A recent study conducted with more than 1000 participants by TNS Global and funded by Ebates revealed some very telling information about what Mom really wants this Mother’s Day. While men, 55% of us, believe Mom wants roses for Mother’s Day, it turns out we’re wrong – as usual.

Moms surveyed around the country have overwhelming selected a gift card to their favorite store as their #1 choice. So, I decided to do my own, albeit small, study on the subject and I asked some moms I know which would they prefer. Turns out…the study was right on the money!

Of the 4 mom’s I asked – all 4 preferred a gift card over roses or brunch. Then, one said something that caught my attention. She said, “People say gift cards aren’t personal. I say, what are you talking about? A gift card is the most personal thing you could give because I can get what I want!”

So, I sat down with David Leeds, CEO and Founder of Tango Card, and ask him if he had ever sent a gift card for Mother’s Day.

Todd: “David, have you ever sent your mom a gift card?”
David: “I’ve given my stepmother a Tango Card for the last two Mother’s Days. In 2011 when I did this, she used her Tango Card value to get a SpaFinder gift card which she used for a well deserved massage. She emailed me and told me how she had used her Tango Card and how excited she was.

Then, in 2012 it got more interesting. She used her Tango Card value to get a Zappos gift card. She then used that value to get a great top that she has been looking at. Then, she used the Tango Card mobile app to send me a picture of her bounty when it arrived. (I’m a big Zappos fan but I had no idea they had anything other than shoes until 2012).”

It’s easy to think getting mom a thoughtful gift is hard. Turns out, it’s not that hard at all. Mom loves gift cards and she also loves having the ability to make her own choices.

Now you know the secret of what gift Mom want on Mother’s Day. A gift she will truly enjoy year after year after year.

Tango Card is hiring for the positions below!

Read up on our recent funding!

Business Development Manager.  Here at Tango Card we are offering rewards to enterprise customers.  We have an awesome story, great product, and are having a lot of fun.  Right now, we are looking for a passionate and driven business development manager to take our products to the enterprise.  Read more here……

Please contact general@tangocard.com with interest.

Everyone at Tango Card is pleased to announce a $4.1M series B round of funding!

Thanks to Allegro Venture Partners and welcome to our board, Julie Allegro. Thanks also to Floodgate, Swan and Legend Ventures, and existing investors Western Technology Investments and Innovation Endeavors.

You bet your Rewards as a Service!

This is a wonderful affirmation of our enterprise strategy – Rewards as a Service! Tango Card is the modern rewards partner to the enterprise.

“We have a simple, but ultimatley disruptive belief that drives us: Rewards and recognition will be seamlessly integrated into modern platforms – this integration will drive engagement and differentiation for the platforms that do it and delight for the consumers that use the platforms.”

“David Leeds, founder and CEO of Tango Card, says the company will be using the funding for the first stages of its international expansion and to continue building out its existing sales and marketing efforts around its enterprise service, in which businesses offer employees and customers gift cards as part of incentive and reward schemes. To date, the company has over 80 live enterprise customers covering 600,000 users and grew 500% from 2011 to 2012 in terms of revenue.”

“Tango Card’s pitch is that it can provide a cost-effective back end to run these services, and offer more engaging rewards to boot — “rewards as a service,” in Leeds’ terminology. When these services have been outsourced in the past, it’s been to large third party companies like Maritz, Carlson and Affinion, which offer gift catalogs rather than gift cards for recognised retailers. These catalogs and the services of larger companies tend to be priced at higher rates than Tango Card offers, and as for the offerings in the catalogs, “people are just not interested in crystal clocks and t-shirts anymore,” says Leeds.”

Head over to TechCrunch or Geekwire for more!

Also covered in VentureWire, Xconomy, and FrenchWeb - Merci beaucoup!

As Admin Day quickly approaches (Wednesday, April 24), I couldn’t help but think of an article I recently read by Sir Richard Branson.  In a world that is becoming dominated with technology and as we automate as much as possible, the personal assistant or admin is still the one thing he couldn’t live without.  Having the “extra memory” as Sir Branson states is invaluable to him. I can relate.

