WHAT CONSUMERS WANT

Atlanta-based Cardlytics finds relevant deals for bank customers

By Collin Kelley INtown Editor

When it was announced last year that Atlanta-based Cardlytics was one of the rst businesses to sign a lease at Ponce City Market, you might have asked – like we did at INtown – what does the company do?

It turns out the company works with banks to provide a service that most debit cardholders take for granted. Created by Candler Park resident Scott Grimes and Lake Clair resident Lynne Laube, Cardlytics does the research and provides the o ers and deals that show up for bank customers to use, such as a discount for an iced latte or a two-for-one special at a local restaurant.

Since its founding in 2008, Cardlytics – which has the tagline “Reach Every One” – has partnered with more than 400 nancial institutions, including Bank of America, PNC Bank, Regions Bank and Lloyds of London. e company also has o ces in San Francisco, New York and London and employs 250 people.

Known as “card-linked marketing,” the patented technology created by Cardlytics gives banks and advertisers insight into the consumer purchase behavior of 70 percent of U.S. households.

Kasey Byrne, senior vice-president of marketing, said consumers’ privacy is at the forefront of Cardlytics’ partnerships with banks. While a consumer’s purchase history can be seen to provide deal recommendations, the cardholder’s identity never leaves the bank’s servers.

Byrne gave this example of how Cardlytics works: A regular Starbucks customer who uses a Bank of America debit card to make their purchases might see a special o er on co ee in their BankAmeriDeals account.

“ e o ers are very relevant,” Byrne said. “ e deals come from your everyday purchases and are loaded onto your card. It’s super simple.” e move to Ponce City Market later this year means that Cardlytics’ Atlanta employees will all be under one roof. e sta is currently scattered at four di erent o ces in the Old Fourth Ward. “We really wanted to be in the same o ce and stay in the neighborhood, because even though the o ces were close by, there was a huge divide,” Byrne said. “We’re very excited about the move.”

Grimes and Laube were working at Capital One when they stumbled upon the idea for Cardlytics. ey were working on a project and discovered that since the majority of people have shi ed to using debit cards for everyday purchases, there was a lot of potential marketing data but no way to safely record and use it.

“ e data provided insight into what consumers want by looking at what they’ve purchased in the past,” Byrne said.

Creating a start-up during the nancial collapse meant slow going at rst, but Grimes and Laube had already began fundraising and the company has, obviously, continued to grow and thrive.

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