Carlson Marketing Worldwide today announced the launch of its UpbeatsSM digital music store - a new offering in which participants can redeem points for downloadable music that suits their individual tastes. This program, exclusive to Carlson Marketing, was developed in conjunction with PuretracksTM. It delivers all program information electronically, eliminating the need to create and mail plastic gift cards. The Upbeats.com Website houses an extensive catalog of music across all genres, which currently can be downloaded only by participants within the United States, but will be made available later this year to program participants in Canada.

"Over the past few years, there's been tremendous growth in the digital music industry," said Farhad Coovadia, director of merchant relations for Carlson Marketing. "In the United States alone, digital music sales almost doubled in 2006 to $2 billion or about 10 percent of total music sales. We developed Upbeats in response to this growing trend, creating an innovative new award category in the industry. By eliminating the need for plastic cards printed with download information, we're able to leverage our existing e-catalog and order management systems. This allows us to offer Upbeats at an attractive price to clients on our white-label e-catalog."

How Upbeats Works
Participants first redeem earned points from Carlson Marketing's e-catalog and then download music from Upbeats.com. Once an order has been placed, the participant receives an email containing a serial number and PIN combination that equates to the number of downloads, or credits, that have been awarded. After accessing www.upbeats.com, the user inputs the serial number and PIN to download their music selections. Future offerings on Upbeats will include music videos, movies, and MP3-formatted music files.

"Upbeats also serves as a powerful promotional platform," added Coovadia. "PINs for digital music downloads can be issued, and promotion-specific landing pages can be developed to further brand the experience. Puretracks has an extensive database that tracks promotional activities enabling us to accurately measure a return on investment for our clients. Of course we get music label approval first for all of our Upbeats promotional programs."

"Our clients strive for accelerated engagement with key customers, business partners and employees," said Jon Von Rentzell, vice president of enterprise engagement, Carlson Marketing. "To improve levels of engagement, especially in the early lifecycle of a relationship, we need engagement motivators that capture their attention. Upbeats is an innovative way of providing extrinsic motivators that grab that attention in the first 90 days."

For more information about Upbeats, call 1.763.212.1628 or visit www.upbeats.com.