A new type of credit card letting companies offer exclusive experiences to clients and potential clients can be yours—and you can win a trip aboard a Triton Submarines craft in the process.
Dynamics, a Pennsylvania-based company specializing in advanced payment platforms and battery-powered payment devices, created the newly released ePlate Visa credit card. It swipes exactly the same way a standard Visa credit card does. The difference is that it has a programmable magnetic stripe, with two buttons (see Experience 1 and Experience 2 in the image below) linked to that stripe, therefore earning you various benefits that you select via an app-rich website. Triton Submarines’ app is the only one related to the yachting industry thus far.
Here’s how it works. After applying for the ePlate credit card (via the Dynamics website) and receiving your card, log onto Dynamics’ site and select Triton Submarines from the list of about 30 apps. (Others include luxury travel, gaming, and even charitable giving.) Decide which of the two Experience buttons on your card will be linked to that app, and select it online. Then, press the corresponding Experience button on your card when you’re ready to make a purchase at any merchant that accepts Visa cards.
Every $10 in purchases earns an entry into an instant-win sweepstakes for a Triton Submarines training trip in a simulator as well as a five-day Bahamas dive trip aboard one of Triton Submarines’ craft. They’re not insignificant prizes: The training experience, which includes hotel and airline gift cards, has a retail value of $3,500. The five-day Bahamas trip, which builds upon the same things as the training experience, has a retail value of $12,000. In addition, regardless of whether you win or not, for every $1,900 you spend with the app activated, you earn a digital video about Triton Submarines. Once you earn five videos, you can receive all of them on DVD.
You’ll know you’ve properly pressed the Experience button when the light adjacent to it shines. Dynamics says more than 70 electrical components are inside the card, and it has a three-year battery life. All of this is why you’ll also know essentially instantly if you’ve won the Triton Submarines training session or Bahamas trip, via a text message or email. “Dynamics can provide the reward within a tenth of a second of making a purchase—before you’ve even put the credit card back in your wallet,” explains Jeff Mullen, Dynamics’ CEO.
Mullen says his company set out to create “loyalty around smaller brands…brands that are of the moment.” He explains that one out of every two credit cards is co-branded, but typically only with huge companies like airlines, due to the enormous costs the banks face in reaching large user bases and recouping their outlay of cash. Mullen believes there’s great opportunity in partnering with smaller companies that offer novel undertakings. Triton Submarines’ team agrees. “It was a natural fit,” says Marc Deppe, vice president of sales and marketing for Triton Submarines. “We are confident that it will be very successful,” adding that as the app user base grows, more reward options will be added.
The ePlate credit card is subject to credit approval. Full sweepstakes rules are also available, on a dedicated page on Dynamics’ website.
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