Let's Talk Loyalty

Each month in the Wiser Loyalty series, Loyalty Academy™ senior faculty members Bill Hanifin and Aaron Dauphinee draw a theme based on the courses required to earn the Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional™ (CLMP™) designation, which is nearing 1,000 individuals across 53 countries worldwide. This month, they are talking about financial planning for loyalty programs and the material is based on the Loyalty Academy™ course: Loyalty Financial Modeling (#105).

Throughout the month, we’ve covered the ecosystem of considerations needed to create a solid financial plan for your customer loyalty initiative. To wrap up the conversations, we share a few examples from work with clients that tie together the concepts shared, illustrate key planning steps, and reemphasize the need to work cross-functionally to have the best chance of creating a sustainable program structure.

Show notes:

1) Bill Hanifin

2) Aaron Dauphinee

3) The Loyalty Academy™

4) The Wise Marketer

This episode is available in audio format on our Let's Talk Loyalty podcast and in video format on www.Loyalty.TV.

This episode is very different to our usual episodes as it was recorded quite spontaneously at a recent event.

The Comarch User Group is an annual meeting of Comarch’s clients who come together in the city of Krakow in Poland to learn, network, and be inspired.

We were lucky enough to be invited again this year, and like most of the audience it was our first opportunity to meet Dr Anna Pruska, who was appointed CEO of Comarch earlier this year.

Dr Pruska is a Doctor of Humanities in the field of International Relations and completed her Master's studies in Finance and Banking at the Warsaw School of Economics, and she started working for Comarch two decades ago,

Most of you know Comarch as a global IT solution that powers some of our favourite loyalty programmes in the world, so to have the chance to meet their new CEO – a leading woman in the global technology industry was incredibly exciting.

We took the opportunity to ask if we could do a short interview to allow you as our audience to also meet her and she agreed.

We were also joined by Piotr Kozlowski who most of you will know as the Vice President of Consulting for Loyalty Solutions at Comarch.

Listen to enjoy our impromptu interview and we hope it’s the first of many we do together with the Senior Leadership team in Comarch.

Sponsored by Comarch.

Show notes:

1) Comarch

2) Dr Anna Pruska, CEO of Comarch

3) Piotr Kozlowski, Vice President of Consulting for Loyalty Solutions at Comarch

4) Watch the full interview at www.Loyalty.TV

Daniel McCarthy is Assistant Professor at Emory University Goizieta School of Business. In this interview, Dan unpacks several deep layers of understanding around measuring retention and customer lifetime value.

He highlights a concern that businesses state improved performance against reduced churn rates. It is not that simple. He dives into differences of retention and churn measurement across subscription and non-subscription, across different industries and even the impact of a free trial in a subscription business.

If you are in the industry of loyalty, you need to listen to Dan McCarthy’s view on measuring churn, retention and customer lifetime value.

Hosted by Amanda Cromhout

Show notes:

1) Daniel McCarthy

2) Emory University Goizieta School of Business

3) #64: Customer-Based Corporate Valuation - Daniel McCarthy of Emory University

4) #338: Covid’s Aftermath, Customer Health, and Customer-Based Forecasting with Daniel McCarthy of Emory University

Each month in the Wiser Loyalty series, Loyalty Academy™ senior faculty members Bill Hanifin and Aaron Dauphinee draw a theme based on the courses required to earn the Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional™ (CLMP™) designation, which is nearing 1,000 individuals across 53 countries worldwide. This month, they are talking about financial planning for loyalty programs and the material is based on the Loyalty Academy™ course: Loyalty Financial Modeling (#105).

Ensuring that your investment in planning and modeling is rewarded by a program that stands the test of time is the focus this week. To help you achieve what they call Sustainable Loyalty, Aaron and Bill look into the important “sanity check” questions you should ask to test your work and make recommendations on how to create a measurement dashboard with the right metrics to keep the CFO at ease.

Show notes:

1) Bill Hanifin

2) Aaron Dauphinee

3) The Loyalty Academy™

4) The Wise Marketer

This episode is sponsored by Phaedon.

Download their 2026 research paper on Humanizing Loyalty here now.

This episode is available in audio format on our Let's Talk Loyalty podcast and in video format on www.Loyalty.TV.

Today’s episode features a fascinating conversation with WestJet, Canada’s second biggest airline, as they embark on a significant transformation journey.

WestJet took to the skies in 1996 with just over 200 employees and three aircraft operating service to five destinations. Today, they operate to more than 100 destinations worldwide, with a team of over 14,000 people and nearly 200 aircraft.

Leading the loyalty evolution is Steve McClelland, Vice President of Loyalty Commercial & Business Development, and we are delighted to have him join us to share his early thoughts on how he plans to grow WestJet Rewards.

With thanks to the Loyalty and Awards conference team for this introduction.