I had an awesome assistant. She was incredibly smart, kind and organized.  She always knew what to get our customers, partners and employees on special occasions.  As a matter of fact, to this day she still remembers my birthday and always sends me a thoughtful gift. I, on the other hand, remember her birthday but am terrible at gifting.  I never know what to get or if she’ll even use it.  I hate giving gifts that aren’t used!

So here’s my tip: If you’re like me, stop racking your brain over what to give your assistant.  If you don’t know what they really want, try a gift that gives them choice.  You’ll be happy because you gave them a thoughtful gift.  And more importantly, they’ll be happy because you gave them a gift that they’ll actually enjoy.

The Center for AIDS Research, Education and Services (CARES) hosted a Dance Competition to encourage youth to get tested for HIV on April 13 in Sacramento, CA.  The goal was to test over 100 youth and give gift cards to the first 100 people to get tested for HIV.  For CARES, Tango Card came to mind because of the Youth Program Coordinator – Ericka Dennis’ past experience.  Ericka says, “It is simple to use and it allows people to use their credits how they want, making the Tango Card a perfect incentive to give at this event.”

The Youth Peer Educator program at CARES are currently training 10 young people to become HIV Testers and Risk Reduction Counselors. Outreach events such as this help reach the youth where they are rather than waiting for them to come to their clinic.  The Youth Peer Educators were assigned many tasks at this event but the main task was to encourage the youth who attended to get tested for HIV.  Ericka says, “At first, it was hard convincing people to get tested for HIV, but once we stated they would get a gift card, their eyes widened. And, when we explained that the gift card gives them access to many options and they could choose what they want to use it on, many people rushed to get tested.”

CARES understands that getting tested may be taboo for many people.  They also knew that getting tested in a public setting might be a bit difficult for some people.  Because of Tango Card, they were able to test over 60 young people for HIV.  As Ericka explains, “Without the incentive, we may not have reached half that number.”

The Youth Peer Educator program is supported by Kaiser Permanente Northern California Benefit Programs and their goal is to test 1,000 youth for HIV within a year.  Ericka adds, “We would not hesitate to use Tango Card again in order to help us reach our overall goal.”

About CARES:

CARES is the largest HIV/AIDS nonprofit clinic in the Sacramento region and is a place of hope for thousands of people from all over the Central Valley who need testing, clinic services and counseling. Since CARES began in 1989, they’ve made incredible strides in their treatment options for people living with HIV/AIDS, their long-term financial stability, and their role as a leader in the Sacramento community.

Next week is gsummit in San Francisco.  For us at Tango Card, it will be our second time attending.  Last year was a learning experience for us and we saw first hand what “gamification” is all about.  Our experience was that gamification is much more than a fad or a buzz word but a revolution. A real revolution in loyalty.  The list of attendees last year was very impressive. And, we sat in on some excellent sessions on engagement, design, best practices, and modern loyalty.  It was very worthwhile – and we couldn’t be more excited to attend again…in fact, our logo is on the attending companies list (http://gsummit.com/) , making us official!

At Tango Card, we fundamentally believe that when rewards are integrated in the program and delivered immediately — these real rewards drive significant results. Modern loyalty programs rely on a modern rewards partner.  We have been impressed with the advancements made in engagement and design of loyalty programs – yet the fulfillment of the reward is still often treated as a bolted-on necessary component.  Our mission is to transform this critical step to be a strategic part of the loyalty program as a whole making it far easy to deliver rewards.

We are, as they say, “all-in” with regards to the modern loyalty revolution and are greatly anticipating the summit next week.

See all you visionaries there!

Dating has gone digital – If you aren’t any good with texting, tweeting, typing, or updating you timeline - you are simply not much of a Valentine – good thing we have got you covered with the all-digital perfect valentine gift :

Have you thought about sending a Tango Card? It’s the thought that counts

“I luv u” says it all

The Tango Card is redeemable for top name brand gift cards like 1-800-Flowers, Spafinder, and Landry’s – making it a one stop shop for flowers, pampering, and a wonderful night out. There is no reason not to be sending one to your partner, friend, or family this Valentine’s Day. It truly is a perfect valentine gift.