Indianapolis-based marketing technology and promotions company, PERQ, received the Marketing Tech Award for its FATWIN incentive gaming technology during the 15th annual TechPoint Mira Awards honoring the best of tech in Indiana. The technology collects valuable consumer information for future marketing efforts, while consumers become more familiar with promoted brands and they have fun while they’re doing it.

The entertainment software industry, which includes incentive gaming like PERQ’s FATWIN technology, is a $5 billion industry that employs more than 120,000 people in 34 states, according to the entertainment software association. PERQ currently serves more than 1,000 businesses with attracting consumers through incentives, promotions and games.

FATWIN powers business-branded games, contests and sweepstakes with direct mail, email and advertising campaigns, including offline, traditional advertising tactics, designed to attract in-store and online traffic. In addition to in-store kiosks, FATWIN offers custom microsites and focuses on social sharing elements. The technology is used to gather more demographic data about customers which propels revenue and growth for the company’s clients through incentive-based promotions and games.

The Mira Awards judges were impressed by PERQ’s online/offline combination approach to driving sales that addresses real pain points throughout the value chain for marketers and their customers, and with the company’s own remarkable growth. PERQ is solving very specific marketing challenges because they understand that what marketers are really buying is increased sales, and that the technology is the means to achieve them. The fact that the company’s growth has been self-funded and the solution implementation was so effectively developed were important factors, too. The return on investment PERQ offers its customers astounded the judges nearly as much as the effectiveness of the FATWIN product, which has proven to increase sales up to 25 percent.

 

TechPoint, Indiana’s technology growth initiative, honored PERQ and 14 other Indiana-based companies, entrepreneurs and educators for their technology excellence and innovation on May 3, at the Mira Awards gala presented by BKD CPAs & Advisors. Mira — Latin for miracle and a variable star thousands of times brighter than the Earth’s sun — represents the best of tech in Indiana each year.

Forty-eight independent, volunteer judges spent more than 700 collective hours reviewing the applications, interviewing the nominees and choosing the 15 winners. Judges were primarily subject matter experts and experienced company executives.

PERQ is part of a larger business cluster made up of more than 30 marketing technology businesses concentrated in Central Indiana. In less than four years, this marketing tech sector in has seen four IPOs or acquisitions representing $4.26 billion in market value and 3,100 Indiana jobs. Many of these companies barely existed ten years ago.