VICTORIA – B.C. residents can now measure and reap the rewards of physical activity and loyalty points on a daily basis with the new step tracker feature of the Carrot Rewards app.
Launched in March 2016, Carrot Rewards is a smartphone app that will encourage British Columbians to engage in healthy behaviours by offering them loyalty points from leading loyalty rewards providers for performing healthy activities and learning about healthy lifestyle choices.
“The Carrot Rewards app is one of the many ways the government is encouraging British Columbians to live healthier lifestyles,” said Health Minister Terry Lake. “The step tracker is a welcome addition to an app that has been helping nudge people to make better physical activity choices. The goal of the new feature is to help motivate British Columbians to be more physically active daily.”
The step tracker program works by measuring the number of steps a person takes on a daily basis for two weeks to establish a daily average baseline. Once a baseline is taken, a user who takes 1,000 steps more than their average rate will get loyalty points each day. There are even more rewards available if an individual is able to maintain an increase in their daily step count over time.
"We are exceptionally proud to be enhancing the Carrot Rewards app today with a powerful new feature that will reward Canadians every single day for taking the most basic step on the path to a healthier lifestyle: simply walking! We're delighted to see this great initiative launch for the first time in the world right here in B.C., where the Carrot app has already proven so popular and so uniquely effective," said Andreas Souvaliotis, CEO of Social Change Rewards.
This new step tracking feature is in addition to the current activities available in the app centred on making healthier lifestyle changes. These include completing a health profile and participating in learning activities and health-related quizzes. These activities allow participants to earn brand-name loyalty points such as Aeroplan, PetroPoints, Scene and MoreRewards.
The Carrot Rewards app has seen significant success since it launched in March. To date, close to 60,000 British Columbians have downloaded the app and more than 1,025,000 quizzes have been released through the app. Millions of reward points have been awarded to British Columbians, who are on their way to living a healthier lifestyle.
Over the next few years, Carrot Rewards is expected to expand to additional provinces and territories, reaching potentially millions of Canadians. Today’s announcement coincides with the launch of the Carrot Rewards app in Newfoundland and Labrador, which means even more Canadians will be educated and active about their health while earning reward points.
The Government of Canada invested $5 million in the Carrot Rewards app project. The Government of British Columbia provided $2.5 million to support the program in British Columbia in partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society and the British Columbia Healthy Living Alliance. A total of $15 million has been invested in the program with funding from the private sector.
