Today's episode celebrates a brand that recognizes and rewards a relatively forgotten segment of the community – those who educate children! Lakeshore Learning Materials is one of the most innovative manufacturers of educational materials in the United States, specializing in top-quality products for the home and classroom. Originally founded as a toy store in 1954, Lakeshore Learning Materials now operates sixty stores and a thriving online business, catering to both teachers and parents. The b...
Jun 21, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 396
This episode focuses on the loyalty market in The Czech Republic, featuring expert insights from Radek Hrachovec. Radek has dedicated the last 20 years of his professional life to loyalty programmes and direct marketing and is one of the most skilled practitioners in Central Europe and a Partner of the Voxwise company. Radek 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...
Jun 20, 2023•47 min•Season 1Ep. 395
Listen in to hear Tom’s short summary show from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas featuring a conversation with James Berry , Commercial Director, Valuedynamx at Collinson where he shares game-changing concepts he believes are becoming pivotal for loyalty professionals. Listen to Tom’s views on the dramatic changes in consumer behaviour, and some of the innovative ways that Collinson have found to connect programs, consumers and merchants in order to ensure loyalty programmes become ev...
Jun 19, 2023•6 min•Season 1Ep. 394
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 confe...
Jun 14, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 393
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 narrat...
Jun 13, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 392
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 ...
Jun 12, 2023•6 min•Season 1Ep. 391
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 Leg...
Jun 07, 2023•39 min•Season 1Ep. 390
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 ...
Jun 06, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 389
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 ...
Jun 05, 2023•6 min•Season 1Ep. 388
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 he...
May 31, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 387
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...
May 30, 2023•43 min•Season 1Ep. 386
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...
May 29, 2023•6 min•Season 1Ep. 385
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 experie...
May 24, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 384
Lindsay Eichten is a seasoned loyalty executive across multiple industries, but in her role as Director CRM, Loyalty & Media, she leads a small team to deliver the launch of Fridays Rewards for the iconic brand, TGI Fridays. Lindsay highlights that loyalty is a key strategic initiative for TGI Fridays, which therefore means she has the support and the focus on her team’s deliverables in this role. She emphasizes how starting the change management process with the chain’s front line staff has...
May 23, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 383
Yesway is one of the fastest-growing convenience chains in the United States, and was voted the U.S. Convenience Chain of the Year in 2021. Tune in to hear Tom’s summary from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas featuring one of the leading marketers in U.S. convenience retail, Derek Gaskins , Chief Marketing Officer of Yesway. Derek shares the exciting challenge of keeping customers loyal while acquiring new stores with products that customers love, and building a leading retail brand th...
May 22, 2023•5 min•Season 1Ep. 382
This episode features a multi-award-winning loyalty program from one of the leading retail, entertainment and hospitality conglomerates in the Middle East region. Majid Al Futtaim was founded in 1992 and now employs more than 43,000 people, operating a portfolio of more than 270 outlets in 15 countries, including 25 shopping malls and 13 hotels, as well as holding the exclusive franchise for Carrefour supermarkets in 37 markets across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. With such a huge portfolio ...
May 17, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 381
This episode focuses on the pan-European loyalty programme, Samsung Members , featuring expert commentary from Cathryn Lodwidge and Laura Moore. Laura is the European Head of Customer Data-Driven Marketing Retention & Loyalty and Cathryn is the European Cross Channel Retention Lead at Samsung Electronics . They are very passionate about developing and delivering global loyalty solutions that delight customers across multiple markets and, under their stewardship, Samsung Members has gone from...
May 16, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 380
In March 2022 Mando-Connect and YouGov launched their first report, “ What Brits Want From Loyalty Programs Now “. This comprehensive, independent research analyses the topics, attitudes, opinions and behaviours that are driving the loyalty industry today in the UK, one of the most sophisticated and diverse markets for the loyalty industry worldwide. In this week’s episode of Let’s Talk “a little” Loyalty, Tom reviews the learnings from last years reports and looks at where we are a year on. Tun...
May 15, 2023•6 min•Season 1Ep. 379
This episode features one of the loyalty industry’s leading strategy experts! Shannon Ottinger is the Vice President of Loyalty Consulting at Epsilon , based in Atlanta, and in this episode, she shares some extraordinary experience and insights on the key loyalty concepts that brands are excited about in our industry in 2023. Listen to hear how Epsilon is helping clients begin to measure *emotional* loyalty, a concept we all know is absolutely critical to focus on with our members, but it can be...
May 10, 2023•42 min•Season 1Ep. 381
This episode is focused on the role of customer communications in driving customer loyalty. Rick Ferguson is a loyalty thought leader, with proven success in transforming traditional corporate communications into innovative, storytelling content across multiple platforms on a global scale. Today, he shares insights from his more than 20 years’ experience, including a reminder of the three fundamental drivers of customer loyalty - trust, commitment and reciprocity. We also discuss how our member ...
