System & architecture for distribution and management of promotional gifts for marketing and client relations

A system, comprising;

• a front end system;
• a back end system;
• the back end system communicatively connected with the front end system;
• the front end system configured to provide a customer user interface for a customer to access the back end system to facilitate the purchase and management of a plurality of marketing cards by the customer;
• wherein the customer user interface is configured to prompt the customer to create a marketing card design with branding and contact information of the customer;
• wherein the customer user interface is configured to prompt the customer to select a monetary value to be assigned to each of the plurality of marketing cards;
• wherein the plurality of marketing cards each have a unique identifier and/or code;
• wherein the customer user interface is configured to prompt the customer to create an account in the back end system;
• wherein the customer user interface is configured to prompt the customer to add funds to the account;
• the front end system configured to provide a recipient user interface for a recipient of one or the plurality of marketing cards from customer to access the back end system to facilitate the selection of a retail gift card by the recipient and activation of marketing card for the selected retail gift card having the monetary value using the unique identifier and/or code;
• wherein activation of the marketing card for the selected retail gift card causes the selected retail gift card to be sent to the recipient;
• wherein the back end system is configured to deduct the monetary value for the selected retail gift card from the account when the marketing card is activated for the selected retail gift card.

A method, comprising:

• generating a set of unique IDs /codes for a plurality of digital marketing cards;
• Encrypting the set of unique IDs/codes to produce a set of secure unique IDs/codes;
• electronically communicating one or more of the digital marketing cards having respective ones of the set of secure unique IDs/codes to one or more recipients;
• in response to a recipient of the one or more recipients providing a transaction request message having for activation of one of the plurality of digital marketing cards, conducting a secure transaction for activation of a marketing card by:
• authenticating the digital marketing card by:
• decrypting the secure unique ID /code for the digital marketing card to produce an unencrypted unique ID/code;
• comparing, by a processor, the unencrypted unique ID/code with store information relating to the set of unique ID/code to confirm the unencrypted unique ID/code is valid and has not yet been activated;
• verifying the identity of the recipient by:
• generating a challenge message and electronically communicating it to an email address or SMS number associated with the recipient;
• prompting the recipient to provide the received challenge message as a confirmation message;
• determining whether the identify of the recipient is verified based on a comparison, by a processor, of the confirmation message to the challenge message;
• proceeding with activation of the digital marketing card for the recipient in response to successful authentication of the digital marketing card and verification of the identity of the recipient.