#249: UAE Telecoms Giant "Etisalat" Leverages Customer Loyalty for Growth

PAULA: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for Loyalty Marketing Professionals.

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PAULA: Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty, featuring another great story in the telecommunications industry, which many of you will know is very close to my heart, as it’s that industry that I first began working in loyalty.

PAULA: The program we’re featuring today is a homegrown success story operating here in the UAE.

PAULA: And it’s the phone network that I am a customer of myself.

PAULA: Etisalat is in fact the most valuable brand across all consumer categories in the Middle East and Africa.

PAULA: And the company is the UAE and Middle East’s leading telecommunications operator with a market valuation of over 41 billion US dollars.

PAULA: As you will hear in the discussion today, Etisalat is on a path of constant evolution and innovation, including a corporate rebrand and a long history of developing propositions focused on driving customer loyalty.

PAULA: My guest is Antonio Ricciardi, Senior Vice President of Consumer Intelligence and Engagement at the company, now known as E&.

PAULA: And he joins me to share the story of their SMILES program and its role in the strategy of the newly named company, as it repositions itself as both a tech co as well as a telco.

PAULA: So, Antonio, welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty.

ANTONIO: Morning, Paula.

PAULA: How are you doing today, Antonio?

ANTONIO: I’m okay, thank you.

ANTONIO: How are you?

PAULA: I’m extremely well.

PAULA: It’s always a privilege, particularly to be having a conversation about loyalty in the UAE, the country that we both live in and love.

PAULA: So super exciting time for me to be talking to you.

PAULA: Before we get into your company, under its two names, its previous name, of course, Etisalat, and the wonderful new brand of E&.

PAULA: Of course, we always start Let’s Talk Loyalty talking about our favorite loyalty programs.

PAULA: And you, as an industry professional, I know you’ve studied this extensively.

PAULA: So let’s start with asking you exactly, Antonio, what is your favorite loyalty program?

ANTONIO: Yeah, sure.

ANTONIO: I was expecting this question, actually.

ANTONIO: And as a consumer, I love Amazon Prime.

ANTONIO: I find it very simple to understand, great benefits, reasonably priced.

ANTONIO: I never think about unsubscribing.

ANTONIO: So it does the magic to me.

PAULA: That’s actually a very good point.

PAULA: You know, I think with their particularly, anything that’s done on a subscription basis, there’s always this risk of churn.

PAULA: It’s the single biggest challenge, I think, with the business model.

PAULA: And with almost everything, whether it’s my gym subscription or a newspaper subscription, and sometimes, dare I even say it in the telecoms industry that we both know and love so well, there’s always a retention challenge.

PAULA: But Amazon Prime just doesn’t seem to have that problem.

ANTONIO: Absolutely, absolutely.

ANTONIO: And then I think we all have read the statistics at the end in terms of repeat customers and spend per customers.

ANTONIO: Prime really delivers very well to them.

ANTONIO: And I think nowadays subscription model is a very popular model also in loyalty.

ANTONIO: We have a lot of Prime premium models.

ANTONIO: And for me, what really worked very well for them is they made it simple.

ANTONIO: So while they’re still adding great benefits, as a customer, you don’t get tangled in too many business rules or complexity.

ANTONIO: And that’s, you appreciate the benefits and you keep riding on those.

PAULA: Absolutely, yeah.

PAULA: And you’re absolutely right.

PAULA: I mean, purely on the delivery proposition, my Prime subscription price more than pays for itself.

PAULA: So I never think twice when I need even one item.

PAULA: I will instantly order it, it will be delivered.

PAULA: And I feel very reassured that obviously it’s covered under my Prime subscription.

PAULA: And then as you said, they keep adding extra benefits.

PAULA: There’s the whole Amazon Prime content channel.

PAULA: So that’s actually one I need to spend more time with.

PAULA: So yeah, a great example and absolutely a global brand that I suppose we can all celebrate and learn from.

PAULA: And who knows in the future, maybe we’ll be talking more about paid loyalty programs.

PAULA: I think it is absolutely one that we both admire.

PAULA: So let’s get into the work that you’re doing.

PAULA: As you know, our audience is Global Antonio.

PAULA: So they may not be familiar with either the previous brand of Etisalat or the rebranded business of E&.

PAULA: So can we start with you just telling us a bit about the company that you work for?

ANTONIO: Absolutely, absolutely.

ANTONIO: I mean, here in the UAE and the Middle East and Africa, Etisalat is known as a brand and it’s always been a synonymous of telecommunication and connectivity.

