Let's Talk Loyalty

Today’s conversation features our friends from the *Loyalty and Awards* conference, which is the largest annual conference dedicated to loyalty managers in the travel sector.

Ahead of this year’s event in Rio de Janeiro, Ravindra Bhagwanani, shares his views on the state of the loyalty industry in 2023 and some of the key challenges he sees for loyalty practitioners in the travel sector.

These trends of course are also helping to shape the content and agenda for the Loyalty & Awards conference agenda being planned for our meeting in Brazil this October, so listen to hear the topics that I’m looking forward to hearing presented on stage this year.

Ravindra also highlights some key improvements in this year's Golden Loyalty Awards, to inspire those of you who operate programs to enter your programs.

Listen to enjoy some insights and inspiration on travel loyalty and the upcoming Loyalty and Awards conference with Ravindra Bhagwanani, Managing Director of Global Flight.

Show Notes:

1) Ravindra Bhagwanani⁠

2) Loyalty and Awards

3) Golden Loyalty Awards

4) Loyalty & Awards conference agenda

Fionna Ronnie is Head of Customer and Loyalty at The Foschini Group. Whilst TFG is based in South Africa, it spans 5 continents, 26 countries and has 34 leading retail brands in its stable.

Its loyalty program, TFG Rewards,is the biggest in retail in South Africa with 30 million + members.

Fionna shares KPI results, data strategies, customer centric retailing approach and how the Customer team are the life blood of TFG Rewards. This team underpins everything driven for a future customer narrative of this extremely impressive retail group.

Hosted by Amanda Cromhout.

Show Notes:

1) Fionna Ronnie

2) The Foschini Group

3) TFG Rewards

Listen in to hear Tom’s short summary show from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas featuring a conversation with Henry Christian. LinkedIn loyalty guru and independent loyalty consultant.

Henry has many years of experience guiding brands and managing loyalty programmes throughout Asia. Henry shares insights on the importance of speaking like a CEO, leveraging customer data and how A/B testing can prove valuable instead of making assumptions for members versus non-members.

Henry shared strategies for membership retention and acquisition talks about a very important principle that loyalty is not a program, it is an outcome to expect from your customers.

Hosted by Tom Peace.

Show Notes:

1) Henry Christian

2) LinkedIn Loyalty Post – Speak Like a CEO

3) #215: Loyalty Insights from Asia - Speak Like a CEO

Today’s episode features an award-winning Australian retail brand that has won recognition both as the “Innovation Champion of the Year” as well as being rated one of Australia’s COOLEST brands!

Barbeques Galore is a nationwide speciality retailer that is dedicated to nurturing Aussie’s love of outdoor cooking and helping everyone “barbeque better”.

We are joined by Mike Ainsworth, General Manager of Marketing and Customer with Barbeques Galore, who shares the insights behind their Barbeque Legends Club.

As you will hear, this wonderful proposition uses the power of community, education and inspiration from Australian barbeque industry legends, to help their customers find even more joy and connection with their friends and families when they gather together around the barbeque flame!

Listen to learn some truly innovative loyalty insights from Mike Ainsworth and the Barbeque Legends Club.

Show Notes:

1) Barbeques Galore

2) Mike Ainsworth

3) Barbeque Legends Club

Today’s episode features Indonesia's GoTo Group, which is the largest digital ecosystem in the country.

This Group is a publicly-traded company, and it combines on-demand services like ride hailing and food delivery, as well as e-commerce functionality and financial services under various brands.

Their first platform is the first one in Southeast Asia to host these three essential use cases in one ecosystem, and it already captures a majority of Indonesian consumer household expenditure, which is even more impressive when you realise that Indonesia also enjoys the fourth largest population of any country on the planet!

In 2022, the GoTo Group appointed Henry Christian as their SVP Head of Loyalty, and today he joins us to share the amazing opportunities and of course challenges of driving profitable behaviour change for such an exciting business with so many internal and external stakeholders to delight.

Henry is truly a “global voice of loyalty”, so listen today to hear my conversation with Henry Christian from GoTo Group, all about driving loyalty for the largest technology brand in Indonesia.

Show Notes:

1) GoTo Group

2) Henry Christian

In 2022 Shangri-La transformed their beloved Golden Circle loyalty program into a powerful direct-to-consumer platform, to include digital marketing, mobile and e-direct capabilities, social media and content development, rewards marketing operations and global brand partnerships.

