Yahoo Finance Scene loyalty program members get NBA access with new deal
If you’re a basketball-loving member of the Scene loyalty program, you’re in luck.
Scene announced Thursday it is launching a three year partnership with the NBA, marking the program’s first major deal with a sports league.
The Scene program is a joint venture between Scotiabank and Cineplex. The new partnership with the NBA builds on the partnership between the basketball league and Tangerine, a subsidiary of Scotiabank.
Matthew Seagrim, the managing director of the Scene program, said in an interview that the partnership will offer new and unique rewards for loyalty members, and he says they already have high interest in the NBA.
“We’ve spent a lot of time looking at different sports and different leagues and one of the things we know are that NBA fans are more likely to have a scene card than the average Canadian and, in fact, more likely than people who are fans of any other sport,” Seagrim said.
“There’s a really nice overlap between NBA fandom and Scene membership. So when we met with each other, it just made a lot of sense.”
To start, the partnership will offer Scene members a chance to enter sweepstakes and win prizes, including tickets to the 2020 NBA All Star game in Chicago next week. But Seagrim says that the prizes are just the starting point for what he says will be an evolving partnership.
“We’ll be bringing other events to our members and exclusive experiences over time,” he said. “We’ll see where it goes.”
The latest announcement comes shortly after one of Scene’s founding partners, Cineplex, moves one step closer to being acquired by U.K-based Cineworld.
Cineplex agreed to be purchased by Cineworld for $2.8 billion in December. The company had seven weeks to shop around for other potential buyers, but announced Monday that it did not find a superior offer to Cineworld’s.
Seagrim said he does not expect there be any changes related to the Scene program as a result of the Cineplex acquisition.
“Cineplex and Scotiabank have been engaged in bringing Scene to Canadians since 2007. It’s a long-term deal and we don’t expect there to be any change or any impact to Scene members,” Seagrim said.
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