This is not a new change. Most of us know the info below, but I figured that some FTers might be interested in seeing exactly what The Lacek Group has to say about it on their own marketing website www.lacek.com. The spgpromos.com domain is registered to The Lacek Group -- a major marketing group that SPG has used for many years.

The Lacek Group Applies Detect and Redirect Technology to Starwood's Loyalty Marketing Initiatives

Challenge:
As part of its loyalty marketing efforts, Starwood sends targeted promotions to Starwood Preferred Guest members on an ongoing basis. Most of these promotions require registration. Over time Starwood learned that members were “gaming” or cheating the system by registering for multiple offers whether or not they were eligible. Starwood's internal online registration process could not police this gaming effectively, so members were receiving credit for offers for which they were not targeted, complicating promotion reporting and analysis and increasing award costs.

Solution:
The Lacek Group developed a technology called Detect and Redirect which allows Starwood to manage promotional gaming by optimizing Starwood Preferred Guest's ability to police member eligibility. At the start of a campaign, all qualifying member numbers are loaded into a promotion eligibility table. When members visit the registration site, their number triggers the information for their promotion only. If they try to register for another promotion, the system tells them they are ineligible and redirects them to their intended promotion. By closely tying the marketing database to an intelligent Web site, Lacek is able to detect promotion eligibility and redirect members to their targeted offer.

Results:
Promotional gaming has been virtually eliminated. Detect and Redirect has helped Starwood reduce award costs and increase the accuracy of promotion results and analysis. Return on investment has improved by nearly 40% due to better targeting and more effective policing, all without compromising the member experience.

Also...
Lacek's Segmentation Strategy for Starwood Preferred Guest Gets Results

Challenge:
Improve response to promotional communications and increase ROI by decreasing communications expense.

Solution:
The Lacek Group helped Starwood Hotels & Resorts move from applying a broad-based communications approach to a targeted communications strategy that focuses on individuals with an existing affinity to Starwood or a predisposition to become loyal Starwood customers. This was accomplished through the development and implementation of a segmentation strategy that profiled Starwood Preferred Guests based on current value, opportunity (via existing and overlay information) and risk. Members were subsequently categorized into segments, each receiving a unique and customized set of offers. For instance, members in the "Grow Share" segment received different offers than members categorized as "Retain."

Results:
Since the shift to targeted communications occurred, incremental ROI on Starwood promotions has increased more than 200%. Additionally, reduced communication costs have allowed Starwood to increase offer spend on high opportunity members.