group of Canadian investors.