People travelled from all over the world to attend the special Gala Awards Evening for The Loyalty Magazine Awards, making it a truly global event.
Held at The Pavilion, Tower of London, The Loyalty Magazine Awards have established themselves as the premier event on the Loyalty calendar. Now in their seventh year, they pay tribute to the creativity, ingenuity, technical brilliance and sheer marketing genius that it takes to produce a world-class loyalty initiative.
Loyalty without a name
This year, for the first time, they recognised the growth in customer loyalty initiatives that exist without an actual programme. The category, called ‘Loyalty without a name’ impressed the judges with the quality of entries, and ensured it will be included in the category list again next year.
30 under 40
Also taking place for the first year was the 30 under 40 competition – to find the Rising Stars of Loyalty. This resulted in a most impressive list of high achieving professionals and nearly all the winners were in the room to receive their certificates. Again, this looks set to be a regular feature of The Loyalty Magazine Awards.
Personality of the Year
This year the recipient of the coveted Personality of the Year Awards is Bryan Pearson, internationally renowned author, loyalty philosopher and data guru, who is also CEO of LoyaltyOne. A profile of Bryan is published in the Winners edition of Loyalty Magazine.
Prime Sponsor of The Loyalty Magazine Awards, Chuck Ehredt, of Currency Alliance reminded the audience that the roots of loyalty went a long way back to the days of green shield stamps and beyond, but that change was necessary to keep it relevant and useful. He said: “I believe every business must have a Loyalty strategy and that the strategy should deploy Loyalty mechanics to engage with customers. But points are an excuse to start a dialogue, not the end game. Companies must show loyalty to customers to keep them.”
List of The Loyalty Magazine Awards winners
Personality of the Year Award
Winner: Bryan Pearson
Best Use of Technology
Winner: Sainsbury’s / Aimia – This time it’s ultra-personalised!
This pioneering CRM solution uses location data that powers two key commercial opportunities – communication and insight.
Best Short Term Loyalty Initiative
Winner: New World / UNGA – NZ grows children’s grocery loyalty to a whole new level
New Zealand grocery retailer New World conducted an extremely successful, sustainable and educational short-term loyalty campaign.
Highly Commended: Netto / TCC Global – Grillspil: All weather is BBQ weather
Best Use of Communications including Social Media
Winner: Volvo Car Turkey / Ketchup – Volvo Car Prime
Volvo Car Prime is a segment-based mobile loyalty programme designed for existing and future Volvo car owners, allowing them to get special benefits on their new car and after-sales service purchases, combined with lifestyle privileges that they can benefit from in their everyday lives.
Highly Commended: New World / UNGA – New Zealand grows children’s grocery loyalty to a whole new level
Best B2B Loyalty Programme
Winner: IBM / Motivforce – Know Your IBM
Know Your IBM (KYI) is IBM’s primary B2B loyalty programme, targeting resellers in its distribution channel globally with rewards for completing product educational activities and selling eligible IBM solutions.
Highly Commended: Lenovo / Motivforce – LEAP programme
Best Use of Analytics & Data
Sponsored by Givex
Winner: Turkcell – Next Best Action Platform
The platform uses daily predictive models that capture customer usage patterns and run real-time eligibility rules.
Best Omnichannel Loyalty Initiative of the Year
Winner: Craveable Brands / Tranxactor – Delivers Loyalty Online & In-store
Using a flexible loyalty platform Australian fast food company Craveable Brands has transformed its loyalty programmes from traditional card based, store-only programmes, to digital and card based schemes.
Highly Commended: real / Boost Group – Mein Kleiner Biogarten
Best Use of CRM
Winner: Sainsbury’s / Aimia – This time it’s ultra-personalised!
For the last 50 years CRM has been focused on serving the right message, to the right customer, at the right time, through the right channel. Now we have the added dimension of right location.
Highly Commended: Toy Association / Balluun – ShopToys365
Best Loyalty Programme of the Year – Travel (including hotels and locations)
Winner: Hilton – Hilton Honors unveils more of what matters most
Guided by extensive consumer feedback, Hilton Honors introduced a range of new perks including offering members worldwide the choice to flexibly combine points and money for a hotel stay.
Best Loyalty Programme of the Year – Food Retail
Winner: FrieslandCampina / Magneds – Eurosparen platform
With over 1.2 million consumers (16% of Dutch households) participating, Eurosparen (Dutch for ‘Collecting euros’) is the biggest FMCG loyalty platform in the Netherlands.
Best Customer Experience
Sponsored by Collinson
Winner: Marks & Spencer / InMoment – Leveraging Customer Stories
In 2015, M&S CEO Steve Rowe declared a renewed focus on customer centricity, which spawned the business-broadening opportunity to give customers an active role in crafting better shopping experiences.
Best Loyalty Programme of the Year – Non-Food Retail
Winner: Pets at Home – VIP Club: more segmented, more personalised, more loyalty
Pets at Home is a rising star in UK retail and VIP is central to this: understanding customers and their pets better than competitors do.