Show notes:

1) WestJet

2) WestJet Rewards

3) Steve McClelland

4) Watch the full interview episode at www.Loyalty.TV.com

This episode is sponsored by Phaedon.

Download their 2026 research paper on Humanizing Loyalty here now.

This episode focuses on the newly relaunched Carter’s Rewards - the loyalty programme of a $3Bn children’s apparel retail business. The successful relaunch lowered customer thresholds, added tiers, and accelerated its personalization strategy.

With Kevin Severs, the Director of Retention for Carter’s. Kevin is a seasoned Director with 18 years of marketing experience spanning retail, CPG, automotive, and consulting. Previously, he was a Director of E-commerce at Hertz and spent nearly a decade CPG consulting with General Mills and working in brand management at Procter & Gamble.

Today we will be learning about Kevin’s favourite loyalty programmes, how Carter’s Rewards is building real customer engagement and all about their plans for the future.

Show notes:

1) Kevin Severs

2) Carter’s Rewards

3) Carters Inc.

Last week we kicked off a month-long discussion of Loyalty Financial Modeling with Loyalty Academy™ senior faculty members Bill Hanifin and Aaron Dauphinee. Drawing from material in Course #105 – Introduction to Loyalty Finance, Aaron and Bill are walking you through the essentials that you need to know to break through the “black box” of loyalty finance.

This week, Bill goes solo and takes a close look at the assumptions that matter most for your financial model and how to create an assumption set that will pass the credibility test with your CFO and win the budget you seek. He shares the “check digit” questions that you must ask to make sure your model will pass the toughest tests with your stakeholders.

Each month in the Wiser Loyalty series, Bill and Aaron draw a theme based on the courses required to earn the Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional™ (CLMP™) designation, which is nearing 1,000 individuals across 53 countries worldwide.

Show notes:

1) Bill Hanifin

2) Aaron Dauphinee

3) The Loyalty Academy™

4) The Wise Marketer

This episode is available in audio format on our Let's Talk Loyalty podcast and in video format on www.Loyalty.TV.

Mastercard recently hosted its latest Excellence in Customer Engagement Summit in Dubai, and Loyalty TV was delighted to attend.

Against the backdrop of market uncertainties and a rapidly evolving consumer landscape, this Summit brought together industry experts and thought leaders to discuss perspectives and share success stories on how organizations can win over the consumers of today and tomorrow.

As our first "Loyalty TV Live" event, Paula Thomas hosted a panel entitled "Influencing and Winning Loyalty in an Age of Choice" featuring Jill Moser, SVP, Global Loyalty, Offers at Mastercard, as well as Murat Ungun, Chief Executive Officer at Kudu Company for Food and Catering, for an engaging session on loyalty.

Topics include:

• Rethinking customer loyalty and loyalty programs in 2024
• Transforming customer loyalty with emerging technology
• Balancing act between digital innovation and customer trust

This event was co-created by the Loyalty TV team together with Mastercard. For more information about the product or services discussed please contact the Mastercard team at mastercardservices.com

Show notes:

1) Mastercard

2) Jill Moser

3) Kudu Company for Food and Catering

4) Murat Ungun

5) mastercardservices.com

6) Influencing and winning loyalty in an age of choice - Slide Deck

7) Watch the full interview episode at www.Loyalty.TV

In this insightful episode, we delve into the true essence of customer loyalty with Mark Proctor who is the Head of Loyalty & Retention at BIG4, Holiday Parks of Australia.

Mark Proctor challenges the conventional metrics often used to gauge loyalty, advocating instead for a focus on emotional connection and customer convenience. Through personal anecdotes and industry examples, Mark Proctor discusses the journey of creating successful loyalty programs, the importance of embracing failure for innovation, and the need to simplify customer interactions in an increasingly complex digital world.

Join us as we explore how loyalty is not just a program but a holistic, organization-wide commitment to enhancing customer experience and trust.

Hosted by Carly Neubauer

Show notes:

1) Mark Proctor

2) BIG4, Holiday Parks

The Loyalty Academy™ senior faculty members, Bill Hanifin and Aaron Dauphinee, are your hosts for this week’s "Wiser Loyalty" podcast episode.

We’re kicking off a new month with fresh content from The Loyalty Academy™ curriculum that provides an Introduction to Loyalty Financial Modeling (course #105). This week Aaron and Bill look into some starting point considerations for brands and program operators to think through in order to be on sound financial footing. This is the starting point for a conversation on loyalty economics that will take place throughout the month of June.

In the Wiser Loyalty series, Bill and Aaron draw a theme each month based on the courses required to earn the Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional™ (CLMP™) designation which is nearing on 1,000 individuals across 53 countries worldwide.

Show notes:

1) Bill Hanifin

2) Aaron Dauphinee

3) The Loyalty Academy™

4) The Wise Marketer