Loyalty shortlist released
Cash strapped consumers are paying more attention to rewards and extra benefits when they shop. This is giving a burst of energy to the loyalty industry and leading to countless new scheme launches.
This added impetus is reflected in a massive response to the inaugural Europe and Middle East Loyalty Awards which received 130 entries from across the region.
Announcing the 2012 shortlist, Chief Operating Officer Sally Janssen said she was delighted with the response which reflected the current importance companies place on giving a “thank you” that really adds value for the customer.
More than 50 leading brand names will be considered for awards including REWE, Sainsbury’s and Tesco in food retailing; Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone in mobile; British Airways, bmibaby, Hilton Hotels, Intercontinental Group and SAS in travel and Barclaycard, Commerzbank, Russian Standard Bank and M&S Money in financial services. Blue chip names BskyB, Bupa, Daily Mail, Philips and Subway feature in other categories. A full list of brands shortlisted is shown below.
As regards the geographical spread, in addition to many Western European countries, entries from as far afield as the Czech Republic, The Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Turkey and the UAE have been shortlisted.
Particularly popular categories have proved to be Best New Loyalty Programme and Best Loyalty Industry Innovation, although large numbers of entries have also been received in the retail, financial services, marketing and technology categories.
“The quality is very high, and the judges will have a challenging time choosing the winners later this month,” Janssen said.
The black-tie ceremony will be held on June 12, 2012 in the Great Room of the prestigious Grosvenor House Hotel on London’s Park Lane and The Loyalty Awards promises to be an event not to be missed.
“Table bookings are already being taken and seating is being allocated in order of bookings,” warned Janssen, “so I strongly advise people not to delay.”
Prime sponsor for The Loyalty Awards is AIMIA and category sponsors are Arvato, Brand Loyalty, ICLP, Loyalty Consulting UK, TCC Global and The Mileage Company.
The following is a full list of the brands shortlisted for at least one Award:
Air Miles Middle East
Albert (Czech Republic)
Albert Heijn (Netherlands)
Alpha Bank (Greece)
American Golf
The Automobile Association
Avios
Barclaycard
Birmingham City Council
Blue Dot
bmibaby
BP
British Airways
British Gas
BskyB
Bupa
Commerzbank (Germany)
Daily Mail
De Bijenkorf (Netherlands)
Deutschland Card (Germany)
Dulux Decorator Centres
easyJet
Empathica Go Recommend
Felicia (Romania)
Garanti Payment Systems
Hilton Hotels
Homebase
ICE
IKANO
Innocent
Intercontinental Hotels
Jaeger
Kenco
Kingsmill
M&S Money
Millennium Bank (Poland)
Nectar
Nectar (Italy)
Orange
Opet Petroleum (Turkey)
Philips
REWE (Germany)
Royal Bank of Scotland
Russian Standard Bank (Russia)
Sainsbury’s
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS)
Poste Italiane (Italy)
SITEL
Skrill/Moneybookers
SPAR (Hungary)
Subway
Survey Sampling International
Tesco
Tesco (Hungary)
T-Mobile (Macedonia)
Turkcell (Turkey)
Vodafone (Turkey)
Further information:
The first Loyalty Awards celebrating excellence, innovation and best practice in the Loyalty industry in Europe and the Middle East will be held on Tuesday, June 12, 2012 in the Great Room at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
A limited number of sponsorship opportunities are still available and all enquiries should be addressed to Sally Janssen at sally@theloyaltyawards.com or call her on +44 1572 820088
Loyalty Research:
Among the articles at www.loyaltymagazine.com are the following pieces of research:
– Consumers demand more valuable credit card rewards
– Issuers need to take action to combat cardholder apathy
According to research conducted by the Auriemma Consulting Group (ACG) of the 56% of credit cardholders that own a rewards card, average monthly spend is 50% higher than non-reward cardholders. So the retention of reward cardholders is critical for issuers.
Despite the heightened levels of consumer apathy, rewards remain important to credit cardholders, and 26% of credit cardholders utilise their most frequently used card because of the value of their rewards programmes.
Three-quarters would switch brands if offered mobile promotions
Results of grocery and drug store survey of smartphone owners
Nearly 75% of consumers would switch brands if offered real-time mobile promotions delivered to their smartphones while shopping in a store aisle.
That is one of the findings in a new survey of smartphone owners’ experiences in grocery and drug stores commissioned by US mobile commerce company AisleBuyer. The survey found that the least brand conscious group consists of 25-34 year-old shoppers, with 82% willing to switch brands if they received a mobile offer for a competing product while in the store.