Best Use of Gamification to Enhance Loyalty
Winner: Virgin / Mando Connect – Virgin Red
Highly Commended: Lidl – The Lidl Birthday Game
Best Loyalty Programme of the Year – Financial Services
Winner: Piraeus Bank – Yellow Rewards Programme
Yellow stands for a young, successful and promising Greek programme, created to reward customers for their full banking relationship.
Highly Commended: MotoNovo Finance / Performance Bonus – MotorV8 REWARDS
Best Coupon / Voucher Based Loyalty Programme
Winner: Lidl Denmark – Quality gifts improve image, shopping frequency, footfall and loyalty
Lidl Denmark used gamification mechanisms to drive customers to the stores short term and to build long term loyalty.
Loyalty Without a Name – NEW!
Winner: UnipolSai Assicurazioni – “Ghost loyalty” programme
The “Ghost loyalty” programme of UnipolSai Assicurazioni maps all brand/user interactions, enabling the company to obtain valuable information to enrich the profile of each customer.
Best Loyalty Industry Innovation
Winner: Vodafone Greece – Thank You Cashback
Vodafone Greece’s Thank You Cashback is an innovative mobile-based reward scheme that operates at over 1,800 Greek supermarkets.
Best Use of Mobile Within a Loyalty Strategy
Winner: Yudonpay – Smart Loyalty Programmes Wallet & Promotions
Yudonpay gathers and organises all your loyalty programmes in one single virtual space.
Best CSR Initiative Linked to Loyalty
Sponsored by For Good Causes
Winner: MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet – Investing in what matters most – customers and the community
South Africa’s MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet connects you to your family, community and causes in a way that inspires, drives incremental sales growth and makes a sustainable, measurable difference.
Best New Loyalty Launch of the Year
Winner: Sky – Sky VIP
The Sky VIP programme combines creativity, content and innovation to bring customers closer to more of the things they love.
Best Loyalty Programme Marketing Campaign of the Year
Sponsored by Tranxactor
Winner: Cable & Wireless Seychelles (CWS) – Help To Hear
Cable & Wireless Seychelles partnered with its customers to help children with hearing impairment using donation of points from the Cable Points loyalty programme.
Highly Commended: Vodafone / Seri Jakala – Vodafone Happy: The engagement programme for Vodafone Italian customers
Best Long Term Loyalty Programme
Winner: MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet – Investing in what matters most reaps long term benefits
For 20 years South Africa’s MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet has made it possible to give back to the cause you care about, raising over R500m (€33.9m) in funding and delivering billions in sales.
Highly Commended: Pets at Home – VIP Club: more segmented, more personalised, more loyalty
Regional Loyalty Champions of the Year Awards
Sponsored by Currency Alliance
Western Europe
Winner: Pets at Home – VIP Club
A rising star of UK retail, VIP Club is central to its strategy of understanding customers and their pets better than competitors do.
Central and Eastern Europe including Russia and Turkey
Winner: Piraeus Bank – Yellow Rewards Programme
Piraeus Bank has differentiated itself from the bank competitors’ loyalty offerings with the Yellowday redemption channel for its Yellow Rewards Programme.
Middle East & Africa
Winner: MySchool MyVillage MyPlanet – Investing in what matters most reaps long term benefits
For two decades MySchool My Village MyPlanet has made it possible to give back to the cause you care about, raising more than R500m in funds and billions worth of sales.
Asia including Australia, New Zealand, the Indian sub-continent and all areas East
Winner: Craveable Brands / Tranxactor – Delivers Loyalty Online and In-store
Craveable Brands has transformed the traditional card-based schemes at its fast food brands through a digital-enabled platform that works seamlessly both in-store and online.
30 under 40
The 30 rising young stars of the Loyalty industry
Mark Murphy, head of CRM and loyalty, Virgin Trains
Mark has extensive experience of delivering highly complex CRM, digital marketing and loyalty programmes in both B2B and B2C environments.
Graham Bradley, loyalty programme & propositions manager, Heathrow Airport
Graham has made a transformational difference to how customer loyalty is practised at Heathrow Airport.
Manish Dureja, MD, Jet Privilege
Since the inception of Jet Privilege three years ago, Manish has overseen its establishment as India’s leading loyalty and rewards management company.
Nathan Ansell, director – customer loyalty & marketing director, Marks & Spencer
Nathan was recently made marketing director, clothing and home at M&S, with full mix accountability for all marketing and promotional channels but maintains his role as director – customer loyalty.
Rachel Brown, UK marketing intelligence manager, Baxi Heating
Rachel headed up the team responsible for relaunching the Baxi Works installer loyalty programme, winner of the 2017 Loyalty Magazine Awards B2B category.
Michael Hegelund, online & social media manager, Lidl Denmark
Michael founded his first company at 22 and has continued to explore digital opportunities to create great experiences and loyal customers.
