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Elevating customer loyalty while driving personalized content, experiences, and incentives that truly resonate with the customer is critically important in today’s marketplace. Loyalty360’s brand members report the need to drive personalization at scale—necessitating a deeper understanding of disparate technologies that require seamless integration to allow for coordinated orchestration leveraging first- and zero-party data.

Often, in challenging economic environments, budgets are constrained. Understanding new technologies and their actual functionalities can be a hurdle for many brands. Securing placement in the organization’s implementation queue and earning priority designation can be an uphill battle.

Loyalty360’s research consistently indicates that brands do not feel they have the ability to understand the rapidly evolving martech environment, yet that did not stop Blaze Pizza from leveraging their legacy technologies into a series of manual processes to drive award-winning personalization.

Blaze Pizza was a finalist at Loyalty360’s 2024 Loyalty Expo in the Customer Analytics, Insights, and Metrics category, taking home the Bronze Award. In this in-depth exclusive, the brand’s Senior Growth Marketing Manager, Lindsay Smith, discusses the company’s unique approach to customer loyalty, how it’s leveraging geo-fencing and gamification, and how—even in a cautionary economic environment—Blaze Pizza is creatively driving sales.


Watch the full interview here.

Read the feature on Loyalty360 here.

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Engage People is a technology innovation company with a vision to bring technology to the forefront to enable a better customer experience. The company seeks to leverage today’s technologies to drive improved outcomes for brands while elevating loyalty programs and the member experience.

Jonathan Silver, CEO of Engage People, has worked in the industry for over 36 years. He began his career with Maritz Canada—now Bond—before holding various senior positions in the loyalty sector. Nearly 16 years ago, Silver co-founded the precursor to Engage People before rebranding the company in 2015. Today, his role at Engage People focuses on strategy and sales.

Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Silver about “paying with points” technology, the uChoose Rewards® program managed with partner Fiserv, and making the offer-redemption experience seamless for customers.

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In 2003, Insomnia Cookies was founded by Seth Berkowitz, a University of Pennsylvania college student seeking a late-night sweet treat—a shared need that turned into an opportunity for Berkowitz on the UPenn campus. He baked cookies in his college house kitchen and delivered them to hungry students in the early hours of the morning.

The brand now counts two decades of serving up delicious cookies to customers, with nearly 300 stores across the U.S. and a couple in the U.K. and Canada. Select stores are open late—sometimes until 3 o’clock in the morning— depending upon the night. The cookies are served warm, and brand fans can also order ice cream to accompany baked treats.

Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke to Tom Carusona, Chief Marketing Officer of Insomnia Cookies, about launching a new loyalty program, understanding customer segments and how to activate them, and tapping into emotional loyalty.

Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/Or-mtujWRDQ

Read the feature on Loyalty360 here: https://loyalty360.org/content-gallery/in-depth-exclusives/insomnia-cookies-launching-a-new-loyalty-program-and-building-robust-customer-profiles-for-increase

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Switchfly was founded in 2003 as a travel technology startup. Today, Switchfly is a travel experience platform that allows brands to create memorable moments for employees. As a concept, the company is the silent partner in many of the major loyalty programs that consumers recognize. For the last 20 years, the company has been behind many of the loyalty points programs in financial services and the airline industry, which reward and engage consumers with travel. When consumers take points earned through a credit card to pay for travel, Switchfly works behind the scenes, applying those points to hotels and flights. The company also services car rentals and activities globally.

About 18 months prior to sitting down with Loyalty360, Switchfly began to focus on Human Resources and Rewards and Recognition for Employee Engagement in corporate America. Internal customers—employees—have many of the same expectations and wants in a loyalty program as a brand’s external customers.

Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Nowell Outlaw, CEO at Switchfly, about effectively engaging employees with loyalty program benefits, modernizing tools in the travel ecosystem, and leveraging technology to make “smart” recommendations for customers.

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Affectionally labeled as the “most Canadian brand in Canada,” Tim Hortons is a beloved quick-service restaurant (QSR) featuring coffee and other beverages, delicious donuts, breakfast favorites, and sandwiches. The brand counts more than 5,000 restaurants worldwide—with the majority of them located in Canada. Tim Hortons restaurants can be found in the U.S., with more concentrated pockets close to the Canadian border.