Listen in to hear Tom’s short summary show from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas featuring a conversation with Kevin Siew, formerly Vice President and Head of Shangri-La Circle, the latest innovation from the Shangri-La International premium global hotel management group.

Hear how they have crafted their latest proposition to further enrich their appeal to travellers of all ages and backgrounds, and allow for greater freedom and flexibility, including iconic lifestyle partnership.

Hosted by Tom Peace.

Show Notes:

1) Shangri - La Hotels & Resorts

2) Shangri-La Circle

3) Kevin Siew, Former Vice President and Head of Shangri-La Circle

4) #213: Relaunching The Shangri-La Hotel Rewards Program

Let’s Talk Loyalty today features Mastercard, who as well as being one of the world’s leading payment providers, are also in fact, one of the world's largest loyalty services providers.

With so much global loyalty expertise, we were thrilled with the opportunity to meet Stephanie Meltzer-Paul, Mastercard’s Executive Vice President of Global Loyalty, who joins us today to share Mastercard’s latest announcement and partnership with Expedia called “Travel With Rewards”.

Stephanie also shares her insights on some of the emerging trends in loyalty in 2023, garnered across the incredible roles she has held in her career to date, leading loyalty and driving performance for various multi-billion-dollar digital channels for some of the US market’s biggest hospitality and restaurant brands.

Listen to learn from this inspiring conversation with Stephanie Meltzer-Paul, Executive Vice President of Global Loyalty with Mastercard.

This episode is sponsored by Mastercard.

Show Notes:

1) Mastercard

2) Stephanie Meltzer-Paul

3) Expedia

4) Travel With Rewards

5) Expedia Group and Mastercard turn everyday spending into extraordinary experiences

This episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty shares some early insights from one of the keynote speakers at this year’s Loyalty & Awards conference in Rio de Janeiro.

CarTrawler is one of Ireland’s great technology success stories, and as a B2B technology brand that partners with many of the world’s leading airline loyalty programs to deliver their car rental proposition, we were delighted with the opportunity to chat with their Head of Loyalty - Heather Nolan.

Listen to this episode to learn Heather's fascinating perspective on the principles of partnerships and driving loyalty in the travel industry, particularly for younger demographics who might not yet travel frequently enough to qualify for top-tier status and bonuses, yet who are incredibly important for the future growth and profitability of any airline.

Show Notes:

1) CarTrawler

2) Heather Nolan

3) Loyalty & Awards - Rio de Janeiro

Circle K Ireland is a highly successful and well-known fuel convenience retail brand in Ireland, the market leader for food, fuel and convenience retail.

Tune in to hear Tom’s summary from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas featuring a conversation with Eadaoin Keane, Head of Marketing for Circle K Ireland who won the “Best Loyalty Programme 2021” from the Irish Loyalty Awards for their “Play or Park” programme.

Circle K’s "PLAY or PARK” loyalty programme features gamification, rewards and charitable contributions, benefits the members and business in equal measure.

Listen to hear how Eadaoin and her team continue to build new campaigns within “PLAY or PARK” to support Irish Olympic athletes, connecting with customers through local community activations, growing the programme’s membership and ultimately winning the hearts of Irish customers.

Hosted by Tom Peace.

Show Notes:

1) Circle K Ireland⁠

2) Eadaoin Keane

3) Irish Loyalty Awards

4) "Play or Park"

5) #212: Circle K's Award-Winning "PLAY or PARK" Programme in Ireland

Today’s episode features a discussion with Eliot Hamlisch, the CMO of AMC Theatres, the largest movie theater chain in the world. AMC has long been a leader and innovator in its category, where it pioneered the multiplex cinema and now has over 10,000 screens across nearly 1,000 theatres in the US and Europe.

As CMO, Eliot oversees a range of important functions for the company, including its Stubs Insider, Premiere and A-List programs. In the podcast, Eliot shares how the value of his experiences working with companies including American Express, Deloitte and Wyndham prepared him for the role at AMC and of course, the common thread of strategically having a focus on the customer translates into innovation and delivering measurable value.

You’ll also hear about how AMC also focuses on investors, and not just institutional ones but individual retail investors. There’s a program for them too, called AMC Investor Connect.

Learn how committed leadership and a big brand translate into opportunities to innovate, grow and deliver a great experience for customers and other stakeholders.

Hosted by Phil Rubin.

Show Notes:

1) Eliot Hamlisch⁠

2) AMC Theatres

3) Adam Aron - AMC Theatres CEO ⁠on Twitter

4) AMC Investor Connect.