AdAction is proud to announce its partnership with PDI Technologies, a leading provider of technology for the convenience retail and petroleum wholesale ecosystem, spanning ERP, logistics, payments, and loyalty.
“Convenience operators have been funding loyalty rewards out of their own margin for years. This partnership changes where that funding comes from. By bringing AdGem Play™ into the loyalty programs PDI powers, operators can give members a new way to earn, on the days between fill-ups, without issuing another point out of margin.”
Mariah Marmol, Sr Director of Business Development
Alongside the partnership, AdAction is opening the AdGem Play™ Early Adopters Program to a limited group of convenience retail operators.
Bringing advertiser-funded rewards to convenience loyalty
AdGem Play™ is a mobile gaming arcade that embeds directly into an existing loyalty app. Members play third-party mobile games they already enjoy. Advertisers fund the rewards. Operators earn engagement and incremental value without adding points liability to the balance sheet.
Integrated with the loyalty infrastructure PDI provides, this gives convenience retailers a new earning mechanic inside an environment they already own, without building a new monetization model from scratch.
The rising cost of a loyalty point
For most convenience programs, rewards are issued out of margin. That model works when transactions are frequent and fuel volume is predictable. It gets expensive the moment either assumption slips.
Two things came up constantly in conversations with operators at PDI Connections Live in Grapevine this August:
- Rewards are getting expensive. Points issued out of margin hold up right until you need engagement on the days nobody is buying fuel.
- Loyalty apps get treated as payment tools. Members open the app at the pump and close it in the parking lot. Between visits, the program goes quiet.
AdGem Play™ was built for the space between those transactions.
Engagement on the days between visits
A convenience loyalty program competes for attention against every app on a shopper’s phone. Mobile games win a meaningful share of that attention already.
Rather than treating that as competition, AdGem Play™ turns it into an earning channel. A member opens the loyalty app, plays a game from the arcade, and earns program currency funded by the advertiser behind that game. The operator does not absorb the cost of the reward. The member gets a reason to open the app on a day they were not going to buy anything.
That changes the shape of the program. Loyalty stops being a transaction receipt and starts being a place members return to.
Inside the Early Adopters Program
The Early Adopters Program is intentionally small. AdAction is selecting a limited group of convenience operators to launch with, and working closely with each one on configuration, reward economics, and member experience.
Early adopters get:
- Direct implementation support from the AdAction team
- Input into the convenience store roadmap
- Early access to performance benchmarks across participating programs
- Preferred terms for the initial launch period
The program is open to operators running loyalty on PDI infrastructure.
Why this matters now
Convenience retail is under real margin pressure, and loyalty is one of the few owned channels with room left in it. Most programs are still measured only on retention and basket size. The more interesting question is whether the program can carry part of its own cost.
Advertiser-funded engagement is one answer. It does not require rebuilding the program, changing the earn structure members already understand, or asking operators to spend more to get more attention.
Expanding what convenience loyalty can deliver
PDI has spent years building the systems convenience retailers run on, from the back office to the loyalty program. AdAction brings a differentiated monetization layer to that ecosystem through advertiser-funded gaming experiences.
Together, we are expanding what a convenience loyalty program can do:
- For operators, a new source of funded rewards and engagement between transactions
- For members, more ways to earn without spending more
- For the category, a loyalty model that does not depend entirely on margin
AdGem Play™ is built in the United States, and we are intentional about the operators we build it with.
Interested in bringing advertiser-funded gaming to your loyalty program? Contact AdAction to learn about the AdGem Play™ Early Adopters Program.