Can Tascioglu, systems coordinator, Interlink
Can has been working with a range of brands in Turkey to enable customer giving through loyalty programmes.
Lourens Keers, independent digital consultant, Netherlands
Lourens has over 12 years of experience in digital transformation projects and working as an independent consultant, mainly for (international) A-brands.
Tom Nichols, consultant, customer & digital, Baringa Partners
Joining Collinson’s global loyalty practice straight from university in 2014, Tom, now 25, has made significant strides to improve global loyalty.
Frances Wilkinson, senior marketing manager, Morrisons
In four years at Morrisons, Frances has worked across targeted marketing & loyalty, including launching the Match & More loyalty scheme.
Charlie Casey, co-founder, LoyaltyLion
Charlie, 33 years old, co-founded LoyaltyLion in 2012, with a clear mission to disrupt traditional loyalty programmes whilst giving fast growth ecommerce retailers a competitive edge over Amazon.
Aron Locsei, general manager, Brand Loyalty
Aron has worked for Brand Loyalty for 13 years and in 2012 received the Loyalty Magazine Award on behalf of his company for Best Loyalty Programme Marketing Campaign.
Steph Pearson, loyalty account manager, TLC Marketing Worldwide
Steph has worked on Loyalty programmes for a little over 18 months and has already demonstrated her natural instinct and capabilities for adapting and innovating in a challenging industry.
Michael Rolph, CEO, Yoyo
Michael is co-founder and CEO at Yoyo, Europe’s fastest growing mobile payment and loyalty marketing platform according to Forbes.
Camilo Courtenay, loyalty, CRM and proposition manager, Eurostar
Camilo has worked in loyalty for six years – four with Eurostar and previously with BA focusing on championing the customer and using insight to drive proposition improvements.
Amanda Fox Rosowski, senior marketing manager, Magnuson Hotels
With an ambition to be a CEO by 40, Amanda has gained plenty of experience in heavily customer-centric industries.
Milan Schnorrer, founding partner, Pricewise
Milan is a founder and partner of Pricewise, the creators of GOPASS, which creates digital skiing experiences.
Hugo Tapia-Frade, head of customer strategy & CRM – group business development, Hackett
Hugo is one of the architects of and is the driving force behind 65B, Hackett’s award-winning customer engagement programme.
Edel Egan, loyalty marketing manager, Electric Ireland
Having worked in customer marketing and loyalty in traditional industries and online businesses, Edel has seen the impact that a strong loyalty strategy can have on company growth.
Alastair Doig, director of strategy and client services, Perkbox
Alastair joined Perkbox (then Huddlebuy) in 2013 when the company had just seven employees,and it now employs over 190 in two UK offices.
Azim Esmail, founder and CEO, RewardOps
Azim has a passion for simplifying rewards technology and building a product that empowers loyalty partners to grow their business.
Peter Hygate, head of B2B client marketing, The Entertainer Group
Peter is responsible for ensuring clients’ loyalty KPIs are set, monitored, optimised and delivered across an omnichannel marketing environment spanning 14 countries.
Carl Nacouzi, assistant general manager, Unilux Cards
Carl has spent over 15 years in the cards and payments industry with a strong focus on loyalty and customer engagement.
Adam Ward, CEO & co-founder, Airtime Rewards
Adam has a track record in mobile technology and internet business focusing on highly scalable growth areas.
Ahmed Bin Mahfoud, partner, Macro Management Consulting and external consultant for customer loyalty, AYM
Ahmed has worked for a number of brands in different verticals on various loyalty and engagement scopes including Mobily (the 2nd largest telco in Saudi Arabia).
Nathalie Matellini, global marketing manager, The Travel Corporation
Nathalie brought loyalty in-journey for British Airways through the use of iPads and introduced to Executive Club the concept of “personal recognition”.
Troy Liu, founder and CEO, Mileslife
Having accumulated millions of miles from multiple airline loyalty programmes, Troy created and launched Mileslife in March 2016 to connect airline miles with everyday spending in one mobile platform.
Matt Norbury, CEO, IAT
Entrepreneur, CEO and founder of IAT, a technology company helping companies better connect with their customers and employees, Matt has secured over £20m funding.
Jérémie Vilain, director for business insights and CRM, REWE Group
Jérémie helped launch Auchan’s first loyalty programme, the “Waooh” Carte, which still exists today.
Shelley Bishton, brand partnerships and loyalty marketing consultant
Shelley has worked in partnership marketing for more than 10 years – six for The Telegraph Group newspapers where offers were used to reward regular readers and led her to create the Telegraph Loyalty Programme.
Sponsors of the Loyalty Magazine Awards are:
Prime Sponsor:
Currency Alliance
Diamond sponsor:
Tranxactor
Category Sponsors:
Collinson
For Good Causes
Givex
Take home bag sponsor:
The Entertainer business
For more information contact Annich McIntosh, editor, Loyalty Magazine:
amcintosh@cm-media.net
Tel: +44 (0)1572 820088
