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Active Response Group/Brandarama on the chopping block

Written on
Jul 15, 2009 
Author
Edward Barrera  |
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Active Response Group/Brandarama on the chopping block

leadgeneration_small.jpgADOTAS — The online lead generation company appears to be done and might owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to affiliates.

Hercules Technology Growth Capital, which provided $10 million of venture debt financing to ARG in 2007, retained Gerbsman Partners to sell off the collapsing company’s assets. ARG (Brandarama, a rewards program for consumers, was a service mark of ARG) provided leads to clients from individuals who indicated interest or “opt-in” to receive marketing information. The company’s resources and knowledge allowed access to a vast inventory of web sites and lead generation platforms.

Officials from Hercules and ARG did not respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment. An online search of Pacer, which documents all US Court actions, shows no bankruptcy filings.

Incentive promotions-based companies have generally been struggling to maintain their market position after attorney generals in Florida and other states forced stronger online disclosure language attached to the word “free.” Companies have to say upfront on their creative ads, on the landing page and throughout the user experience that they need to buy X to get Y. The wording devastated the overall conversion levels.

On some forums over the past few months, some users have complained about late payments or no payments from ARG. The blog Freebiescoop has been following the speculation for a few months. It said the company might owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in liabilities. This includes money owed to users of its incentive websites and those affiliates that marketed the products, according to the blog.

According to Gerbsman Partners, purchasers of the ARG Assets will receive all of ARG’s right, title, and interest in the purchased portion of Hercules’ collateral. ARG told Hercules that it will use its best efforts to make its employees available to assist purchasers with due diligence and assist with a prompt and efficient transition at mutually convenient time.

[Full disclosure: The publisher of Adotas has previously worked at ARG]





Reader Comments.

ARG owes me over $4k. Looks like I’m never going to see that money.

Posted by angela | 11:19 am on July 14, 2009.

I was supposed to receive $1600 going back to March and September of last year.

One important item of note is the whole MPELL cash-back/rebate mess. ARG handed it over to MPELL, who couldn’t handle the onslaught. I purhased walmart & costco gift cards and sent in my redemption certificates.

So not only am I not going to receive the $1600 I was supposed to get, i’m out $1600 that i’m not going to get reimbursed for.

Posted by -dan | 12:09 pm on July 14, 2009.

Google Mpell, and you’ll find a lot of people who haven’t received certificates, items, etc. I’m not pleased with their services and would encourage others not to use their servcies.

Posted by Kat | 7:41 am on August 5, 2009.

I also was shafted by Mpell. Not much I could do about that as an individual. I filed a complaint with the company that engaged their services to alert them to how their customers are treated. Hopefully, this will cause them not to work with Mpell in the future. This is not a time to find loopholes to avoid redemptions.

Posted by TNK | 6:48 pm on August 5, 2009.

I have been waiting several years. I did everything correct to receive my gift in the beginning. I then rec’d a letter from Mpell telling me to spend the money and send a receipt to receive my gift. I did just that, then was advised that YourTopBrands took back their promotion and Mpell had nothing to do with them anymore. I just rec’d the following email and am very distraut! I am now out $250.00 for falling for this not to mention the membership fees spents yrs ago on the products needed to fulfill my reward. The website for YourTopBrands or Active Response Group no longer exsist and the phone for YTB (877-312-7263) gives me a fast busy signal when i call now! MAJOR SCAM, I CAN’T BELIEVE I FELL FOR IT!!!!!!!!!!

Dear Denise,

According to our records, you may be a claimant of one or more consumer prize(s) from one of our consumer rewards sites.

Active Response Group, Inc. (“Active Response Group”) is the parent company of YourTopBrands the Brand that you originally registered for.

As you know, many businesses have been hurt badly by the financial downturn and the credit crunch that followed the collapse of the subprime mortgage markets. Active Response Group, like many other firms, though not involved in any way in those activities, has seen its revenues drop dramatically. As a result, we found ourselves in very serious financial difficulty.

Despite taking various steps to reduce our costs and preserve value, we became unable to make our debt payments to our senior lender, Hercules Technology Growth Capital, Inc. (“Hercules”). Hercules had lent Active Response Group ~$10,000,000, which senior loans were secured by all of our assets. Since we were unable to pay our current payments, Hercules has foreclosed on its collateral and has sold Active Response Group’s assets to a third party via an auction process. While the details of the transaction are subject to confidentially provision, the highest offer was insufficient to pay Hercules in full.

Unfortunately, Active Response Group’s inability to pay Hercules in full means that with certainty Active Response has no funds to satisfy any consumer prize claims. Our customer service center is no longer in operation, and we will be winding down the affairs of the company under state law. So this is the last communication you can expect from us and we have no means of conducting further contact with you.

We are of course very disheartened by this turn of events, as we know you must be. We thank you for your patronage and wish you the best.

Very truly yours,

Customer Care Department

Posted by Dee | 11:41 am on August 6, 2009.

I am out over $2500, thanks to them. This is just the money I spent to send in my cashback receipts. I spent probably another $600 on qualifying. However, I was fortunate enough to get a few gift cards before they went under.

Posted by Maggie | 11:26 am on October 20, 2009.

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