ANTONIO: When 2020 came with all the complications that we are all aware of, the top management went on a project or a journey of transformation just to make the company more resilient, better performing.

ANTONIO: And while doing so, we realized that we actually had the capabilities and ambitions which were much bigger than that.

ANTONIO: And hence, our new brand, which is E&, symbolizes exactly that we are the transition from being a traditional telecom organization into a technology and investment group, which is primarily focusing and delivering seamless and digitally first experiences to our consumers.

ANTONIO: So that’s what the direction we are aiming for, and I think the new brand symbolizes that very well because it keeps it open, and it actually explains very well, or shows very well that there is something beyond what we have been traditionally known for in the region we operate in.

PAULA: Absolutely, yeah.

PAULA: It’s a big promise, Antonio, and certainly I would say probably the reason that I live in the UAE is exactly one of the words you mentioned, which is ambition.

PAULA: So for me, absolutely, the UAE has extraordinary ambition and pride and belief in itself as a country.

PAULA: So I can feel that coming through in this rebrand for EAND.

PAULA: So, you know, definitely want to start by wishing you every success with that project.

PAULA: I know what it’s like.

PAULA: Yeah, it’s a big one, actually, big decision and does come from a place of wanting to do more.

PAULA: So very exciting times.

PAULA: So from a loyalty perspective, then, Antonio, I know you’ve been with the business now.

PAULA: I think it’s, is it almost 10 years you’ve been there?

ANTONIO: Yeah, almost 10 years, yes.

PAULA: Okay, so maybe tell us about your journey with, you know, driving customer loyalty under its various guises, because I know it’s evolved a lot, most popularly, I guess, with the current SMILES program.

PAULA: So we’ll definitely be excited to hear all about SMILES, but maybe would you take us on the journey of the evolution of loyalty within the business?

ANTONIO: I mean, what I’m mostly busy with and passionate about in Etisalat is analytics in general, and analytics that can be leveraged to drive engagement, which, you know, at the end brings all sorts of positive impact on the business.

ANTONIO: And within that engagement sphere, we had a number of practices and framework already in place.

ANTONIO: And one of them, you know, was a loyalty program, which I think was introduced back in 2007, when competition was introduced here in our own market in the UAE, which was called the More program.

ANTONIO: It was a program primarily focusing on, let’s say, the wall garden kind of benefits.

ANTONIO: So primarily revolving around the telecom benefits.

ANTONIO: Because of the size of the company in the UAE was extremely powerful.

ANTONIO: So a lot of people were high enrollment and that served the purpose well for a good number of years.

ANTONIO: However, a few years after, maybe more around 2014 or 2015, obviously there was a lot of evolution in the loyalty space and our consumers were also coming up with bringing up some pain points in the experience.

ANTONIO: So for example, they were relating lack of instant gratification.

ANTONIO: They wanted to be exposed to a larger number of rewards.

ANTONIO: So what we did at the point in time, we changed our name into Etisalat Rewards and we made it much more digital.

ANTONIO: So we unlocked instant gratification and we opened up avenues for earning and redeeming, primarily redeeming at the time across a number of non-telecom related category merchants.

PAULA: Nice.

ANTONIO: And so that’s been, let’s say, the history pre-Smiles.

ANTONIO: Smiles was launched in 2017.

ANTONIO: So if you wish, I can take you beyond 717, unless you have other questions on what was the era pre-Smiles.

PAULA: Not at all.

PAULA: Smiles is absolutely the key topic now for today.

PAULA: I do love the fact that, you know, it was launched, what I’m hearing as essentially, I suppose, a unique selling point.

PAULA: As you said, competition was launched in the UAE.

PAULA: So very much Etisalat or E& was the first, the innovator.

PAULA: I think it was four decades ago that that business was launched, but it was actually only quite recently then that another telecoms company was launched as well.

PAULA: So am I right in understanding that, Antonio, that there was a need then, I guess, to focus from a differentiation perspective, more in, I suppose, giving extra reasons to be with, with Etisalat, I guess, as distinct from the new entrance?

ANTONIO: Yeah, that’s true.

ANTONIO: That’s true.

ANTONIO: I mean, at the beginning, there was more like, it was, you know, on the back of the competition, we go up and up here in the UAE.

ANTONIO: More recently, if you look at the last five years, I think the processor was more looking at how we can diversify, how we can become more relevant in moments of consumer lifestyle.

