This document describes the evolution of card-linked offers (CLOs) and introduces a new coalition loyalty-based CLO model. Traditional CLOs provided single-use discounts but did not build long-term loyalty. The new model allows customers to earn rewards from multiple merchants that aggregate into a common currency to redeem for fuel savings, encouraging repeat purchases. Merchants benefit from more customer data and marketing opportunities through a broader coalition loyalty program.

1. Fuel Rewards®
Program Coalition Loyalty-Based Card-Linked Offers: A New Digital Era for Loyalty Marketing
Coalition Loyalty-Based
Card-Linked Offers:
A New Digital Era for Loyalty Marketing
Strengthening the Appeal of Card-Linked Offers
with Frequent, Reward-Earning Opportunities
in a Growing & Broad Coalition Loyalty Network
by Brandon Logsdon
President & Chief Executive Officer,
Fuel Rewards®
program
fuelrewards.com
Copyright 2015 Excentus Corporation. Fuel Rewards®
is a registered trademark
of Excentus Corporation. GROUPON is a registered trademark of Groupon, Inc.
Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.

2. Fuel Rewards®
Program Coalition Loyalty-Based Card-Linked Offers: A New Digital Era for Loyalty Marketing
Card-linked offers (CLOs) have paved the way for the
convergence of payment transactions with coupon/discount
delivery. CLOs are bringing more customers through
the doors of participating merchants and are keeping
interest high in credit/debit cards that provide rewards,
points, daily deals, cash-back savings or discounts.
But CLOs are ready for a new wave of participating merchants
who not only want to deliver coupons and discounts, but also
want more frequent and steady customers, more data-driven
insights into their customers’ transactions, higher sales and
greater ownership of the loyalty they often share with the
financial institutions that issue the cards.
CLOs are also facing a new generation of mobile-minded
consumers who want their CLO credit and debit cards to
earn valuable rewards from a larger, multi-merchant network
of stores and brands. The coalition loyalty-based CLO will
give merchants a larger stake in the loyalty process, support
proactive merchant-specific marketing opportunities, embrace
the behaviors and desires of mobile-empowered customers for
multiple earning opportunities, and deliver universal value in
rewards that can be redeemed in a nationwide coalition loyalty
program as savings on fuel at the pump.
The Fuel Rewards®
program outlines how this new CLO platform
will play out to the benefit of merchants and consumers across
the nation.
2

3. Fuel Rewards®
Program Coalition Loyalty-Based Card-Linked Offers: A New Digital Era for Loyalty Marketing 3
Card-Linked Offers (CLOs) have long promised to take advantage
of the power of digital marketing and the growing volume of data
about consumers’ preferences and transactions. CLOs have been
heavily promoted as the Next Big Thing for driving more traffic
to specific merchants’ brick-and-mortar locations, boosting sales
and deepening customer loyalty in the same way that affiliate
marketing programs boosted sales for online merchants over
the last 15 years.
But CLOs haven’t quite delivered on their promises.
The driving force behind CLOs has always been a straightforward
proposition: credit/debit cards that feature merchant-funded
discounts, cash back, points and rewards delivered with each
swipe of a consumer’s credit or debit card for each completed
offer. Traditional CLOs have a lot in common with Groupon and
other daily-deal platforms in which consumers select or pre-
pay for specific offers from merchants. In both CLO and daily
deal programs, customers have to proactively search for the
right offers, and each discount or reward is limited to a single
transaction at a specific merchant.
To date, merchant-funded CLOs have proven their ability to deliver
short-term sales and new customers. But like the daily deal, CLOs
have not built the kind of long-term, tangible and sustainable loyalty
that generates sales — increased and ongoing — from customers
who visit frequently and have developed a true connection with
the merchant. Momentum behind CLO models began to increase
in 2010, when Facebook became the most popular social media
destination in the world and online retail sales began to equal
Card-Linked Offers:
The Evolution of a Loyalty Product
brick-and-mortar sales. CLOs began to take advantage of new
data available from an increasingly digital, social and mobile
retail marketplace. These newer CLOs allowed consumers to
earn discounts from a wider variety of shopping experiences,
and tactics like email marketing created more personalized
offers and communications. As CLOs have evolved to these
digitally-powered products, however, they have nonetheless
left participating merchants wanting more.
A lot more, including:
More repeat business and
frequency from the new
customers they acquire
More re-engagement and
spending from lapsed or
infrequent customers
More real-time
opportunities to interact
with their own customers
More reasonable commission
fees, and more proof that
CLOs attract more customers
and generate more sales
More ownership of the brand
loyalty they must share with
the issuing debit and credit
card firms
More business and deeper
brand loyalty from existing
customers
More access to rich
transactional data from
shoppers’ activities
Consumers, the second
half of the CLO equation,
want their spending
to result in discounts
and/or rewards that
have everyday value
and can be redeemed
frequently and regularly.
Additionally, they
want opportunities to
earn from a network
of participating
merchants rather than
compartmentalizing
their earnings with a
single merchant.

