The Loyalty Newswire from The Wise Marketer
This edition covers: Agentic AI Commerce, Anthropic, Casey’s, Cloudbeds, Drinkmate, Gartner, Google, KPMG, Lloyds Bank, LoyaltyPlus, oneworld, PAR Games, Philippine Airlines, Smoothie King, Taj InnerCircle, Visa, Waymo
FROM THE EDITOR
A packed week across loyalty, AI, and strategy — here are the standouts:
◆ Smoothie King’s gamification play is delivering real results — 2 million game plays, 40%+ loyalty signup growth, and reactivated lapsed members, all without blanket discounting.
◆ Gartner research reveals a troubling trend: CMO spending on loyalty and retention has fallen 29% since 2024, even as acquisition spending surges. The implications for the industry deserve serious attention.
◆ Visa has plugged its payment network into ChatGPT, enabling AI agents to shop and pay on behalf of users — a concrete signal of where agentic commerce is headed.
◆ Waymo launches Waymo Premier, an invite-only membership program, signaling that autonomous mobility is now actively building loyalty infrastructure.
◆ The oneworld alliance and Taj InnerCircle–NeuPass partnership sets a new benchmark for cross-sector loyalty collaboration at a global scale.
◆ Cloudbeds and Journey are taking direct aim at chain and OTA loyalty dominance — a significant strategic move for independent hospitality.
Full stories below, plus Short Takes on Casey’s earnings, Philippine Airlines joining oneworld, and a sharp Gartner reminder that loyalty is a trust engine, not a discount engine.
Bill Hanifin, Managing Editor — The Wise Marketer
SHORT TAKES
● [Global] Philippine Airlines to Join oneworld Airline Alliance
● [South Africa] LoyaltyPlus CEO Len Lubbe Says Loyalty Cannot Grow if It Cannot Adapt
● [US] Casey’s Earnings Soar, Expansion Plan Announced
● [US] Courts Deliver Legal Whiplash for Agentic AI
● [US] Gartner: Loyalty Is Not a Discount Engine. It Is a Trust Engine.
● [US] Visa Plugs Its Payment Network into ChatGPT, Letting AI Agents Shop and Pay for Users
● [US] Waymo Introduces Waymo Premier, a New Invite-Only Membership Program
FEATURED STORIES
Lloyds Bank Launches New Rewards In-App Hub
Lloyds Bank has introduced a dedicated Lloyds Rewards hub within its mobile app, centralizing how customers discover, activate, and track their rewards. The move consolidates the bank’s loyalty proposition into a single, always-on digital surface — a significant UX upgrade that removes the friction of hunting for offers across multiple touchpoints.
Drinkmate Launches New and Improved Loyalty Rewards Program
Drinkmate, the home carbonation brand, has relaunched its loyalty program with enhanced rewards mechanics and a more streamlined member experience. The revamp reflects a broader trend of DTC brands treating loyalty not as a post-purchase add-on but as a core retention engine. By deepening the relationship between product usage and program value, Drinkmate positions its rewards offering as a reason to stay engaged well beyond the initial purchase.
Google Is Building an Audience Loyalty Ecosystem
Google is assembling the infrastructure for a closed-loop audience loyalty ecosystem — connecting its search, YouTube, Maps, and Shopping surfaces with first-party data signals to help brands build durable relationships with their highest-value customers. Google’s scale and data depth could make it one of the most powerful platforms for identifying, reaching, and retaining loyal customers — or a formidable gatekeeper between brands and their audiences.
Smoothie King Drives Incremental Revenue and Engagement with PAR Games
Smoothie King gamified its Healthy Rewards program three months ago. Since then, it’s logged over 2 million game plays, grown loyalty signups by more than 40%, and reactivated lapsed members without a single blanket discount. Built natively within PAR Punchh, the spin-to-win experience personalizes challenges based on actual guest behavior and visit patterns. Engaged members showed a lift in average check size and visited more frequently — without being trained to wait for a deal.
oneworld and Taj InnerCircle–NeuPass Launch Global Airline–Hotel Loyalty Partnership
oneworld and Taj Hotels’ InnerCircle–NeuPass program have launched what they describe as the first-ever partnership between a global airline alliance and a hotel loyalty program. The deal gives travelers reciprocal earning and redemption rights across the full oneworld network and Taj’s property portfolio. Rather than a bilateral airline-hotel deal, this establishes an alliance-level framework — one that could set a template for future cross-sector loyalty collaboration at scale.
Cloudbeds and Journey Challenge Chain and OTA Loyalty Programs
Cloudbeds and Journey have formed a strategic partnership aimed at disrupting the loyalty advantages held by major hotel chains and online travel agencies. Independent and boutique properties have long struggled to match the program depth and data infrastructure of their chain competitors. This partnership gives them a credible alternative — combining Cloudbeds’ property management reach with Journey’s loyalty engine to build direct, durable guest relationships outside the OTA ecosystem.
Gartner: CMOs Are Cutting Loyalty Spend as Acquisition Budgets Surge
New Gartner research delivers a cautionary signal for the loyalty industry: awareness and conversion now account for 62.6% of total media spend — up more than 10 points since 2024 — while spending on customer loyalty and retention has declined 29% over the same period to less than 15% of total media spend. The data suggests CMOs are chasing short-term growth at the expense of the long-term retention infrastructure that loyalty programs provide.
KPMG Global Customer Experience Excellence Report 2025–2026
KPMG’s annual Global Customer Experience Excellence report maps the state of CX across industries and geographies, identifying which brands lead on its six pillars: personalization, integrity, expectations, resolution, time and effort, and empathy. Programs that align their mechanics and communications to these pillars consistently outperform those that treat rewards as the sole value driver. The brands customers trust most are also the ones they return to.
KPMG: AI’s Next Frontier — Unlocking “Total Value” Through Agentic Technologies
KPMG’s latest AI research argues that agentic technologies — AI systems capable of autonomous planning and action — represent the next major value unlock for enterprises. The firm frames the opportunity around “Total Value”: financial returns, operational efficiency, and strategic advantage operating simultaneously. As agentic AI begins to mediate consumer decisions, which programs are architected to remain visible and compelling to an AI intermediary rather than just a human one?
Anthropic Calls for Global Pause in AI Development
Anthropic, the AI safety company behind the Claude model family, has called for a coordinated global pause in advanced AI development to allow safety research, governance frameworks, and regulatory capacity to catch up with the pace of capability gains. The call is notable given Anthropic’s position as a leading frontier AI lab — and signals the degree to which responsible AI development is becoming a competitive and reputational differentiator, not merely a compliance requirement.
Agentic AI Commerce: The Next Wave of Online Shopping and Retailer Risk
As AI agents gain the ability to browse, compare, and purchase on behalf of consumers, the legal and commercial frameworks governing online retail are struggling to keep pace. This analysis examines the emerging liability and risk landscape for retailers — from questions of consent and data use to the disruption of traditional loyalty mechanics that depend on human browsing behavior.
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