ANTONIO: So we know that as a telecom organization, typically we tap into customer moments in different times of the day, but when it comes to customer ownership or owning the consumer, there is an extra layer that needs to be added.

ANTONIO: And normally that comes by developing a certain platform, whether those platforms are ride-hailing platform or messaging platform or marketplace platforms.

ANTONIO: You need to have those on top of your, let’s say your traditional kind of proposition.

ANTONIO: And that I think was what brought us to make that initial step in 2017 when we introduced Miles as a standalone digital asset for consumers to enjoy the loyalty benefit, as well as enjoying a wealth of benefits under the marketplace front.

ANTONIO: And that was what worked well on that particular step is that it allow us to take away this concept of the long marathon that sometimes members of the loyalty programs have to run before they can get to something, right?

PAULA: Sure, sure, yeah, absolutely.

PAULA: And yes, absolutely.

PAULA: I know from my own background in telecommunications, Antonio, there is this expectation, as you mentioned already, about instant gratification.

PAULA: There is very little patience for the long marathon.

PAULA: So I think you’re absolutely right.

PAULA: So will you explain for our listeners then, Antonio, the SMILES proposition as it is currently now.

PAULA: Here we are in the middle of 2022.

PAULA: You’ve had a wonderful journey, and there’s definitely a couple of key highlights that I will want to understand in terms of getting to where we are now.

PAULA: But just exactly, you know, if I was literally to sign up today for the first time, what’s available through the SMILES program?

ANTONIO: Yeah, so it’s been an interesting journey, as you said.

ANTONIO: In fact, I believe there’s been a lot of evolution within the platform.

ANTONIO: What we consider ourselves now, we are more like a marketplace rather than a loyalty problem.

ANTONIO: We’re still very fond of our currency, and we still make sure that our currency can be used on any inventory item that we have on the platform.

ANTONIO: But we are a marketplace, we are primarily into the everyday kind of needs of consumers.

ANTONIO: So initially we launched, focused more on the go needs of customers, so you might be going out and you will be looking for some deals or rewards when you are, for example, dining out or when you’re shopping out.

ANTONIO: However, more recently, the evolution has taken us through focusing more on the 100% online marketplace.

ANTONIO: Back in the beginning of last year, we had our first category launch in that space, which was our food delivery.

ANTONIO: And this year, we acquired one online grocery platform, which we are now working very closely with.

ANTONIO: And there’ll be more in the future as well.

PAULA: And I’m right in understanding then, I think, Antonio, that El Grocer is the name of this, again, a wonderful UAE success story of food delivery, as you said, grocery food delivery.

PAULA: So there’s an earn and burn proposition there, is there?

PAULA: Or is it purely an earn proposition for earning SMILES points for shopping through El Grocer?

ANTONIO: There is an earn and burn, and this was launched just a couple of months ago.

ANTONIO: So just for the listeners, this transaction happened at the beginning of this year.

ANTONIO: The first 100 days, you can say, were primarily focusing on developing a lot of synergies on the tactical front.

ANTONIO: However, now we made our very first step into a more deep integration, which came, as you said, by exposing the currency into the Elgrote platform when it comes to both earning as well as redeeming.

ANTONIO: And very soon in Q3 and Q4, you will see more steps into a deeper integration between the two platforms.

PAULA: Yeah, yeah.

PAULA: It’s a clever move, Antonio, because as you said, moving from being a telecom service provider, which we all know is absolutely essential to our everyday life, but I don’t think we give it much headspace.

PAULA: You know, it’s a small part of our, you know, of our mind in terms of how we live our life.

PAULA: But obviously our groceries and how we live our life, you know, week to week, day to day, I think there’s an opportunity to be much more present there.

PAULA: So building a powerful, I would say lifestyle proposition.

PAULA: And would love to know, I suppose, just in terms of, you know, how many members can you say you’ve got using SMILES program, you know, as we stand in 2022?

ANTONIO: Yeah, sure.

ANTONIO: So we have more than 3 million members who are listening to the app.

ANTONIO: And what has happened, Paula, in the, you know, with this evolution that just happened over the years is that we have, you know, a couple of metrics that we focus very closely is aside from the number of monthly active users, which is obviously very important.

ANTONIO: We also look at the time that customers were coming on the app, spend on the app.

ANTONIO: And, you know, as the market place has been expanding and has been focusing more and more on the everyday kind of need for consumers, that metric has, you know, very nicely improved.

