Reinventing How Brands Engage Consumers: 3 tier logic

Headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, 3 tier logic (3tl) was founded in February 2008 by leading entrepreneurs Robert Craig and Carlos Yong as a custom digital marketing technology agency.

The Company’s mission is to revolutionize how brands use mobile and social media to engage with and connect to consumers and to increase store visits and purchase frequency. They have some of the largest consumer brands in the world as clients including Unilever, Dannon, Dr Pepper, Mars Chocolate, Universal Pictures and Church & Dwight. 3tlis targeting the rapidly growing Consumer Packaged Goods sector. It is committed to providing organizations with dramatic and meaningful improvements in consumer engagement and communication via modern digital technologies.

Inception of 3 tier logic

3 tier logic began as a custom digital marketing applications developer. The company enabled large consumer brands such as Ralph Lauren, Oakley and Red Bull to connect with consumers through modern media- Mobile, Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram. While working on developing custom digital marketing programs, the company recognized the growing influence of mobile and social media on consumers and their purchase decisions. 3tl saw the opportunity and productized into a mobile marketing platform-PLATFORM3.

PLATFORM3’s first modules included Influencer Marketing Module (Consumer-to-Consumer sharing) and Rewards and Gamification Module. Consumers were inspired to interact with the brand and to share their brand encounters and experiences with their friends and family through social media. By sharing and interacting, participants could earn points which could be redeemed for brand swag and other prizes. Furthermore, the consumers would be recognized on leader boards for their efforts.

Dynamic Product - PLATFORM3   

PLATFORM3 is an enterprise, white-labeled mobile shopper marketing and messaging platform. It was developed over a 3 year period with $4M in investment. PLATFORM3 was built as a Software as a Service (SaaS) and was designed to engage shoppers in the store aisles and on their mobile phones. Further, the Platform has the ability to influence in-store purchasing decision, amplify brand loyalty, strengthen ongoing dialogue and promote the brand via social media. PLATFORM3 was designed as a game changer for CPG brands and it will dramatically evolve the way brands engage with consumers.

In the past, brands have relied on spray and pray advertising tactics and in store signage to engage shoppers and influence purchase decision, frequency and loyalty. PLATFORM3’s leading edge features and robust tracking, analytics and reporting capabilities will enable brands to connect directly with consumers in the store aisles on mobile and then continue engaging with that consumer after they have left the physical store. This ongoing engagement will drive brand engagement and education and will lead to improved purchase frequency and loyalty.

Sublime tête-à-tête with Robert Craig, Co-founder and CEO

How successful was your first product launch? Share the experience

The first version of PLATFORM3 was well received by consumer brands. They loved the idea of being able to reward consumers for interacting with the brand and sharing their brand experiences. The idea of gamifying the consumer experience made was even better. However, we had a hard time getting brands to write cheques. In presentations, the marketing teams of the brands we were pitching would literally clap at the end of our presentations, however, we couldn’t sign deals. The feedback we got was that they loved the idea of tracking and rewarding consumers for interacting and sharing, but they really wanted to track and reward when consumers made an actual purchase.

After getting that feedback from the market we went back to development and built an additional module to the platform. This module was Receipt Scanning and Validation. It enables consumers to take a picture of their purchase receipt and upload it via their mobile phone. The platform would scan the receipt for date, retailer, location, products purchased and validate it if it was a legitimate sale. It would then send a reward to the consumer based on that purchase.

Receipt Scanning and Validation module took 2 years of hard work, but it was worth it. When we launched it in 2015, sales of PLATFORM3 started to take off.

Can you enlighten us about 3tl’s new products which will be launching in the market?

We will be rolling out an advanced automated retargeting module in the coming weeks – Shopper Messaging and Re-Targeting module. These modules will enable us to send out auto messaging via email or SMS to consumers based on what they purchased and how they interact with the brand. One of the key features included in the Shopper Messaging and Re-Targeting module will be a recommendation engine which will include product recommendations based on consumer purchases i.e. “people who bought x also bought y”. This might include a coupon or rebate to “y”. Brands do not have to worry about having the otherwise necessary people or resources to manage consumer databases or sending out emails.

Were there any key factors that shaped your organization’s road map?

Yes! We developed Receipt Scanning and Purchase Validation module of PLATFORM3 as a response to the market’s requesting the ability to track and reward consumers for purchasing the brand. This was a triggering factor for us.

Our Receipt Scanning and Validation module was a trump card for CPG brands. For the first time in history, CPG brands could track and reward individual consumers for purchases made at retail stores. Receipt Scanning and Validation module leverages optical character recognition and visual search algorithms to provide this unique technology.

Meet the virtuoso

With over 15 years of experience in various leadership positions in digital marketing and technology, Robert Craig has headed up projects with Amazon, Adobe, Disney and Motorola and has led mobile research, development and integration projects in the U.K., China, South Africa, Korea, the U.S. and Iceland.

Prior to 3tl, he co-founded digital marketing companies Stratford Internet and ActiveStream, the latter acquired by Jupiter Capital. Craig has earned multiple leadership awards, including Deloitte & Touche’s “Fast 50 Lotus Award” and Business in Vancouver’s “Top 40 under 40 Award”.

“We are particularly adept at helping CPG companies engage shoppers at various points of the purchase cycle and create ongoing dialogue.”