FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     

                                              Adrienne Appell / Robyn Hannah
Toy Industry Association / PunchTab
       aappell@toyassociation.org / robyn@punchtab.com

Toy Industry Association Adds Loyalty Platform Provider PunchTab
as Partner to Power “Play Happens” at the 109th American International Toy Fair

Loyalty Rewards Program Raises the Bar for Toy Trade Show’s Online and Offline Play

New York, NY and Palo Alto, CA | December 13, 2011 – Play Happens, the official game for registered attendees of the American International Toy Fair, will be more interactive, more engaging and more “rewarding” thanks to a new partnership announced today between the Toy Industry Association (TIA), owner of Toy Fair, and PunchTab, the world’s first instant loyalty rewards platform.

This joint venture will revolutionize Play Happens by creating a pre-show online experience powered by PunchTab. Play will kick off online in the weeks leading up to the largest toy trade show in the Western Hemisphere before transitioning offline into the streets of New York City during Toy Fair week (February 12-15, 2012).

PunchTab’s instant loyalty rewards program will enable players to earn Play Happens points by interacting with the Toy Fair blog before and during the show.   Points collected online can be traded in for prizes or stockpiled for the race to the Grand Prize: a NYC New Year’s eve 2012 package complete with hotel stay, tickets to an exclusive party at the Marriott Marquis and special access to the ball viewing.

During the show, Play Happens players also earn points on a virtual game board by checking-in via their smartphones at different locations throughout New York City. The geolocation component is powered by FourSquare and leverages the PunchTab Foursquare application.  An interface with Facebook rounds out the technology aspects of the game. The person who collects the most points by the end of Toy Fair wins.

“Toy Fair attendees have come to expect our show to deliver cutting-edge services, resources, and play elements,” said Marian Bossard, TIA vice president of meetings and events. “TIA’s partnership with PunchTab keeps us on the leading-edge of the technology curve.  We are thrilled to raise the bar of engagement for our guests from around the globe!”

“At PunchTab, we’re passionate about using technology in new, creative ways. The TIA team embodies the same ideology,” said PunchTab founder Ranjith Kumaran. “We’re really excited and very much enjoyed working with TIA to forge a new event-centered experience that engages consumers before and after the event, both online and offline.”

Details about Play Happens can be found on ToyFairNYBlog.com; play is open only to registered Toy Fair attendees. To register or to learn more about Toy Fair, visit ToyFairNY.com.

About the Toy Industry Association                                  
www.toyassociation.org / www.toyfairny.com
TIA is the not-for-profit trade association for producers and importers of toys and youth entertainment products sold in North America, representing more than 535 companies who account for approximately 85% of domestic toy sales.  Toy safety is the number one priority for the toy industry. TIA has a long history of leadership in toy safety including development of the first comprehensive toy safety standard more than 30 years ago, and working with government, consumers and industry on ongoing programs to ensure safe play

Toy Fair is an annual event that is owned and operated by TIA. The largest toy trade show in the Western Hemisphere, the show annually brings together more than 1,100 exhibiting manufacturers, distributors, importers and sales agents from 100 countries to showcase an estimated 100,000 toy and entertainment products to 9,000 unique retail outlets. 

About PunchTab, Inc.                                                                                                         
www.punchtab.com
Founded in January 2011, PunchTab is the world's first instant loyalty and rewards platform allowing bloggers, brands, and businesses to create free social and mobile-enabled loyalty programs in minutes. Through the PunchTab platform, consumers earn points for engaging on websites, in stores, and social sharing sites like Facebook and Twitter, redeemable for discounts and prizes from a customized catalog. Over 3,500 publishers are using PunchTab's tightly-integrated rewards program to engage and incentivize over 8 million consumers every month, with no development or marketing costs. Web and mobile app developers can now utilize the PunchTab Developer Tools for a tightly integrated solution.

Based in Silicon Valley and led by founders Ranjith Kumaran, co-founder of YouSendIt and Mehdi Ait Oufkir, an early YouSendIt employee and founder of JellyDo.com, a location-based reminder service for Foursquare users, PunchTab is funded by Mohr Davidow Ventures, The Social+Capital Partnership, Crunch Fund, Venky Harinarayan and Anand Rajaraman.