We partnered with CNN and their Impact Your World initiative which focuses on empowering viewers to make a difference in critical cause-related stories. Our idea was to use this platform to showcase how American Express Members can make an immediate impact by donating the cash value of their points. The result was a branded American Express content button on the Impact Your World home page placed in context of those stories dedicated to humanitarian issues.

We brokered the dialogue between CNN and American Express to synchronize back-end technology so that when viewers clicked the button they’d be able to access American Express’s database of third party non-profits and other recipients suitable for donations.

In this way, Membership Rewards points could truly become “Good Points” – broadening the sense of reward for Members beyond the material, and strengthening their ties with the American Express brand in the process.

The program has just launched, but with the power of the American Express and CNN brands tied together in this meaningful way, we’re confident that many more people will be helped around the world through this program than were before.