Powering flexible gifting with Virgin Experience Days

Delivering a versatile gifting product across some of the UK's best-loved attractions

Nowadays, consumers are increasingly looking for diverse experience-led gifting options, while businesses need scalable, easy-to-deploy solutions, capable of reaching customers through multiple channels.

Merlin Entertainments, the global leader in branded entertainment destinations set out to unlock B2B and retail gifting channels it had not been able to access before. A flexible and universal gifting solution was essential to ensure a seamless user experience across checkout journeys, while delivering the flexibility to redeem across Merlin’s portfolio. 

Challenge

Merlin had strong consumer and affiliate channels but had not launched a gift card product. A traditional closed-loop approach would have required several separate integrations, into 20+ attraction websites, and significant redevelopment effort. 

At the same time, demand for multi-brand and experience gifting continued to grow , creating an opportunity to reach new customers through retail, reward and corporate gifting channels.

The market opportunity was clear, but the technical and operational complexity remained a challenge to any potential product rollout. Key requirements for the project were: 

• Enable redemptions across diverse attractions without costly site changes
• Provide a seamless checkout experience that users understand
• Meet card-scheme compliance and reporting requirements
• Get to market quickly and distribute the product through B2B platforms, retail channels and gifting partners

Solution

Virgin Incentives, the B2B arm of Virgin Experience Days, partnered with Edenred Payment Solutions to develop an entirely new gifting proposition for the UK market: the Merlin Gift Card.

The program required a specific Private Label Gift Card configuration, which operates on the Mastercard scheme network and is integrated into Virgin Incentives’ distribution strategy. The card functions like a debit or credit card at checkout, eliminating the need for extensive redevelopment work across Merlin’s attraction websites and removing the maintenance overhead of multiple integrations. 

Edenred Payment Solutions, as a Mastercard issuer and Principal Member, ensures scheme compliance, reporting and regulatory responsibilities, giving Merlin and Virgin the confidence to launch without heavy regulatory burden. The Virgin Experience Days’ tech team added a top-up feature to handle split payments and higher-value redemptions. Supported by Edenred Payment Solutions’ payments processing platform, customers can redeem seamlessly within existing payment fields.

Virgin Incentives and Edenred Payment Solutions' combined distribution network has enabled the Merlin Gift Card to reach customers through a broad range of channels. Alongside direct sales to Virgin Incentives’ B2B clients and businesses across the wider Virgin Group, the product is distributed through third-party reward and gifting platforms including Tillo, Reward Gateway and Prezzee. It has also expanded into ecommerce and retail channels including Amazon, Tesco and Morrisons. This combination of B2B relationships, platform distribution, Virgin Group clients and retail partners has enabled Merlin to access new gifting and rewards audiences that were previously difficult to reach.

We're delighted with the success of the Merlin Gift Card and the growth it has had since launch. Our relationship with Merlin Entertainments is hugely important to us, and together we saw an opportunity to unlock an entirely new route into B2B, rewards and retail gifting. Edenred Payment Solutions was a trusted partner from the outset to help seamlessly bring this new product to market. The team understood what we needed and worked with us to deliver a smooth launch from start to finish. We're excited to see where the partnership goes next. 

Jessica Hankers, Head of Global Sales, Virgin Incentives

Results

The Merlin Gift Card outperformed expectations on commercial measures. During the first year, sales exceeded Merlin’s original forecast by 134%, with the program on track to generate approximately £2 million within 24 months. 

Distribution scaled rapidly, with the product becoming available across more than 100 reward, gifting and retail platforms in the first 12 months. This significantly expanded the reach of the Merlin gift card and created new opportunities to connect with customers through a variety of channels.

Redemption patterns show meaningful, higher-value engagement with 36% of redemptions used for Merlin hotel stays, Alton Towers accounts for 18%, Legoland 11% and Annual Passes 8%. 

From an operational perspective, the program avoided over 20 separate website integrations, cutting implementation cost and time-to-market, while reducing ongoing maintenance. The product achieved strong visibility and uptake and the collaboration with Edenred Payment Solutions has opened new B2B and retail opportunities for both Merlin and Virgin Incentives.