Jackpot Rewards Selects W3i for Consumer App Distribution

St. Cloud, Minnesota, February 9, 2010 – W3i, provider of marketing solutions that increase distribution, revenue, and engagement for consumer applications, announced today that Jackpot Rewards is now part of the W3i Application Network.  Jackpot Rewards, a sweepstakes and shopping rewards program, is using the W3i Application Network as a new application distribution channel for its free Jackpot Rewards application.

“The W3i Application Network provides a mass distribution channel for companies with consumer applications that are seeking customer acquisition beyond paid search and social media,” said Rob Weber, VP of Business Development at W3i.  “Jackpot Rewards recognizes the opportunity the W3i Application Network offers to grow its membership by expediting the discovery of its free shopping and sweepstakes application to millions of new users.”

Jackpot Rewards has a new and unique shopping and sweepstakes product for consumers, called “Shop to Win”.  “Shop to Win” is free to consumers and gives them the chance to win $500 a day and a $100,000 Jackpot for every $5 they spend at over 2,000 leading online retailers. 

“W3i’s distribution capabilities give us the opportunity to dramatically increase our memberships with a trusted partner,” said Jim Miller, the CEO and Founder of Jackpot Rewards. “We are excited about the results to date and look forward to a long-term relationship with W3i.” 

 About W3i: 

W3i increases revenue, distribution and engagement for consumer applications and plug-ins. W3i uses a network approach combining the demand for free applications monetized by the distribution of relevant applications when the consumer is in the installation mindset.  The W3i Application Network uses Install IQ, W3i’s proprietary Windows installation manager, the first installer to be certified in the TRUSTe Trusted Download Program.  Tested and optimized on over 350 million installs–currently 9.6 million installs monthly, W3i will prove to be a valued distribution partner in growing your consumer application business. To learn more, visit the W3i Application Network.

Press Contact:

Deborah Manthei

Director of Marketing Communications

320-257-7571

deborah.manthei@W3i.com

The names of companies and products mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

This evening I went online to BestBuy.com to pick up a new monitor for my home office PC. My old monitor crapped out a few days ago, and I’ve been meaning to get around to purchasing a new one. I tend to avoid brick and mortar stores for consumer electronic purchases, and BestBuy.com is usually the first website I start with when shopping for consumer electronics. (Apparently, I am like most other online shoppers… I read a recent analyst report that ranked BestBuy.com as the number one in total online consumer electronic sales.)

After using BestBuy.com’s user ratings to sort through and find the best-rated 23-inch monitor, I settled on an Acer H233Hbmid 23 inch Widescreen HD LCD Monitor listed at $209.99.

Thankfully for me, I use a couple of different browser add-ons which provide me with timely shopping related information while I am browsing the web. For this purchase, I followed through a message that came up from PriceGong (http://www.pricegong.com), which I had installed through W3i’s (http://www.W3i.com) Install IQ process a few months back. PriceGong alerted me that CompUSA.com had the exact same monitor for $199.99 with no shipping and handling, and no sales tax.

Later on, I proceeded through the checkout on BestBuy.com just to see what my final total would have been had I purchased this same monitor through BestBuy.com. With $14.99 for shipping and handling, and $16.37 sales tax, my total would have come to $241.35. I saved $41.36 because my installed application, PriceGong, recommended CompUSA.com while shopping at BestBuy.com!

Most tech bloggers talk down about any application that requires an install, such as Windows applications and hybrid applications (like the PriceGong browser add-on). Most tech bloggers are so caught up in the cloud these days that they fail to remember why operating system integration can be so useful. How can the cloud compete with the kind of timely information an installed application can provide?

Rob Weber, VP of Business Development and Co-Founder, W3i, LLC
Rob is an Internet marketing pioneer with over nine, profitable years evolving W3i in the Integrated Interactive Media industry.

I love getting a great deal, and I don’t have a lot of time to search for alternative offers so I use a shopping application. The shopping comparison sites are great. I bookmarked Overstock.com, Shopzilla, SmartBargains, Shopping.com, PriceGrabber.com, and Yahoo! Shopping. Of course, there is always Amazon and eBay. (Dangerous, as these sites are addicting and I couldn’t pass up several great bargains doing my research.)

However, I really love the convenience of desktop applications. And there are many benefits for the retailer. Being on the user’s desktop keeps your site top-of-mind and increases impulse purchases. Who doesn’t get distracted occasionally and begin to play with the apps on their desktops? Voila, a potential sale for you. Or the app can jump in when the user is searching for an item that the retailer has in their inventory. Voila, another potential sale.

Reminders. Shopping applications can offer reminders and promotions—creating an urgency to buy during key times of the year. What man doesn’t need to be reminded that they should buy their wife or girlfriend a gift during the holidays? Also if they are planning to buy online, they might need a reminder to buy now in order to get the gift there in time for the holidays. Gift suggestions can also do the trick. Shopping apps can offer more product information as well as recommendations; things that increase the value for the user.

While shopping applications were once difficult and time consuming to develop, new tools such as Adobe AIR exponentially speed up time to market. Adobe AIR allows developers to use web based technologies such as HTML, JavaScript and AJAX to develop shopping applications with the ability to support multiple operating systems. Adobe AIR also allows the shopping application to interact with your website if the user has it open in their browser. Previously this was much more difficult to do. Typically websites are sandboxed, however, Adobe AIR gives developers the ability to access some operating system features that only the typical shopping application could access to in the past. Adobe AIR is a remarkable technology that will allow you to get your app developed and out to your customers in no time.

With the simplicity of Adobe AIR. a shopping application can be built to maximize sales for this year’s holiday. Once a shopping comparison application is built, a large user base is necessary to reap the rewards. W3i has distributed over 300 million applications with proven results for e-retailers. The VP of Business Development at a major shopping comparison site comments about W3i’s Application Network, “W3i’s distribution partnership helped us build a loyal and active user base of well over three million daily consumers comparing prices across thousands of Internet stores within six months of launch.” Click Here to learn more about the W3i Application Network, a performance-based distribution opportunity, and how it can begin building your user base.

Thomas Heitz, Business Development, W3i
Thomas is a Business Development Executive at W3i, an application network that increases revenue, distribution, and engagement for Windows applications and plug-ins.  His expertise is in increasing revenue and traffic for shopping and entertainment applications.