Let's Talk Loyalty

Today’s episode features some "Loyalty Royalty" an interview with one of the 2023 “Top 30 under 40” award winners at the recent International Loyalty Awards in London.

Joe Doran is Senior Vice President of Loyalty for Capillary in North America, and he joins us today to share and celebrate Capillary’s truly incredible list of achievements in 2023 so far.

Joe also shares his insights around the latest loyalty sectors and strategies that he believes have explosive potential right now, as well as the incredible success Capillary’s is having with their latest flagship client in the US market – Nascar!

Listen today to learn from Joe Doran from our friends in Capillary Technologies.

This episode is sponsored by Capillary Technologies.

Show Notes:

1) Joe Doran, Senior Vice President of Loyalty for Capillary in North America

2) Capillary Technologies

3) Capillary Shines Bright at International Loyalty Awards 2023

4) Capillary Named A Leader in The Forrester Wave™ Loyalty Technology Solutions, Q1 2023 Report

Tune in and catch Tom's brief overview from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas where she is joined by Jonathan Hopkins and Angus Frazer, co-founders of Sonder Media.

Sonder Media is a consulting firm that specializes in identifying, valuing, and optimizing the media value of loyalty programs, and Tom will summarise the key insight from Jonathan and Angus who share their expertise on Loyalty’s high margin potential.

The original podcast shows the power and potential profitability of using the unique assets, permissions and insights from your loyalty program as a media business, an increasingly popular idea being considered by program owners in order to increase returns from their loyalty program investment.

Listen to Tom summarise the challenges and the potential of this big idea, and how you can explore building a media business in a way that continues to meet the needs of your members and your brand, as well as with advertising partners.

Hosted by Tom Peace.

Show Notes :-

1) Sonder Media

2) Jonathan Hopkins

3) Agnus Frazer

4) #231: Building Your Program's Profitability - Loyalty's Hidden Potential

Today’s episode features a brand that has been at the TOP of our wish list to bring on the show over the past few years.

McDonald’s is, of course, the world’s leading global foodservice retailer, with over 40,000 locations in over 100 countries!

Just recently, the business was listed in second place in the *World's Most Innovative Companies of 2023*, and they now operate loyalty programs in over 50 markets, with over 50 million members active!

Joining me today to share this incredible story is Bess Cades Director, Customer Engagement Strategy and Lifetime Value for McDonald’s.

Listen to learn the insights behind the extraordinary growth for McDonald’s Rewards around the world, a program that in time, could become one of the world’s largest loyalty programs.

Please enjoy this masterclass in loyalty marketing from one of the world’s greatest brands.

Show Notes:

1) McDonald’s

2) McDonald’s Rewards

3) Bess Cades Director, Customer Engagement Strategy and Lifetime Value

4) World's Most Innovative Companies 2023

5) Watch the full video interview at www.Loyalty.TV

Today’s episode features another leading US retailer that leverages loyalty to grow its business, in this case, to a whopping $84 billion in revenue in their most recent financial year!

“Sam’s Club” is a warehouse club with 597 locations across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, that leverages the power of subscriptions since 1983 - way before subscription-based loyalty was so globally recognised as a cool and clever idea!

Our guest is Scott Ludwig, Vice President of Membership for Sam’s Club, and he joins us today to share some of the compelling reasons for their

business success, which includes renewal rates in excess of 90% for their mature subscribers.

Scott explains the importance of their expanding partner proposition based on card-linked offers, and some examples of how they are achieving true personalization in ways that are delivering NPS scores that will amaze you!

Listen to enjoy this fascinating conversation with Scott Ludwig from Sam’s Club.

Show Notes:

1) Sam’s Club

2) Scott Ludwig, Vice President of Membership for Sam’s Club

Listen in to hear Tom’s short summary show from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas where she is joined by Hollie McLellan, formerly Head of Customer Marketing and Loyalty for Boots UK and now Director of Customer Marketing, to discuss the company’s latest innovations and initiatives.

When it comes to loyalty programmes in the UK, the gold standard programme that consumers say they love the most is often the Boots Advantage Program.

This show was a masterclass in loyalty marketing, showcasing Boots “Beauty Club” which features content marketing as a new loyalty driver, as well as their new "Price Advantage" proposition, and their exciting tests with gamification and subscription strategies.

Hosted by Tom Peace.

Show Notes:

1) Boots Advantage Program

2) Hollie McLellan

3) My Beauty

4) Boots UK

5) #230: The Boots Iconic "Advantage" Programme in the UK Celebrates Its 25th Birthday⁠

Today’s episode features some incredibly exciting updates from the loyalty program I personally use most often, the award-winning Skywards program from Emirates Airlines.

