On 19th March, Stampix had the honour of hosting and organising the very first Loyalty Meet Up in Ghent. Our aim was to differentiate from most other marketing events in this region, which often revolve around advertising, MarTech, CRM, digital… and to bring an extra touch of interactivity to this Meet Up, sharing real experiences with a select group of brand representatives.
To achieve this, we invited 5 international speakers sharing their perspective, an insightful workshop with 6 mixed teams and last but not least: the announcement of the winners of the BENE Bonus Awards.
The Roadmap to Emotional Loyalty
After an introduction about Stampix by our CEO Simon Tavernier, we started the afternoon with a Panel Discussion with experts from different parts of the world (France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany and the US):
- Tom Peace – Managing Director of The Loyalty People
- Charles Ehredt – CEO of Currency Alliance
- Karine Collaert – Managing Director of faxions
- Denis Huré – CEO of Reward the World
- Ulf-Gunnar Switalski – CEO of The Bonus Awards
Topics ranged from the pivotal role of partnerships in loyalty strategies to the art of cultivating emotional loyalty. Notably, discussions sparked around the sustainability of paid loyalty programs, inspired by the success of Amazon Prime.
From one side, Ulf-Gunnar believes paid loyalty is a strong system. From his perspective, it is possible to really enrich the customer experience by “delivering very high value for a quite nice price”. As an example, he shared his experience with Gol Smiles program and Avis Preferred.
This argument was countered by Karine, who believes that the line for success of paid loyalty is very thin. She sees it as a main product, not a loyalty benefit. It raises the bar for delivering high quality services and products, which can put businesses in trouble later. She concludes that creating a good paid-for loyalty program is hard because “there has to be a really solid vision and financial model behind it”.
Do you want a taste of this Panel Discussion? Watch the video below to see Charles Ehredt explain the importance of Surprise and Delight in a loyalty program.
What are the Trends in Loyalty?
During an interactive workshop, Tom Peace delved into the latest trends shaping the loyalty landscape. Using real-life examples for each of the trends, he covered following topics:
- Subscription based Loyalty
- ESG Considerations
- Experiential design
- Gamification in Loyalty
- Hyper-personalisation leading to communities
- Blockchain & Web3
Memorable examples were Nespresso, Strava, Duolingo, Samsung Members and Miles & More (Lufthansa). Afterwards, 6 challenges were shared for the fictitious “Hotel Eddy Merckx” loyalty program, and the 70 participants were divided in 6 groups to tackle 1 challenge each – to facilitate active learning and peer engagement.
Check out this clip of Tom explaining the success of Nespresso’s subscription-based loyalty.
BENE Bonus Awards Winners
Before drinks and networking, it was time to celebrate the winners from the BENE Bonus Awards. Presented by Ulf-Gunnar, the awards honoured outstanding achievements in loyalty initiatives across Belgium and the Netherlands, recognizing innovative programs, campaigns and promotions. Unique about the Bonus Awards, is that are the customers themselves (members of programs) who vote to select the winners – not a jury. For this year’s first edition in BENE almost 7.000 customers cast their votes. As a reference, the German Bonus Awards had its third edition with 115.000 votes.
Check out the winners here:
Customer Award – Category Shopping
Program of the Year
Delhaize SuperPlus
Lidl Plus
Carrefour Bonus Card
Best Promotion
The Cookware Company – stamp campaign SMEG (with Delhaize)
Carrefour – scratch off cards Tomorrowland
Air Miles
Customer Award – Category Hotel
Program of the Year
Marriott Bonvoy
World of Hyatt
Van der Valk Loyal
Best Promotion
Wyndham Rewards
GHA Discovery
Marriott Bonvoy
Customer Award – Category Finance & Cashback
Program of the Year
ING+ deals
CashbackKorting / CashbackDeals
Flying Blue American Express
Best Promotion
ING+ deals
bunq
CashbackKorting / CashbackDeals
Customer Award – Category Move
Program of the Year
Miles & More
Flying Blue
Qatar Airways Privilege Club