The Loyalty Connect event in Dubai last month brought together the movers and shakers of the global loyalty industry. I was privileged to deliver two keynote addresses to the audience. My first keynote was as single minded as “3 loyalty concepts, 3 decades of experience, 30 minutes”, playing on my book title: Blind Loyalty – 101 loyalty concepts radically simplified. Secondly, I partnered with Nayax Coinbridge to discuss the significance of loyalty and payments integration for the consumer, the loyalty brand and its merchant partners. There is no denying that this integration between payment and loyalty is a game changer. I referred to it as blue ocean rather than a blood bath of red ocean of same old same old.
Other highlights for me were to listen to other esteemed loyalty professionals share insights about how loyalty is a strategic imperative rather than a short-term, more costly marketing initiative and how it its executed correctly, we really do see the Pareto rule play out. Brands presented their programmes’ performances and we saw 80+% of company revenue coming from as few as 16% of the whole customer base because of the impact of loyalty.
The forever quoted statement that retaining customers is more cost effective than chasing new customers all the time. The event heard time and time again how brands are investing more into retention strategies rather than acquisition of new customers and leveraging this investment through a focused data play.
Perhaps my favourite take away of the event came from Sarah Udy, Executive Manager – Member & Programme at Qantas, who stated that “the New York Times app is now a gamification app, with a newspaper attached.”. Brands need to find fun and interactive ways to engage with their customers.
At the end of the two day C-suite conference, we celebrated the results of the 2024 International Loyalty Awards 2024. I am a judge on the International Loyalty Awards, so it’s always a pleasure to see the winners celebrate their well-deserved achievements after the hard work of 24 global judges. The highlight of the evening was celebrating the successes of individuals and teams in the global loyalty world. I had the honour of curating a short speech to introduce the 2024 International loyalty personality of the year, having been crowned with the same prestigious title in 2023. I handed over the loyalty royalty crown to Zsuzsa Kecsmar, who is founder and Chief Strategy officer of Antavo Loyalty Cloud.