Emirates is known and respected globally as one of the world’s best and fastest growing airlines, and its loyalty program, Skywards now recognizes and

rewards over 32 million members around the world!

Based in Dubai, the Emirates Group employs over 103,000 staff from more than 160 nationalities and in early May 2023, they reported their post-pandemic turnaround results, delivering their best ever profit of US$ 2.9 billion.

In today’s episode, I’m once again joined by Dr Nejib Ben-Kheder, Head of Emirates Skywards, who shares all their latest exciting news, including the

launch of Skywards Everyday proposition, which will be fascinating to anyone considering launching a card-linked concept for your own loyalty program.

Dr Nejib also explains how and why the value of the Skywards currency was recently adjusted, and how the program has managed to protect its most valuable members, while also reflecting the commercial needs of the airline.

Other exciting news you’ll hear today include Dr Nejib’s incredible statistics on their earn rates for airline versus non-airline activities, which proves how effectively Skywards is achieving its goal to become a truly global lifestyle loyalty program, rather than simply an airline frequent flyer program.

Hosted by Paula Thomas.

Show Notes:

1) Dr Nejib Ben-Kheder⁠, Head of Emirates Skywards

2) Emirates Airlines

3) Skywards program

4) Skywards Everyday

This episode focuses on the loyalty market in Italy, featuring expert insights from Cristina Ziliani.

Cristina is a Professor of Marketing at the University of Parma, Italy. She lectures on loyalty management and has been the Director of the Loyalty Observatory since 1999, dedicated to research, consulting and education on Loyalty Management, CRM and CX

Cristina is a key contributor to the “Understanding Loyalty in Europe” White Paper created by Mando-Connect in partnership with YouGov, which explores loyalty membership, appeal and impact across 24 European Markets.

Listen to learn about the loyalty landscape in Italy – what membership, appeal and impact look like in this market – and which are the programmes and key innovations to be inspired by.

Hosted by Charlie Hills.

Show Notes :

1) Cristiana Ziliani

2) European Loyalty Whitepaper

3) Mando-Connect

4) YouGov

Listen in to hear Tom’s short summary show from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas where she was joined by Brad Macdonald, Epsilon’s Vice President of Loyalty Strategy from May 2022, where Brad talks about the methods and importance of measuring the Value of Loyalty Marketing Investment.

Brad describes the methods that Epsilon use to measure and predict loyalty strategy performance and most importantly, ROI.

Hosted by Tom Peace.

Show Notes:

1) Brad Macdonald

2) Epsilon

3) #227: Measuring the Value of Loyalty Marketing Investment with Epsilon

Today’s episode features the UAE’s latest loyalty program which has been recently launched by a fuel retailer.

The Emirates General Petroleum Corporation is otherwise known as EMARAT, and they operate as a leading fuel and convenience store retailer across Dubai and the Northern Emirates.

Our guest is Ali Bin Zayed, the Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty for Emarat, who has led the development and launch of Emcan, and today he shares the insights behind its name, how it was developed and some of its impressive early results.

He also shares some of the highly innovative channels that are being used to support the incredibly diverse population of people from around the world who call the UAE their home.

Ali explains how they chose their loyalty platform provider, and some of the upcoming industry-leading technology that they are implementing in order to ensure their business continues to offer more ease, simplicity and delightful experiences for their customers.

Listen to enjoy this conversation with Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty for Emarat.

Show Notes:

1) The Emirates General Petroleum Corporation

2) Ali Bin Zayed⁠, the Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty for Emarat

3) Emcan

Today, Let's Talk Loyalty welcomes back an iconic airline brand that is long overdue a return visit to our show.

American Airlines first joined us in April 2020 to share how they were thinking about their loyal customers and the role of the AAdvantage program in those first early days of the Covid pandemic.

Now, three years on, we revisit this iconic program – which is in fact the longest-running computerised or travel loyalty program in the world.

AAdvantage was established in 1981 with a laser focus on rewarding frequent flyers on American Airlines.

Today, the program has more than 100 million members and has evolved dramatically.

AAdvantage no longer considers itself a frequent flyer program, but instead a travel rewards program, and now they are once again leading the industry, with new ways for members to earn and keep their status in return for any of their loyalty within the Advantage eco-system.!

To hear the full story, I’m thrilled to be joined today by Chris Isaac, Director of AAdvantage, to hear how Covid ironically created new insights for him and

his team on just how loyal their members were being – even when they were unable to fly!

Listen to enjoy the latest insights from AAdvantage.

Show Notes:

1) Chris Isaac, Director of AAdvantage

2) American Airlines⁠

3) AAdvantage