4. Fuel Rewards®
Program Coalition Loyalty-Based Card-Linked Offers: A New Digital Era for Loyalty Marketing 4
The Limitation of CLOs Today
As currently and commonly used, CLOs have certain advantages
and drawbacks. The upside of CLOs is that each card-linked
transaction is transparent to the merchant, who is not responsible
for IT or other technology implementations. A financial institution
(typically the issuer of the credit/debit card) facilitates the CLO,
with the capability to capture detailed transactional data.
The disadvantage for merchants is that the financial institution
controls both the customer relationship and the data. As a result,
the merchant does not have access to detailed customer infor-
mation or transactional data, and usually cannot communicate
savings opportunities or benefits directly to customers before or
at the point-of-sale. Financial institutions usually wait to notify
customers about reward balances until their next credit card
statement — anywhere from 45 to 60 days after the customer
has actually earned (and probably forgotten about) the purchase
and ensuing rewards. This delayed-offer system stands in stark
contrast to today’s mobile-reliant customers, who increasingly
expect an instant response or redemption notification on their
smartphone or mobile device.
Passive and Ineffective Marketing
In addition, customers participating in today’s most common
CLO programs must proactively “opt in” to receive select offers
and discounts, or they must intentionally search for relevant
offers. Because offers aren’t targeted or pushed to them based
on preference, this current form of CLO marketing becomes
passive and ineffective, creating a potential breakdown in participa-
tion for customers who may not receive optimal communications,
may not understand the program, or do not take the time to
actively read and choose offers.
Although CLOs do show results, the fact they are primarily
“digital coupons” offering a discount on a single transaction
hinders the ability to promote long-term loyalty to merchants,
making it even more challenging to determine whether the
earned customer loyalty is directed more heavily to the financial
institution or to the merchants.
Moreover, the growth of brand-discounting daily specials
has exacerbated a retail industry problem, eroding margins
while enhancing loyalty to third-party dealmakers rather than
deepening loyalty to the participating merchants themselves.
The opportunity exists, however, to shift these CLOs in a new
direction: one that is broader, more versatile and influential,
and maintains ease of adoption and use. This new loyalty and
coalition-based CLO delivers long-term sustainable loyalty to
merchants, and everyday-value, frequently earned rewards to
their customers.
Benefits
Customer participation
Merchant-directed reward levels
Reward currency
Earn structure
Reward immediacy
Customer data stream
Offline promotion
Curated Customer Offers/Content
Push Marketing
Traditional CLO
Opt-in
Unavailable or passive
Multiple currencies; partner-specific
Individual earn buckets
7-60 days
Partial access
Print only
Partially available (pull)
Limited, sometimes untargeted
Coalition Loyalty CLO
Always available
Available and targeted
Universal currency/fuel savings
Aggregate earn
<5 days
Insightful aggregate data
Print, brick and mortar
Always on
Frequent, geo- and transaction-targeted