May 09, 2023•57 min•Season 1Ep. 377
Loyalty programmes are traditionally designed to retain customers, but rarely is that incredible data used by marketing teams to inform how they run acquisition campaigns to ensure they focus on “profitable” new customers – quality over quantity! This technique has proved invaluable as cookies have disappeared from the toolset that digital marketers have relied on for so many years. In this week’s episode of Let’s Talk “a little” Loyalty, Tom showcases how we can all use the data and profiles of...
May 08, 2023•6 min•Season 1Ep. 376
Today we are showcasing lessons and learnings from this year finalists who are each hoping to win one of the highly prestigious “ International Loyalty Awards ” being announced in London in June 2023. Our guest is David Parker , the Chair of the Judging Panel for the Awards. David is the CEO of Polymath Consulting , and an active fintech investor and advisor, with many years of expertise across some of the world’s best-known advertising agencies and building loyalty programs in global markets. D...
May 03, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 375
ASDA is one of the UK's biggest grocery retailers, and in late 2022, with over seventy years already as a market leader, ASDA launched its first loyalty programme. ASDA Rewards is undoubtedly one of the most exciting loyalty programme launches in recent memory, given how well-known and well-loved this brand is with the British public, and it’s the last of the big grocery retailers in the country to launch a loyalty proposition. In this episode we meet Matt McLellan , a Vice President for Asda in...
May 02, 2023•48 min•Season 1Ep. 374
Circle K operates the largest global network of car washes, with more than 2,750 units worldwide and their subscription based loyalty program is hugely popular and successful. In this week’s episode of Let’s Talk “a little” Loyalty, Tom highlights a niche, but highly successful subscription based loyalty program for Circle K car wash, from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas and featuring Lars Hecht , who leads the car wash category globally. Circle K’s commitment to innovation has been ...
May 01, 2023•6 min•Season 1Ep. 373
Today's episode of Let's Talk Loyalty celebrates Epsilon's success as a Leader in The Forrester Wave (TM) Loyalty Technology Solutions for Q1 2023 . This is one of the industry’s most respected reports, designed to help marketers around the world assess loyalty technology providers. To help share this success story, I'm joined today by two senior executives from Epsilon based in the UK. Valerie Popeck is Epsilon EMEA's Senior Director of Strategy & Insights and we are also joined by Dave All...
Apr 26, 2023•45 min•Season 1Ep. 372
Today’s episode is a case study of leadership, a commitment to customers and other stakeholders – including the environment – and how a modern, learning organization created not just a new business, but the leading business in its category. In less than five years, URBN Brands ’ Nuuly has gone from a concept to the leading company in the clothing rental subscription business, surpassing Rent the Runway in terms of the number of subscribers. Nuuly’s Kim Gallagher shares the story of how URBN iden...
Apr 25, 2023•50 min•Season 1Ep. 371
While it’s still a relatively young market, many loyalty programs in Poland are innovative, competitive and progressive. And there are more than 130 business-to-consumer loyalty programs. In this week’s episode of Let’s Talk “a little” Loyalty, Tom showcases some of the key points of interest from the comprehensive overview of the loyalty industry in Poland, from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas and featuring Tomasz Makaruk, CEO of i360 Tomasz holds a PhD in Marketing and has spent mo...
Apr 24, 2023•6 min•Season 1Ep. 370
Sally Beauty is a US based distributor and retailer of professional beauty products to both retail consumers and beauty salon professionals worldwide, and for the last two years, its Sally Beauty™ Rewards program account has been recognized by American consumers as one of their favorite loyalty programs. In this episode of "Let's Talk Loyalty", Gabriel Trujillo , Vice President CRM, Loyalty, Customer Analytics and Research at Sally Beauty shares his insights on how the brand continues to achieve...
Apr 19, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 369
Dotz is a coalition loyalty program which was founded in Brazil more than 23 years, and has grown to over 50 million members, eventually becoming a public company in 2021. Roberto Chade is the co-Founder and CEO and he joins Let's Talk Loyalty today all the way from Sao Paulo. This story is amazing. Creating a pioneering business from nothing, to now over 50 million members, Roberto has a clear and compelling passion to make a difference in the lives of Brazilian people by increasing their purch...
Apr 18, 2023•49 min•Season 1Ep. 368
Virgin’ s programme is described as the “red thread” that connects this diverse group of companies, and delivers on the extraordinary expectations that members expect, to ensure this international loyalty programme becomes as well loved as the Virgin brand is across the globe. In this week’s episode of Let’s Talk “a little” Loyalty, Tom highlights lessons from the global rollout of the Virgin Red , loyalty programme, from the original podcast hosted by Paula Thomas and featuring Andrea Burchett ...
Apr 17, 2023•6 min•Season 1Ep. 367
