Circle K says kiosk coupons work, lottery days are hot

Circle K, which is in the second phase of deploying web kiosks in several stores in Arizona and the East Coast, is finding out some interesting details from its early ZapLink kiosk results. For one thing, advertising via the kiosk--a major ROI for the program--is paying off. "There is a strong correlation between those advertise with us on the kiosks and the web links that ZapLink users connect to," says Scott Templeton, innovation group manager at Phillips Petroleum Co., which owns Circle K.

Kiosks users also like coupons, Circle K says. The stores did a promotion with Coke in which consumers could buy a 20-oz Coke and get one free with a ZapLink coupon. The company says well over 70% of the coupons were redeemed.

Furthermore, Circle K’s kiosks have shown that not only location but days of the week are becoming important. "We found out that Thursday was the highest day of usage in the Phoenix area because users were checking the lottery results. So we repositioned the lottery information so now it reports the results on the track loop that shows advertising and messages," says Templeton.

Circle K expects to roll out ZapLink web kiosks in at least 60% of its 2,000 stores. Furthermore, Templeton sees the ZapLink brand as being used by other retailers. "We intentionally developed the kiosks to have different colors than our Circle K brand. We see this as something we can offer to other channels within the Phillips Petroleum Co.," he says.