ANTONIO: And that gives us an opportunity as we have a multi-category market place, obviously to do a lot of cross pollination across different categories.

ANTONIO: I mean, that’s heavy lifting for us, but we have a lot of super powerful insights.

ANTONIO: We have customers spending time.

ANTONIO: So that’s definitely something that can be achieved.

PAULA: Yes, definitely.

PAULA: And I’ve seen that you’ve, you know, certainly introduced a couple of the more innovative loyalty tactics.

PAULA: Two of them that I always, of course, love to explore are personalization, which I think you launched your recommendation engine in 2019.

PAULA: And also I know gamification has been a core part of the platform for a long time.

PAULA: So I’d love if you would share any insights around, you know, the, obviously there is, you know, a certain amount of complexity in developing such sophisticated loyalty mechanics and tools.

PAULA: So can you share anything about the journey or the impact of those particular tactics?

ANTONIO: True, true.

ANTONIO: Yeah.

ANTONIO: I mean, definitely the path to personalization is never ending, and there is always more and more that can be done.

ANTONIO: We have a section on our app, which is called Deals for You.

ANTONIO: And this, when we launched it, it was a business rule driven, so there was no much intelligence behind it.

PAULA: Okay.

ANTONIO: And in 2019, as you said, we powered that particular real estate on the app with some intelligence driven by certain models.

ANTONIO: And we saw that the click through and the purchases increased massively.

ANTONIO: I think the purchases, if I’m not mistaken, increased five X or even more in the moment it became personalized.

ANTONIO: Gamification is also very powerful because we all know that apps are also at times used for a bit of killing the time.

ANTONIO: So it’s also sometimes what worked well for us is that rather than, let’s say, pushing directly consumers towards a transaction, sometimes it’s good to give them an easier or softer slide into the app by maybe adding some elements of gamification.

ANTONIO: So this definitely, as we all know, as being marketeers, these are two elements will work very well, which together with being contextually relevant, which is also something that we are doing at the moment and we want to do better and better and better, which is trying to be specific, looking at the location of the customer and providing things which are relevant to where, to him at a particular moment in time, at a particular venue, generate recurring usage, more time spent on the app and that’s all positive for the ecosystem.

PAULA: Yeah, I’m interested in your location relevant piece because I know, again, you’ve got the data and absolutely wonderful to be able to offer something that is completely relevant in the moment.

PAULA: Is there any example of how you’re doing that that you can share with us?

ANTONIO: Yeah, so one of the challenges we had is that, obviously, at the moment, we have 4,000 plus partners into the ecosystem.

ANTONIO: We always have, this number, even earlier was less, but still quite significant.

ANTONIO: Our approach at the beginning was more into trying to develop some visibility at the counter of those merchants, right?

ANTONIO: So we were engaged in a number of conversations with the merchants to build that visibility.

ANTONIO: We’re still doing that.

ANTONIO: However, that one brings in some good challenges sometime.

ANTONIO: The merchants are not open to show any other brands to the properties, or there are like a bit of a clatter.

ANTONIO: So we thought that being in 2020 and we’re digital, we can leverage also intelligence and make things in a bit different way.

ANTONIO: So we started unlocking a lot of messages which are geo-based.

ANTONIO: So whether it’s these are notifications which are based on a certain location or even we experimented on beacons.

ANTONIO: We built a network on beacons.

ANTONIO: Certain venues to be more specific.

ANTONIO: And we saw that that obviously drove quite a lot of interest to customer because at the moment, for example, you were walking into a specific mall, you’re walking into a specific mall, you get, let’s say, poked by something which is relevant to, which might be relevant because you are at a particular venue.

ANTONIO: And obviously, in terms of opening up notification, the results were significantly better than just relying on standard basic unsegmented or unpersonalized notifications.

PAULA: And can I ask, did you get any feedback or have you researched with your customers or the members, Antonio?

PAULA: Because I always think it’s such a fine line that we all want the benefits of personalization and yet people also talk about privacy.

PAULA: So it’s a very fine balancing act to provide the benefits and also make the customer feel comfortable.

PAULA: So, yeah, just any experiences that you have in terms of how did the members themselves feel about it?

ANTONIO: Yeah, you’re right.

ANTONIO: I mean, when we go, let’s say there is this term, I don’t know if you’re familiar with carpet bombing, that you go and do this mass market kind of approach.

ANTONIO: Maybe it gives you some results in the short term, but then you see the number of customers opting out, you know, shoots up quite massively.

