We’re excited to say that we’ve just launched the new Emma referral scheme
For those of you who have the Gummy Bears feature enabled, this has been moved to Emma Quests for everyone.
Over the past few months, we have got a lot of criticism regarding Gummy Bears and why we have decided to make them a core component in the app. In addition, we have realised they haven’t delivered the results we were hoping for.
For this reason, instead of keeping them in the Feed, we have moved them in Quests.
Seems like this scheme is changing before my eyes today…
When I first looked at the Ts&Cs this morning, the whole process for claiming a referral looked cumbersome and confusing - make the referral, fill in a form, claim within 30 days, referred person needed to use the App for four weeks before payout…
Looks like the Ts&Cs are now changed to only stipulating that the person referred has to subscribe to Emma Pro. Is that right?
Can you at least update the update date for that Referral T&C page? Hard to keep up
I think you’re rewarding the right activity as a business, but I would have preferred to see a small Gummy Bear reward for a plain referral that resulted in a connected account, and a £10-£15 referral bonus for a paid subscription (or even a free year of Emma Pro for 3 referrals). Easy for me to say when I’ve not even had many referrals ultimately sign-up and certainly no Pro referrals, but just some feedback…
Is there a possibility of moving this referral selection end of the feed rather than occupying the premium real estate ?? I think Normal users and pro users wouldn’t complain as much if you place it end of the feed.
Now they have to subscribe to pro for you to get the reward? When I joined a few months ago, a referral meant a free month of Emma Pro. I felt motivated to talk about an app I believe in. Then you introduced gummy bears. I thought the program was fine, I just didn’t like being beaten over the head with it via gummy bear icons in four different places and floating over my feed. I preferred a month of pro per referral but I was motivated to earn enough gummy bears to eventually get cash. Now a referral without a subscription to pro is worthless. I am demotivated and will no longer bother recommending this app. I literally cold called a pal today who’s been talking about budgeting woes and convinced her to download because I really do appreciate how this app has helped me, but I’m not going to hard sell a premium service to my friends, and if it means nothing to have them sign up then I won’t waste my time. Maybe I wouldn’t feel so sour if I was just joining, but seeing the value of a referral erode is disappointing.
Definitely. A premium subscription usually means no ads. You can’t fool us, Emma. An ad for your own product is still an ad. An ad trying to get you to do something rather than buy something is also still an ad!
I also feel bummed out that the gummy bears I earned don’t seem to mean anything now. The update says they’ll maybe be usable for swag or an app icon in the future, which aren’t the most exciting rewards. I’ve said it before, but I think the main issue with the gummy bears re: poor feedback from users was the way it was rolled out. It was so aggressive. Still, I adjusted to earning the bears and it motivated me to engage more and mention the app to my friends more. But maybe the activity Emma specifically wanted people to engage in was referrals and too many people were just using budgeting actions. The roll back of that reward system also seems rocky: people with gummy bears wondering why they bothered. I wonder why it was important to roll out a new rewards system before figuring out what to do with the previous one. Maybe there were targets for subscriptions/revenue that didn’t pan out as hoped. Though I’ve expressed my frustration over feeling jerked around by the different reward systems, and also finding them pushy, I hope everything’s ok over at Emma HQ because this app is an important part of my financial life and I appreciate it a lot.
Oh yeah, didn’t mean to imply I thought you were going to go under or something. Just hope you’re, I dunno, getting what you want. In another post you talked about things not working and needing to change them.
I think Gummy Bears are dead. (Although it would be good if someone from Emma could officially confirm). The prizes that people have been saving up from have completely disappeared from the app, for all I can tell, and Gummy Bears can still be earned but only for budgeting actions and the total is buried deep in menus. This means they are now nothing more than a token gesture. You can save 7000 over 2 years but only so you can go into the Quest menu and see your achievement.
What a way to annoy (and I could have used a stronger word here) the user base. I really like Emma, and understand the need to make money through referrals, however they just must have foreseen that many people would log onto the app each day and put in some time investment to get a free pair of AirPods Pro or PS5 after a couple of years. Making such a prominent feature and then all but ditching it a couple of months later is generally going to upset some people, and that risks the 5 star ratings which they have worked really hard to get on the App Store.
Hi Emma HQ, I really want to put my promo code out on moneysavingexpert.com. It will get plenty of downloads as that website has hundreds of thousands of subscribers all looking for ways to save money. I have done this successfully with promo codes for my internet and electricity. BUT, no one will download my promo code if there is no monetary incentive! How about you split the £15 between the referrer and the new user? That way we Emma users can put our promo codes out there in the ether and a whole ton of people will sign up