5. Fuel Rewards®
Program Coalition Loyalty-Based Card-Linked Offers: A New Digital Era for Loyalty Marketing 5
What today’s consumers want is a reinvented CLO-based program
that allows them to earn frequent, value-laden rewards from
everyday purchases — without having to put another loyalty
card on a key chain. In addition, consumers want to earn rewards
from a broad network of merchants, as well as the ability to
redeem their rewards regularly and quickly. Merchants, too, are
demanding increased frequency, sales, and effectiveness of their
loyalty marketing programs, which include CLO-driven offers.
Combined, consumers’ and merchants’ expectations set the
stage for the roll-out and adoption of these next-phase CLOs,
characterized by an updated, multi-faced, more utilitarian
loyalty-driven format. These coalition loyalty-based CLOs break
the one-card/one-merchant mold by allowing loyalty program
members to connect their credit and debit cards to a broader
merchant network. Instead of earning discounts and rewards
with a single merchant, consumers can earn rewards cumulatively
and from a broad network of merchants within a coalition
loyalty program.
Various credit/debit card purchases made throughout any given
day, week or month — on apparel, dining, electronics, home
improvement items, sporting goods, personal care items and
more – all have the potential to earn rewards, and the rewards
accumulate quickly and frequently within this new coalition
loyalty-based CLO.
The benefits for merchants are clear. They gain an affiliation
with a broad merchant network and its equally broad customer
base. They gain the ability to offer universally appealing, easily
earned and easily redeemed rewards that touch every major
consumer demographic. In this new coalition loyalty-based
CLO environment, anonymized aggregate customer data is
captured, analyzed and shared with merchants in near real-time,
a competitive advantage for participating merchants that are
eager to track and optimize their offers, fine-tune marketing
strategies, enhance mobile marketing initiatives and boost
customer loyalty.
Moreover, participating merchants can deliver a common
reward that is fundamentally, regularly and universally valuable
to consumers in the form of everyday savings on fuel – a value
they can enjoy by watching the price roll back each time they fill
up at the pump.
A New, Results-Driven Format:
Coalition Loyalty-Based CLOs

6. Fuel Rewards®
Program Coalition Loyalty-Based Card-Linked Offers: A New Digital Era for Loyalty Marketing 6
Collective Earning Capabilities,
A Common Reward
Operated within the context of a coalition-based loyalty program,
these CLOs go deeper than the commonly used model. Today’s
merchants can experience true loyalty by combining ease of use,
variety of participation options and a coveted rewards currency to
create a winning value proposition for consumers. They also can
support more personalized and direct communications with
customers, and they have access to quicker, richer, more insightful
data based on consumers’ credit and debit card transactions.
The new capabilities, opportunities and applications of the CLO
platform powered by coalition rewards shift industry thinking
about loyalty and loyalty marketing — away from standalone and
silo-framed loyalty programs and toward a broader program with
network benefits and nationwide reach for earning and redemption.
Benefits for merchants and marketers
Coalition loyalty-based CLOs give marketers access to and ownership of new
data points and messaging opportunities that differentiate their rewards
program from other rewards programs.
Benefits for consumers and cardholders
Coalition loyalty-based CLOs give consumers what they want: more frequent
earn-burn cycles and cumulative rewards that are valuable every day of the week.
Built for the mobile marketplace
This flexible new CLO platform keeps pace with today’s fast-changing
marketplace, where transactions can be physical, digital or mobile, and where
smartphones and other mobile devices can serve as the tools and avenues
that make credit and debit cards easy to link to any program, easy to track/
redeem rewards and easy to build loyalty that’s personalized and frequent.
Coalition Loyalty-Based CLOs Expand
Merchant, Member Opportunities
From beginning to end of the transactional process, several key
factors differentiate new coalition loyalty-based capabilities from
their predecessor CLOs. First, customers who choose to enroll
their credit or debit card in a coalition loyalty-based CLO have
ongoing access to available offers, a change of pace from existing
CLOs that place the onus on consumers to search for and find
offers that interest them (“click it to get it”). Coalition loyalty-based
CLO customers are free to participate in all existing offers, which
are also baked into and supported by the digital-mobile channel.
CLO program administrators can use the mobile channel and push
notifications, for example, to keep consumers updated about
promotions and offers. Mobile messaging capabilities also provide
real-time data to better measure how specific messages and
campaigns influence consumer behaviors or shopper-to-buyer
conversion. Participating merchants become proactive players
in the CLO marketing experience rather than passive affiliates.
In addition, coalition loyalty-based CLO discounts and
rewards can be communicated to the customer quickly
by text message or email. The rich data set grows with
each transaction, enabling merchants to create and deploy
increasingly personalized communications and offers.