ANTONIO: So there is definitely, and there are a lot of insights and researches showing that for a large, you know, for a good number of segments of customers, they value a recommendation more, the value of a provider who is able to provide the recommendation, which is contextually relevant, more than a provider who is just giving a discount.

ANTONIO: So for us, this is absolutely essential.

ANTONIO: So that’s the learning.

ANTONIO: And so the feedback from the customer has always been, you know, we are willing to listen as long as you give us something which is relevant.

ANTONIO: And for us, it’s very important because it’s a rich proposition.

ANTONIO: We have so many categories, spanning from entertainment to travel, to dining in and dining at home, and more and more.

ANTONIO: And one of the challenges we are having is that awareness of what we do can be improved.

ANTONIO: And what is the right time of doing so?

ANTONIO: What is the right venue to let you as a user know about something that we do on top of what you already know as doing for you?

ANTONIO: It’s very vital.

PAULA: Yeah.

PAULA: And I’m really pleased to hear that feedback in terms of that the consumer understands that there is a value exchange, that it’s not simply that Etisalat or E&, of course, is wanting to, as you said, carpet bomb them.

PAULA: And certainly when I was in the telecoms loyalty industry, Antonio, there wasn’t that level of savviness, I would say, that people were very clear that the data was being used of benefit.

PAULA: I don’t think we had the technology to make it really be felt by the consumer at the moment in time.

PAULA: So the fact that your consumers are able to say, there’s absolutely no problem.

PAULA: They understand exactly what’s in it for them and what’s in it for you.

PAULA: I think that that’s wonderful to hear.

ANTONIO: Yeah, it’s a long journey.

ANTONIO: And I think for us, we have a principle within the Smiles tribe of getting 1% better every day.

ANTONIO: That applies for sure to the personalisation side.

ANTONIO: However, the concept of next best action is very well known in other industries.

ANTONIO: So it suits very well also the marketplaces like the Smiles.

PAULA: Yeah, and I remember you used that term last time, Antonio.

PAULA: I love it, the Smiles tribe.

PAULA: So tell us a bit about your Smiles tribe.

ANTONIO: Yeah, I know, with pleasure.

ANTONIO: Actually, I’m here on Derby Alfa.

ANTONIO: This is like a group of very diverse people working across different organisations.

ANTONIO: Also, it’s not only E&M, there are also other organisations working across geographies here in the UAE and abroad.

ANTONIO: They’re very diverse, however, very much similar when it comes to a certain aspect of the DNA.

ANTONIO: And there is a very strong sense of belonging.

ANTONIO: Ownership is to the very high level.

ANTONIO: We like to say that we have leaders with no title within the tribe, which means that no matter what your background is, you’re very much welcome to come up with recommendations or ideas on the strategic side, technology, commercial.

ANTONIO: And so there is this good gel, and we have those principles that we also share.

ANTONIO: I spoke about getting 1% better every day.

ANTONIO: We also love to make data king and queen.

ANTONIO: And the ambition is to become insanely good with customers.

ANTONIO: And everything that we do, we do it by dreaming big and starting small, not just to experiment and see where we really need to put more investment into.

PAULA: Yes, yeah.

PAULA: And I will definitely compliment your colleagues in terms of being insanely good.

PAULA: I am an Etisalat customer, and I have a wonderful store nearby where I go anytime I have a question.

PAULA: And actually, it’s just extraordinary.

PAULA: I just know in 10 minutes, everything will be sorted, and I’ll be out the other side.

PAULA: So I definitely want to acknowledge you for that as well.

ANTONIO: Thank you, Paula.

ANTONIO: And the credit to our retail team.

ANTONIO: It’s been a good job.

PAULA: For sure, for sure.

PAULA: And the other piece that I think does come through as well, Antonio, across the whole business, is what seems to be this philosophy of innovation.

PAULA: And I know last time we talked together, you mentioned something about a blockchain-powered exchange to empower customers.

PAULA: So I would love to learn a little bit about that.

PAULA: Is it still at the pilot stage, or what are you doing with blockchain?

ANTONIO: Yeah, sure, sure.

ANTONIO: It’s not in the pilot stage anymore.

ANTONIO: It’s well-launched.

ANTONIO: So we had a few insights that brought us to that development.

ANTONIO: On the consumer side, we understood that there is a proliferation of loyalty programs that consumers are exposed to.

ANTONIO: What our intelligence tells us is that between 8 to 10 memberships are with every consumer in the UAE, which is also lower than some of the developed markets in the West.

