Let's Talk Loyalty

David's Bridal is a US-based retailer that specializes in wedding gowns, prom gowns and formal wear, and offers an extraordinary collection of beautiful outfits for all of life's magical moments. Already operating over 300 store locations in various countries as well as online, in 2020, David's Bridal stores created an industry first with the launch of their Diamond loyalty program, designed to leverage the buying power of the bride's family and friends to help the happy couple earn a honeymoon of their dreams! Kelly Cook, EVP, Chief Marketing and IT Officer for David's Bridal, joins us on this episode to explain this genius idea, the insights that inspired it and its incredible performance so far.Show Notes:David’s BridalDiamond LoyaltyKelly CookTime Stamps:03:55 - Kelly’s Favorite Loyalty Program06:03 - Role of Content as a Loyalty Driver09:44 - Diamond as a Crowdsource Loyalty Program11:53 - How did Kelly persuade the Senior Leadership Team to support the program?29:15 - David's Bridal Lessons Learned During the Launch of the Diamond Program

As one of the most exciting loyalty markets in the world, South Africa boasts plenty of compelling concepts and innovative ideas - and this summary show discusses one of the most exciting to date! Ros Netto, Customer, CRM & Loyalty Specialist and Head of Customer Care for Real Foods Group in South Africa, shares her insights from the launch of South Africa's first restaurant and fast-casual dining subscription program for their market-leading chain called Kauai.Listen to learn some of the challenges and solutions they learned in this short summary episode of Let's Talk Loyalty.Show Notes:Ros NettoReal Foods GroupKauai#90: Subscription Innovation Driving Restaurant Loyalty in South Afric

Sheetz Inc. is one of North America's fastest-growing convenience store chains, already operating over 600 locations.In this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty, we were delighted to share the impressive role that loyalty initiatives play in Sheetz business strategy, in a conversation with Director of Brand Marketing, Nicole Auman .Nicole discusses some of the company's recent major insights and achievements, including a new subscription service, her insights on the compelling role that their app is playing as a direct digital connection to their customers and of course, their store teams who serve as ambassadors of the program with customers.This episode is packed with insights on how Sheetz is driving its business forward by leveraging technology and data to delight its members. Show Notes:SheetzNicole Auman

Etihad Guest is a world-leader in airline loyalty, renowned for delivering innovative ideas that delight members in unexpected ways!In today's episode, Let's Talk Loyalty is joined once again by Kim Hardaker, Managing Director of the Etihad Guest Programme, who shares the latest ideas and insights from one of the travel industry's leading reward programs. Their recent campaigns include a proposition to support the airlines sustainability goals, and a "world-first" idea that celebrated the reopening of Australia's borders post-pandemic.Listen to enjoy another episode jam-packed full of thoughtfulness and innovation. Show Notes:Etihad GuestKim HardakerEtihad Guest MilesMiles On the GoConscious Choices

The global Covid crisis challenged many businesses to the brink of survival, especially in the travel industry. Across airlines, hotels, hospitality and duty free, with global travel volumes almost non-existent, these travel companies were challenged to innovate in ways they may never have imagined before.   Lagardère Travel Retail saw the pandemic as an incredible opportunity to create compelling new channel with their customers, creating an entirely new sales and marketing approach that their customers loved! In this short episode, we summarise what we learned from Chief Executive Officer Eudes Farbe, and Chief Information Officer, Adam McCarthy to understand their unique, world-class solution in the absence of duty free customers in their airports across China. Listen to learn how Lagardère created such significant value using their loyalty program and leveraged China's unique digital eco-system to achieve a profitable new route to market that has proven to be pandemic-proof. Show Notes:Lagardère Travel RetailEudes FarbeAdam McCarthy

Sonder Media is a consulting firm that specializes in identifying, valuing, and optimizing the media value of loyalty programs, and in today’s episode, Jonathan Hopkins and Angus Frazer, co-founders of Sonder Media, share their expertise and insights on this high margin opportunity.We discussed 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 their returns on their loyalty program investment.Join us for a discussion about both 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 and potentially also with advertising partners. Show notes:Sonder MediaJonathan HopkinsAngus FrazerTime Stamps:02:46 - Favorite Loyalty Program05:12 - How does owned media can measure and obviously increase the return on investment of loyalty programs.11:38 - How to Identify  the best way to monetize owned media without compromising core business objectives14:41 - What are the particular loyalty programs or sectors and categories that are working for this opportunity with owned media?18:30 - Brands Sonder Media worked with20:35 - Understanding the Value of Owned Media25:12 - What other types of opportunities for value and attention should we consider?27:20 - The Opportunity of Brands for Media

