Loyalty is not a scheme - musings from Europe's friendliest loyalty event

Most big brands were represented, plus a handful of partners including Apadmi. Every presentation was designed to inform, and the organisers made it easy and natural to meet new people. I loved the ‘wedding table’ format - sitting at round tables and working in groups - it really works. The whole thing was perfectly paced.

Here’s what I got out of it.

Loyalty isn’t loyalty

Over the two days there was a big focus on the points, rewards and promotional tactical loyalty driving mechanics. The presentations were excellent and  insightful but if we’re not careful further positions ‘Loyalty’ as a product  when what they actually mean is ‘Loyalty Platform or Scheme’. I pinched some amazing ideas - but for me, they are only part of the story. ‘Loyalty’ is all too often used to describe a bunch of inputs (tactics, platforms, schemes), rather than the outputs of a much broader mix, which is all of the above, plus service, personalisation, product, brand, CRM and other key factors in retaining and increasing the lifetime value of customers. Which leads me to…

CRM > Loyalty Mechanics

One panellist stated that ‘CRM & Loyalty are basically the same thing’ when talking about loyalty schemes. Really?! Only my British politeness stopped me from blowing a raspberry.

The bought loyalty mechanics he described (points, rewards, games) are just one weapon in the CRM arsenal. With so many brands driving customers to apps to participate in schemes, there is an amazing opportunity to turn mobile into a hugely powerful direct channel - and one that still seems to be very much in its infancy. Weirdly, there wasn’t a lot of talk of ‘in-app messaging’ or personalisation in the talks I attended. Yes, some push message discussion but still lots of SMS and email talk too. Push messages are 3 x more responsive than email, with 70% opt-in. In-app content cards are on average 10% click through, with 100% opt-in.

There’s such a massive opportunity for brands to capture the first party data of their customers and merchandise and market to them alongside the new ‘Loyalty’ schemes, giving them the products and services to grow their value.

Apadmi has clients with no discernible ‘Loyalty’ scheme who already generate much greater retention, frequency and spend from app customers. App experience + Bought loyalty + Messaging = A powerful mix.

Key stat

71% expect companies to deliver personalised customer experiences and 76% get frustrated when personalisation efforts are lacking - or go wrong (McKinsey via Loyalty Factory).

There’s more to AI than the obvious

It’s an easy leap to think about how generative AI can make more content, more quickly and turbo-charge personalised loyalty offers. One of the big brands (Chatham House Rules) shared that they were already trialling this, but hasn’t yet pressed go -  the accuracy and quality isn’t there right now. But it will be, no doubt.

Driving greater productivity, the amazing Zsuzsa Kecsmar from Antavo announced the launch of AI Loyalty Cloud. Two years in the making, it can speed up the creation and delivery of a loyalty platform by 10x. Check it out. Agentic AI is where it gets really exciting. Apadmi’s Adam Fleming and IKEA’s Martin Villanueva ran the only live demo of the two days and took things somewhere different.

Focussing on recognition, relevance and helpfulness, the Agentic AI assistant that Apadmi built showed a vision of next level customer experience. Way more powerful than virtual assistants of today, the AI Agent used real-life stock information, suggestion, previous customer data and the ability to handle ANY random query from the audience perfectly. 

This kind of service will keep customers coming back - it’s real, emotional long-term loyalty stuff. Give us a shout if you’d like to learn more.

Key stat

67% of marketers would feel comfortable using an Al-powered helper/expert (Antavo).

Some cool stats (with credit)

Here’s four great titbits for your next business case!

• The average ROl for loyalty spend is 4.8x (Antavo).

• 81% of customers would rather shop with brands than let them pick how they earn or choose rewards (Antavo)

• 40% of customers want more ways to earn points (ie. not just with purchases) (Antavo)

• Starbucks has $1.6 billion in outstanding gift card balances (in other words, an interest-free loan from its loyal customers)

Write and design for behavioural bias

Dr Ali Goode, a cognitive scientist, shared his thoughts on the language and offers that will change behaviours. Lots of reinforcement of the ideas that are applied to loyalty driving campaigns and platforms - like asking if people want to join, be part of or belong - the “Herding” heuristic.

He also shared new ways to present value through willingness to pay, and reminded the room why “exclusivity” works - by creating loss aversion and appealing to “scarcity” bias. With so many programmes relying on points and games, many brands are missing the chance to reframe existing promotions and drive the response they want. Dr Goode recommended his favourite book on the subject, ‘Irrationality: The Enemy Within’ by Stuart Sutherland (1992). There was only one copy left when I looked to buy it, which obviously led to an immediate purchase. It’s great - halfway through and highly recommended.

Overall, this was a really valuable event, go next year if you can. Apps still have loads more potential as homes for schemes and data-capture - maximise the experience, the CRM opportunities, start planning for Agentic AI and read up on behavioural science.