In this week's Newswire you can enjoy a curated list of the latest customer loyalty, technology, payments, and other relevant marketing news. We include a spectrum of topics, all with the intention of keeping you informed and enabling you to star in your next big meeting.
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- Brooklyn Nets Partner with CrowdPlay for New Fan Loyalty Program
- 17-Year-Old CEO Leads PunchPie to Help Businesses Grow
- New Bluecore Report on Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales
- Antavo recognized in Forrester Loyalty Technology Solutions Landscape Report for Q4
- Webinar: Future-Proof Customer Experience Strategies
- Tenerity Launches New Digital Rewards Program for Santander
- Billions of Unclaimed Bonga Points Spark New Discussions in Loyalty
- Maryknoll Launches New Tuition Rewards Program
Brooklyn Nets Partner with Gamified Fan Rewards Software CrowdPlay for New Fan Loyalty Program
Fan loyalty is one of the strongest bonds there is between consumers and brands. The Brooklyn Nets are now giving fans even more reason to get excited about their team. Through the newly introduced Nets Level program, season ticket holders can register to compete in real-time trivia and prediction contests hosted on the Nets’ app and website during stoppages of play during Nets games. The fan loyalty program is made possible through the team’s multi-year partnership with gamified fan rewards software provider CrowdPlay.
New School Loyalty: 17-year-old leads PunchPie to help small and medium-sized business
17-year-old Co-Founder and CEO Ronit Randhawa has led PunchPie to become one of the first choices for small and medium-sized businesses looking to acquire and retain new customers. Based in San Jose, California, US, PunchPie recently reached over 100,000 users and 100 businesses across 25 cities globally with operations in India, Ukraine, New Zealand, Netherlands, and more. In the company’s press release, Ronit shared “My hope is for PunchPie to build stronger connections between businesses and their customers. I want customers to feel excited over earning rewards from their favorite restaurants, stores, and shops.”
Bluecore issues report on 2022 Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales
Bluecore has issued its annual report on shopping results from Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2022. This year, Bluecore analyzed data from billions of shopper events across 150 retail brands to identify trends that not only impact marketing strategy and revenue targets for the year ahead but surface fundamental changes in shopper behavior. Bluecore brings all of this data together in its Retail Marketing Insights Report. As part of the CRMC webinar series, The Wise Marketer will be interviewing Bluecore and Lulu and Georgia, a Los Angeles based e-commerce home furnishings and decor company, to learn more about the research results. You can register for this event at The Wise Marketer here.
Antavo named in Forrester Loyalty Technology Solutions Landscape, Q4 2022
Antavo Enterprise Loyalty Cloud has been included in the Forrester Loyalty Technology Solutions Landscape, Q4 2022 report. In the company’s press release, Attila Kecsmar, CEO & Co-founder of Antavo, said “Our team is very excited that Antavo is included in The Loyalty Technology Landscape, Q4 2022 and that we’re being recognized by Forrester again. It’s another important milestone for the company, especially after our Series A fundraising round, which we will spend on developing a powerful, world-first SaaS loyalty product that is able to satisfy the increasing customer demand for seamless member experiences.”
Webinar Announcement: Future-Proof Customer Experience Strategies
Join The Wise Marketer and customer experience professionals from Ford, Puma Energy, Politecnico Milano, and Comarch for a lively discussion of what successful brands do to engage customers and build trust. The group will share their insider's view on the strategies and techniques they find most useful in their line of work today.
The webinar will be LIVE on Wednesday December 14 at 9am ET. To learn more and register for the webinar, please visit here: https://events.comarch.com/loyalty/creating-a-top-shelf-customer-experience/
Tenerity launches new digital rewards program for Santander
Tenerity, a global loyalty and engagement company, today announced that its Connect platform will power the new and improved Santander Boosts program. Santander Boosts utilizes the full suite of Connect and gives Santander’s Current Account customers the opportunity to access exclusive rewards and save money through Tenerity’s extensive set of cashback offers, coupons, discounts, prize draws, and more. In the company’s press release, CEO Greg Miller said “Santander Boosts represents a compelling program that will keep banking customers engaged. It is a great example of how financial institutions can use exceptional offers, gamification, and intelligence to connect with their customers and help them save money. Santander will drive retention and advocacy, while customers will benefit from everyday savings -- which is especially top of mind given the current economic environment. Tenerity is thrilled to power the experience and help Santander launch this best-in-class loyalty program.”
Unclaimed Bonga points billions shift focus on customer loyalty schemes
Safaricom is the leading telecommunications company in East Africa. Headquartered in Kenya and listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange, the company services over 42 million consumers. Vodafone is an investor in the company, known as the innovator of the M-Pesa mobile money service, the region’s largest fintech platform. According to a public report, Safaricom reported that it is holding 4.5 billion Kenyan Shillings in unredeemed loyalty points. That is the equivalent of approximately $USD 36 million. The Bonga Points loyalty program was introduced in January 2007. Recently the company notified its members that all unredeemed Bonga points will expire after three years, meaning those accumulated before December 31, 2019, will be invalid come January 1, 2023. The change has sparked outrage among local consumers and Kenyan Parliament has said it will probe telecommunications firms for imposing expiry dates on loyalty programs, saying the move only benefits service providers.
Maryknoll Launches New Tuition Rewards Program
Maryknoll School is a Honolulu, Hawaii based private school that offers education from grades pre-K to 12. Addressing the rising cost of education, the school launched a program designed to make private school education more affordable for a greater number of families. Tuition Rewards offers tuition discounts for students of alumni, families with multiple children enrolled at the school, middle school families who commit to attend through grade 12 and high-achieving students in high school. Loyalty to consumers comes in many formats and this is a program that stands to inspire other private school operators.
Quote of the Week
“It was totally worth it” says Nick Rohrlach, the man runs Virgin’s loyalty division after leading in a similar position at rival Qantas for about ten years. The executive dubbed “the man who knew too much” by the press “does not enjoy talking about the months long saga” but made that statement about all the chaos that followed the moment when Virgin chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka asked him to run her airline’s loyalty division in 2020 after more than a decade at its bitter rival.
Qantas’s loyalty division generates more than $1 billion in revenue from its 12 million members each year and is said to be the most profitable arm of the carrier by far. Rohrlach now runs Virgin’s Velocity division which posted revenue of $411 million in 2019. According to this article, Rohrlach was convicted of contempt of court and fined $27,000 at one point while Qantas sought the maximum penalty for the offence: his imprisonment. If you are interested in airline loyalty, the Australia/New Zealand markets or just some good loyalty drama, read this.
Trend of the Week
A study from Qualtrics found that eighty percent of consumers say they've switched brands because of poor customer experiences. A disjointed experience is a surefire way to turn a loyal customer away. This article postures that Customer Experiences have become the new loyalty currency. We have been tracking a group of forward-looking executives whose thinking is vectoring in the same direction. Lisa Biggs, CEO Impact 21, has written extensively on her interpretation of Unified Commerce. You can find a sample here. We’ll be writing much more on this emerging concept. If you want a head start on gaining insight into this topic, don’t miss this webinar.
Miss the previous newswire? Stay informed: Loyalty Newswire – December 5, 2022
The Loyalty Newswire is compiled and edited by the hard-working, customer-centric, data-driven staff at The Wise Marketer.
