Twelfth Annual Hawk Awards Presented by Blackhawk Network Recognizes Payments Industry Leaders

PLEASANTON, Calif., May 31, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackhawk Network, Inc., a global financial technology company, has announced the winners of its 12^th annual Hawk Awards, which recognize the U.S. payments industry's most innovative leaders.

"For more than a decade, the Hawk Awards have given Blackhawk the opportunity to highlight the innovative work of our partners and programs," said Talbott Roche, chief executive officer and president of Blackhawk Network. "As the best in the industry, our partners continue to set the standard for excellence each year and we are honored to once again celebrate the impressive achievements of the Hawk Award winners and finalists."

Category winners were named during Blackhawk's 2018 Summit at the Hawk Awards Gala on April 25, 2018 in Colorado Springs, Colo. For the first time, Blackhawk Summit attendees were invited to cast their votes for several categories on-site via the event app. The following organizations were among those recognized:

Industry Achievement: Recognizes a company or individual making the greatest contribution to the advancement of the industry.

• Sephora: Honored for its innovation, collaboration and leadership in driving partnerships that create a personalized gifting experience for its clients. By continually seeking what is new, exciting and fun, Sephora has leveraged strategic marketing efforts to drive additional in-store and online traffic.

Most Impactful Marketing Program: Recognizes the retailer, content partner and CashStar customer that developed and executed a marketing program or promotion that met or exceeded its business objectives.

• Albertsons: Honored in the retailer category for its digital just for U® program. This highly-flexible platform promotes innovation in testing new marketing strategies, and drove sales and consumer engagement of gift cards.
• Amazon: Honored in the content partner category for the Amazon Box Shipper. The unique packaging features an Amazon gift card in a signature Amazon mini shipping box and was a consumer favorite during the 2017 holiday season.
• Dunkin' Donuts: Honored in the CashStar customer category for its partnership with T-Mobile Tuesdays, a promotion that thanks T-Mobile customers with free offers and a chance to win prizes. On every Tuesday for a five-week span, app users could choose to receive an egift card from Dunkin' Donuts. The partnership drove a significant amount of DD Card redemptions, as well as omni-channel impressions for both brands.

Best Gift Card Design: Recognizes the most creative, innovative and impactful physical or egift design within the industry.

• Delta Air Lines: Honored for its The Gift of Go™ card featuring iconic images from five well-known travel destinations around the world. The airline's focus on sustainability also means the card was produced from 100 percent eco-friendly paper.

Most Collaborative: Recognizing a company and/or vendor who pushed boundaries and seized opportunities to implement new product in the industry.

• Regal, AMC Theatres, Fandango and The Kroger Company: Honored for their partnership on a "destination shipper" highlighting six months of blockbuster movie releases, with two new movies featured every month. The dynamic packaging drove customer engagement and sales.

Best Use of Reward Innovation: Recognizes the Hawk Incentives partner implementing the best use of reward innovation in a rewards-based incentive program.

• Sprint: Honored for its early adoption of Hawk Incentives' new single-use, open-loop Mastercard Prepaid Card that can be added to a mobile wallet. This exciting new product can increase the speed of reward delivery, promote smart phone/digital wallet adoption within the Sprint customer base and increase customer satisfaction.

Best Use of Rewards in a Consumer Promotion: Recognizes the Hawk Incentives partner implementing the best use of a rewards-based program to drive customer activation or acquisition.

• Discount Tire: Honored for its rebate payment timeline, which is one of the fastest in the country. Through Discount Tires' partnership with Hawk Incentives, customers' rebate submissions are validated in real time.

Best Customer Engagement Initiative: Recognizing CashStar clients who transform customer experiences with branded value and gift cards, creating engaging interactions and meaningful outcomes for their customers.

• Ulta Beauty: Honored for being among the first of CashStar's clients to leverage On Demand Activation in a marketing promotion. By targeting select customer segments while promoting gift card activation during key gifting seasons, Ulta Beauty experienced impressive sales, higher load values and incremental purchases.

First Party Innovation Award: Recognizing CashStar clients that embrace innovative strategies, new technologies or first-to-market solutions.

• Uber: Honored for leading the way among CashStar's clients, Uber was first to market with the enhanced CashStar Consumer experience for both desktop and mobile app, as well as one of the first brands to engage Velocity B2B to grow its gift card program.

About Blackhawk Network 
Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAWK) is a global financial technology company and a leader in connecting brands and people through branded value solutions. Blackhawk platforms and solutions enable the management of stored value products, promotions and rewards programs in retail, ecommerce, financial services and mobile wallets. Blackhawk's Hawk Commerce division offers technology solutions to businesses and direct to consumers. The Hawk Incentives division offers enterprise, SMB and reseller partners an array of platforms and branded value products to incent and reward consumers, employees and sales channels. Headquartered in Pleasanton, Calif., Blackhawk operates in 26 countries. For more information, please visit blackhawknetwork.com, cashstar.com, hawkcommerce.com, hawkincentives.com or our product websites GiftCards.com, giftcardmall.com, Cardpool.com, GiftCardLab.com and OmniCard.com.

CONTACT:
Courtney Brunkow
courtney@fletchergroupllc.com
303-717-9575

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SOURCE Blackhawk Network Holdings, Inc.