The company was founded 60 years ago in Hamilton, Ontario, and has since become the largest restaurant chain in Canada. Tim Hortons serves nearly 7 out of 10 coffees purchased in the nation, which represents approximately 80% of Canadian visits to Tim Hortons’ restaurants at least once per month. Today, the brand is arguably embedded in the fabric of Canadian life, with core values rooted in those of Canadians.

Tim Hortons was a finalist at Loyalty360’s 2024 Loyalty Expo in the Customer Experience Strategy and the Loyalty Program Design categories, taking home the Silver Award in the former and the Bronze Award in the latter.

Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Ricardo Frydman, Director of Performance Analytics & Pricing for Tims Financial, and Shannon Torabi, Senior Manager for Digital & Loyalty Growth at Tim Hortons, about the launch of Tims Word Challenge, authentic emotional loyalty, and how customers must always be top of mind.

Watch the interview here: https://youtu.be/uImmE12atxI

Read the feature on Loyalty360 here: https://loyalty360.org/content-gallery/in-depth-exclusives/tim-hortons-cultivating-and-increasing-customer-engagement-by-leveraging-a-unique-and-innovative-ap

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The company that would eventually become Stop & Shop was founded in 1914 when the Economy Grocery Store opened in Somerville, MA. In four short years, 32 stores made up the thriving grocery chain. By 1942, Stop & Shop, Inc. became the company’s official name, and expansion into surrounding states continued. Today, Stop & Shop is one of the several grocery brands operated by Ahold Delhaize, with roughly 400 stores located throughout New York, New England, and New Jersey.

Stop & Shop was a finalist for this year’s Loyalty360 Awards at Loyalty360’s 2024 Loyalty Expo, taking home the Bronze Award in the Technology and Trends category for its innovation in engaging technology-adverse customers through in-store kiosks.

Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Per Jensen, Head of Loyalty at Stop & Shop, about the reason behind implementing the kiosks, improving personalization, and securing program support from organizational leadership.

Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/4TtR5WL1qIw
Read the feature on Loyalty360 here: https://loyalty360.org/content-gallery/in-depth-exclusives/stop-shop-increasing-customer-engagement-by-leveraging-in-store-technology

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Wunderkind works alongside clients using an AI-driven performance marketing solution, helping them form stronger brand-audience connections through identification resolution and hyper-personalized triggered messaging. The Wunderkind Identity Network identifies anonymous website traffic through a network that recognizes 9 billion devices, enabling clients to recognize anonymous users, gather first-party data, and make targeted offers across email, text, and ads.

The company connects with any industry with ties to retail or that has direct-to-consumer revenue channels. Wunderkind is mostly active in apparel and fashion spaces, as well as beauty, luxury goods, and electronics. It is also fairly experienced in travel, hospitality, and even event ticketing verticals.

Loyalty360 spoke with Tim Glomb, VP of Digital, Content, and AI at Wunderkind, about leveraging AI, data collection and maintenance, and offering an intelligence layer to help brands better understand their customers.

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With more than 20 locations in the U.S., Great Wolf Lodge is a popular chain of hotels featuring water parks and attractions that engage guests with a diverse set of lodging and dining options. Daily events are designed to entice families seeking a fun getaway and water park enthusiasts alike. Great Wolf’s Voyagers Club program provides members with special deals to encourage them to book their next visit.

Dave Van Saun is the Vice President of CRM and Ancillary for Great Wolf Lodge. In his role with the brand, he spends much of his time on the ancillary side of the business—which is everything guests can do at Great Wolf outside of booking the room. Van Saun works with pricing, packaging, and promotion of all the brand’s food and beverages, retail, and attractions alongside Great Wolf’s line of business leaders.

On the CRM side, Van Saun oversees customer communications, and that is where loyalty fits into his purview. Great Wolf launched its loyalty program a couple of years ago, and Van Saun and his team have managed the day-to-day activities supporting Voyagers Club since.

Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Van Saun about the brand’s loyalty program, forming strategic partnerships to elevate the customer experience, and measuring success.

Watch the full interview here: https://youtu.be/ytKu1PluJU0

Read the feature on Loyalty360 here: https://loyalty360.org/content-gallery/in-depth-exclusives/great-wolf-lodge-making-an-impact-on-the-full-customer-experience-by-evolving-customer-loyalty