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.2022 marks the 25th anniversary of this iconic programme, so "Let's Talk Loyalty" was delighted to be joined by Hollie McLellan, Head of Customer Marketing and Loyalty for Boots UK, to discuss the company's latest innovations and initiatives.Join us to hear this masterclass in loyalty marketing, showcasing their new "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.Boots UK is truly an iconic retail brand so don't miss this exclusive opportunity to learn how their Advantage Program is changing and innovating for the future.Show Notes:Boots UKBoots Advantage ProgramMy BeautyBoots XHollie McLellanTime Stamps:03:26 - Hollie’s Favorite Loyalty Program07:18 - History of the Advantage Program10:07 - Approximate numbers of members of Boots Advantage Program in the UK11:12 - Points reward elements12:52 - How staff embrace and execute the program very well14:39 - My Beauty17:58 - Contents as a big part of the future24:19 - Price Advantage Proposition35:18 - What we can expect coming up next with Boots

“To make the customer fall in love with the brands.” This is how Alejandro Gonzalez Saul, CEO of Puntos Columbia described the purpose and goal of this market-leading loyalty program operating as a coalition in Colombia.In this short summary show, "Let’s Talk Loyalty" looks back on a fascinating conversation with the true loyalty market leader in Colombia to understand its impressive proposition and performance.Listen to learn some of the secrets that Alejandro shared that drive the incredible success of "Puntos Colombia" in the South American market. Show Notes:Alejandro Gonzalez SaulPuntos Columbia#86: Coalition Loyalty In Columbia with Puntos Columbia

The International Airline Group is one of the world's largest airline groups, formed by the merger of British Airways and the Spanish Airline Iberia. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it flew to 279 destinations and carried approximately 118 million passengers per year.IAG created a new unified loyalty currency called Avios, as well as a dedicated loyalty division that has been operating in various forms for over 30 years.In this episode, we are joined by the Chief Product Officer of IAG Loyalty, Stephen Scott as we look at some of the big ideas that are engaging members right now, how they are evolving how they earn and spend their Avios, such as card linking and e-commerce, before moving on to emerging concepts that we're all starting to think about, such as NFTs.Stephen explains how the pandemic impacted customers all over the world and changed their behaviour and use of technology and how IAG Loyalty has focused on achieving a complete digital transformation to support them.There’s much more on the way as IAG Loyalty continues to expand. Listen to this conversation and learn what the future holds for the loyalty division of the International Airlines Group.This episode is sponsored by Collinson.Show Notes:The International Airlines Group (IAG)Stephen ScottAviosTime Stamps:02:42 - Stephen Scott’s Favorite Loyalty Program06:43 - Consumer's Behavior of loyalty currency with e-stores12:16 - Avios Card Linking Proposition13: 57 - Brands with card linking15:39 - Where is the IAG Loyalty at now?22:41 - Scott’s Experience with Digital Transformation25:31 - Avios Digital Transformation journey28:42 - Cultural Challenge31:30 - Does the pandemic accelerate the digital transformation?33:08 - IAG: Hangar 51 insight36:39 - NFTs in the world of Loyalty

How do you measure and prove the value of your investment in loyalty marketing?In this episode, we are joined by Brad Macdonald, Vice President of Loyalty Strategy at Epsilon, who shares their approach to assessing the value of brands' investment in their loyalty marketing initiatives with an "a value led approach". We also announce a partnership with Epsilon together with Let’s Talk Loyalty launching a unique, personalized, and private "Loyalty Lab" every month for one lucky listener to have a chance to have the opportunity to work with Epsilon's experts for an independent review of your loyalty program and come away with some concrete ideas to help it perform better.Listen to this episode for more information on how to measure and multiply the value of your loyalty program.Show Notes:Brad MacdonaldEpsilon Loyalty LabTime Stamps:03:12 - Brad’s Favorite Loyalty Program07:35 - The current landscape for loyalty marketers11:07 - How Epsilon measures the value of the loyalty program26:49 - Epsilon Loyalty Lab