7. Fuel Rewards®
Program Coalition Loyalty-Based Card-Linked Offers: A New Digital Era for Loyalty Marketing 7
Coalition loyalty-based CLOs are also card-agnostic in that they
are not affiliated with one specific bank or financial institution.
The data benefit to the merchant is immediate, and customers
can earn a highly-desired currency by using the card of their
choice with a wide variety of merchants.
For example, a typical customer may visit a store and pay with
a debit card for one purchase, and then buy online from the
same merchant using a different credit card. In the traditional
CLO environment, those discreet transactions appear to originate
from two distinct customers. But because coalition loyalty-based
CLO transactions are matched with personally identifiable
information (PII), the platform can trace both of those transactions
to a single customer rather than mistakenly record them as
unique purchasers.
A coalition loyalty-based CLO platform can track data across
cards and banks, incorporating and linking historical information
to individual customers to provide a holistic view and support
more meaningful, relevant marketing initiatives.
The enhanced data stream helps identify and diffuse common
CLO issues like cannibalization. Merchants who are unable to
link customer visits directly to an offer have no idea if these
customers were attracted by the offer, or simply planned to
visit anyway. Coalition loyalty-based CLO data is able to profile
cardholder behaviors to determine why a customer engaged.
Did she respond to a particular offer by returning to the store
after not shopping recently? Did she purchase more as a result
of her return to the store? Did she visit more frequently as the
result of a particular offer?
Coalition loyalty-based
CLO data is able to profile
cardholder behaviors
to determine why a
customer engaged ...
Did she visit more
frequently as the result
of a particular offer?

8. Fuel Rewards®
Program Coalition Loyalty-Based Card-Linked Offers: A New Digital Era for Loyalty Marketing 8
A Superior Brand Loyalty Engine
The Fuel Rewards program’s coalition loyalty-based CLO
platform is linked to a universal currency with a proven track
record of changing consumer behavior. Fuel Rewards savings,
combined with aggregate earning power on daily purchases,
create stronger customer loyalty than standalone programs.
Powering a coalition loyalty program, this seamless, elegant
platform rewards both customers and merchants.
This new platform’s approach to frequent earn-redeem capabilities
sets it apart from other CLOs. Although U.S. households are
enrolled in 29 loyalty programs on average, they are active in
only 12 because of mediocre value propositions, according to
the 2015 COLLOQUY Loyalty Census.
Colloquy highlights several marketing factors that limit member
participation in loyalty programs:
Focusing on customer acquisition at the expense
of customer engagement
Basing strategies on loyal behaviors but not asking
customers what they need/want
Assuming that a one-size-fits-all program is sufficient
while ignoring the value of personalization
Treating all members as equally valuable rather
than relying on analytics to identify and leverage
members’ significant and unique differences, revenue
contributions and roles
Providing diluted benefits and generic experiences
The Fuel Rewards program’s coalition loyalty-based CLO platform,
however addresses those factors and reduces long earn-and-
burn cycles by allowing customers to aggregate the rewards
they earn from multiple merchants into a common earn bucket.
Every dollar spent with merchants involved in the Fuel Rewards
program contributes collectively toward fuel savings — a benefit
that is instantly communicated with each transaction at the mall,
Repeat
customers spend
67% MORE
than new customers
shopping center, grocery, restaurant and online store, and then
reinforced at the pump when the customer receives an immediate,
tangible discount while fueling up. That immediate feedback
loop encourages repeat customers, and according to a 2014
study from research firm BIA/Kelsey, repeat customers spend
67% more than new customers.
Fuel Rewards savings — applied toward an everyday commodity
— have a high perceived value among consumers, much higher
than the actual cents-off amount. If that value were simply
cash-back at individual merchants, customers would not only
have a lower perceived value of the reward, but they would have
to spend far more in order to earn enough points to redeem.
Frustrated customers frequently “give up” on earning rewards
on daily purchases because it takes too much time and too many
purchases to earn a truly substantial or valuable reward in
standalone loyalty programs.
Instead, what we’ve seen within the Fuel Rewards program is
increased customer participation in the coalition loyalty-based
CLO environment in order to earn the coveted savings on fuel.
Instant notice of earned rewards and frequent redemption
opportunities have the power to create substantial and long-
lasting changes in consumer behaviors, including more frequent
visits, more spending per transaction, higher customer participation
in loyalty programs and increased loyalty to the brand. Members
get real-time satisfaction from frequent tracking, redemption
and awareness of the amounts of rewards they’re constantly
earning, constantly saving and frequently redeeming. Data shows,
in fact, that upwards of 75% of consumers redeem fuel savings
within 20 days of earning rewards, compared to 35% redemption
rates (Forrester Research) over the life of the reward in general
loyalty programs across the United States.

