Member Article

Appreciate, home of Love2shop celebrates rebrand with VIP Zoom launch

Former Director General of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington, was among a host of high-profile speakers at the virtual launch event earlier this month of Appreciate Group’s B2B division’s rebrand to Appreciate, the home of Love2shop.

The real-life ‘M’ from James Bond was joined by award-winning business journalist Steph McGovern in celebrating with Appreciate Group’s CEO Ian O’Doherty and MC for the event, Director of Business Development Frank Creighton.

A touch of office banter was added to proceedings thanks to David Brent impersonator and comedian Tim Oliver, who entertained over 140 VIP attendees from the world of business and media, including the Times, PA Media, Sky News, the Daily Mail, Money Saving Expert and CEO of Europe’s biggest marketing bible, The Drum, Diane Young.

Appreciate Group, one of the UK’s leading gifting and engagement companies, launched the new visual identify for its B2B arm as part of plans to grow its employee and customer rewards business.

Business customers will now be supported by Appreciate, the home of Love2shop, in a move to help reposition the business as experts in rewards and recognition in the expanding £3bn employee and customer rewards market, whilst retaining the well-known Love2shop name. The new brand aligns the business arm more closely to the Appreciate Group master brand and purpose: to create more joy in the world.

Ian O’Doherty, CEO, Appreciate Group explained: “Reinforcing the potential opportunities for growth, we saw new business demand for rewards and incentives double between April and September 2020, driven by companies looking to thank employees for their hard work during lockdown.

“Going into 2021, we believe there are significant opportunities to satisfy increasing customer demand for digital rewards and personalised incentives. We’ve introduced the ‘Love2shop Contactless’, a fully digital B2B gift card that reinforces our commitment to making rewarding staff and customers even easier.”

The new ‘Love2shop Contactless’ digital gift card allows businesses to gift instantly, or on a scheduled date/time, by email, text, Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. Once activated by the recipient, the new digital gift card can be used online or in-store through their mobile wallet with over 80 retailers and leisure providers.

Katherine Scott, Director of Marketing, at Appreciate Group, said: “The new branding for our B2B arm underpins our plans to grow our share of an expanding market.

“It aligns to the Group brand and purpose to ‘create more joy in the world’ whilst keeping the successful Love2shop name prominent - well recognised as providing a gateway for customers to many of the UK’s favourite retailers and leisure attractions.

“We’re also making significant investments in our digital offerings which will help our business customers provide an enhanced experience when it comes to rewarding their customers and employees.”

The business website and social media channels have been relaunched as part of the rebranding.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Appreciate, home of Love2shop .