Evening Standard launches cashless payment card

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 20-Sep-07, 10:50

LONDON - Associated Newspapers' Evening Standard newspaper is launching a cashless payment card in London to boost its declining circulation figures, which have been waning in the face of competition from freesheets thelondonpaper and London Lite.

The Eros Reward Card will launch at Waterloo Station next Monday, beginning with a one-week sampling period, where readers will be given pre-loaded cards to redeem at Evening Standard vendor sites.

The card will work in a similar way to an Oyster card, with readers tapping their card on the yellow Eros pad, located at selected vendor stands, to collect their copy of the Evening Standard.

Readers need to register online to load their card with credit to buy the papers and for a limited period will be given five free downloads to any iTunes song when they top up.

Users of the Eros card will be rewarded with a loyalty rewards package, including added value and discount offers provided by card partners. Initial partners include concierge company Ten Uk, bookstore Foyles, boutique hotel guide company Mr & Mrs Smith, coffee-shop chain Apostrophe, The Ambassador Theatre Group and D&D London (formerly Conran restaurants).

Andrew Mullins, managing director of the Evening Standard, said: "The Evening Standard Eros card is a genuine innovation. It not only provides greater convenience for our loyal readers but also appropriate added value benefit rewards.

"Importantly, the Eros card will also help us better market our newspaper to our readers. For the first time we will have in-depth knowledge of how many people are buying the paper and on what day and at what time."

Evening Standard teams will distribute the cards on the Waterloo station concourse from 7am to 9.30am and from 4pm to 7pm next week. The full rollout of the Eros card will move outside of Waterloo and across zone 1 from October 1.

The Standard's headline circulation figure has been declining since News International's freesheet thelondonpaper and Associated's free title London Lite launched a year ago. In August, its circulation rose 0.86% to 266,214 copies, but its six-month average circulation was still down 14.17% year on year to 272,522 copies.

Circulation at the Standard has improved steadily since April, but at the same time it has been increasing the number of bulk copies it gives away.

In August it gave away 95,111 copies, slightly more than a third of its circulation. In July the figure was 81,261 copies, and in June it was 66,179. A year ago it had a circulation of 317,511, of which 38,078 were bulk copies.