9. Fuel Rewards®
Program Coalition Loyalty-Based Card-Linked Offers: A New Digital Era for Loyalty Marketing 9
For participating merchants and partners, the data stream and
IT capabilities of our coalition loyalty-based CLO platform deliver
the strength of coalition in a plug-and-play format. This turnkey
platform manages all customer relationship management activities
(CRM), consumer sign-up and membership, technology and
customer touch points. Moreover, the very nature of the coalition
offers piggybacked brand awareness and extensive cross-marketing
opportunities with other merchant members. (Learn more about
coalition loyalty in our white paper Coalition Loyalty: A Roadmap
for Success in the U.S..)
With the added capability of an updated mobile app, enhanced
data collection and more personalized and immediate customer
communication, coalition loyalty-based CLOs deliver on the long-
time promise of existing CLOs, and they even promise a futuristic
vision. With all of the right technologies and transactional
solutions in place, this upgraded futuristic iteration of CLOs has
the potential to streamline the entire payment/earn/redeem
process into a single-swipe, omni-channel product. Future
Coalition Loyalty-Based CLOs:
A Platform for the Future,
Powering Long-Term Loyalty
customers and merchants would finally achieve seamless bundling
of disparate loyalty, digital, wallet, card and mobile platforms.
That solution is still in the not-too-distant but still misty future,
but today, it’s time for CLOs to offer more. The upgraded, updated,
modernized coalition loyalty-based CLOs deliver what merchants
have been asking for: loyalty programs that engage more customers,
increase overall sales, collect more data and transactional insights,
and deepen the brand’s ownership of the loyalty relationship.
Where existing CLOs are valuable for some merchants, coalition
loyalty-based CLOs represent the evolutionary solution that can
take advantage of technology, mobile capabilities and long-
understood consumer demands for a 21st-century loyalty program
that truly meets their needs. This gives merchants the platform they
have long sought to host and manage loyalty programs that truly
do deliver more customers, more sales and deeper brand loyalty.

10. About the Author
With over 13 years of experience at Excentus, Brandon has been
the driving force behind developing a first-of-a-kind nationwide
coalition loyalty program and engaging in strategic relationships
with our cornerstone partners, Shell and MasterCard. In his role
as CEO, Brandon is also a member of the Excentus Board of
Directors and oversees three strategic Excentus business units —
the Fuel Rewards coalition loyalty program; our subsidiary
Centego, which provides enabling technology and services for
private-label fuel-based loyalty programs, and our IP portfolio.
Prior to joining Excentus in 2002, Brandon worked at GTE
Internetworking, JPMorgan Chase, and iChoose, and was also
the Co-Founder and Principal at Bloomin’ Partners Inc. Brandon
holds a BA in Finance and Marketing from Texas Christian
University (Go Frogs) and he is a board member for the North
Texas chapter of the Folds of Honor Foundation. When he’s
not spending time with his wife and three children, Brandon is
making triple-doubles on the court or chasing that elusive first
hole-in-one. You can reach Brandon at blogsdon@excentus.com.
Media
To schedule an interview
with Brandon Logsdon,
please contact:
Vanessa Horwell
vhorwell@thinkinkpr.com
(305) 749.5342 x232
Amanda Williams
awilliams@thinkinkpr.com
(305) 749.5342 x238
Fuel Rewards®
program
Excentus Corporation
14241 Dallas Parkway
Suite 1200
Dallas, TX 75254
info@fuelingloyalty.com
“The Fuel Rewards program began as a technology platform that
facilitated grocer fuel discount programs, and since then, our
common reward (fuel savings) has capitalized on the emotional
connection between the cost paid for each gallon of gas and the
ability to immediately see a rollback of fuel price at the pump. We
wanted to help consumers with this pressing problem in a practical
way, while also creating sustainable value for our network partners.”
Brandon Logsdon, President & Chief Executive Officer
About Excentus
At Excentus, we create programs that help lower the cost of
everyday life. Whether through direct-to-consumer programs
like Fuel Rewards®
and fuelperks!, or through companies
utilizing our Centego products and services, Excentus
proprietary software is the engine helping numerous loyalty
and marketing programs drive down the cost of everyday
commodities like gasoline. In fact, since 2012 we’ve helped
consumers and small businesses across America save over $500
million at the pump. Creating real savings that positively affect
the everyday lives of real people — that’s what Excentus is all about.
Founded in 1996 in Dallas, TX, Excentus is a privately held company
with more than 200 employees. For more information, please
visit excentus.com.