ANTONIO: Even if it’s lower, we can all agree that it brings in a lot of inconvenience for consumers to manage all those memberships.

ANTONIO: That was one of the insights.

ANTONIO: The other insight that we had is that while you might be appreciating the currency for a certain loyalty program, not necessarily you value it the same way throughout the year, throughout all your…

ANTONIO: There are moments where you value a program more than others.

ANTONIO: And then also, as we spoke earlier, we know the consumer loves instant.

ANTONIO: They want to see the immediate result of whatever action they are taking.

ANTONIO: And finally, they hate when their points expire.

ANTONIO: Those were some of the insights on the consumer front.

ANTONIO: And when it comes more to the business side, to the loyalty manager side, we also know that typically loyalty managers like to have simple integrations.

ANTONIO: They like to have a large range of partner network and also real-time monitoring as well as seamless kind of settlement, rather than going to those tedious reconciliation which take a lot of time.

ANTONIO: So then our technology teams within the tribe, they came up with the idea of building this reward exchange powered by blockchain.

ANTONIO: By doing so, we managed to, let’s say, address some of those pinpoints because this platform basically allows you to instantly transfer from Program A to Program B.

PAULA: Okay.

ANTONIO: And it allows you to have a sort of a loyalty wallet where you can track all your loyalty wallets in one shop.

ANTONIO: Some people also refer to it as the Internet of Loyalty.

ANTONIO: And from the business side, it allows you for, let’s say, settlement which does not require any reconciliation, so there is a lot of saving on the overhead side.

ANTONIO: And we launched it in 2019.

ANTONIO: And I’m happy to say that we have been joined by some Tier 1 organizations operating here in the UAE.

ANTONIO: Just to mention a few, we have GEMS, which is the largest schooling network here in the UAE, with the GEMS Rewards Program.

ANTONIO: We have Adenok Rewards.

ANTONIO: Adenok is the largest fuel distribution company in the UAE.

ANTONIO: We have Shukran, which belongs to the Landmark Group, which is a large regional shopping conglomerate.

ANTONIO: We have Emirates Islamic Bank, which is a large financial institution here in the UAE.

ANTONIO: And there will be more to come.

PAULA: Well, I always love when there’s more to come, Antonio.

PAULA: So literally, my next and probably final question was, you know, what does the future hold for SMILES?

PAULA: What I’m hearing is a lot of growth, a lot of ambition, a lot of innovation.

PAULA: But is there anything else that you can tell us is coming up or what can we expect?

ANTONIO: Yeah, we definitely want to make our marketplace stronger and better and give more revenue for our customers to use their points, whether it’s earning points or redeeming points on the platform.

ANTONIO: So we spoke earlier about grocery.

ANTONIO: There is definitely an exciting agenda when it comes to that particular space.

ANTONIO: Aside from that, there are two or three themes that we are heavily studying and we want to improve on.

ANTONIO: One, we spoke already about personalization.

ANTONIO: It’s an imperative, obviously, these days to be relevant to consumers.

ANTONIO: Conversation is also something that we are excited to study and want to see how we can bring the communication with the customers to be more like a two-way kind of communication rather than being only one way.

ANTONIO: There are also other models, Paula, that we are studying.

ANTONIO: For example, on the group buying side, it’s something which has worked very well in certain other geographies.

ANTONIO: Not sure whether it will be relevant here in the UAE or not, but it’s something that we are studying.

ANTONIO: We find it interesting as a model.

ANTONIO: Our story has been very much a story of transformation in the last five years.

ANTONIO: And I think it will continue being like that also for the future.

PAULA: Yeah, yeah.

PAULA: And I do love that you look globally as well, Antonio.

PAULA: I know you’re very aware of the O2 Priority Program that I led in the Irish market for many years.

PAULA: So certainly I think that appetite to be the best in the world and to understand the opportunities is really wonderful to hear.

PAULA: So that’s definitely all of my questions.

PAULA: With all of those exciting ideas, I think the communication one is one obviously very close to my heart as somebody who spends my life communicating about loyalty.

PAULA: So I will definitely hope that you will come back and join us again in the future, maybe in 12 months or something, to give us an update on what SMILES is doing.

PAULA: But is there anything else that you wanted to mention from your side, Antonio, before we finish up?

ANTONIO: Absolutely, not just thanking you for the opportunity.

ANTONIO: I’m an avid listener of your podcast, and it’s always refreshing, and there are a lot of insights.

ANTONIO: It was an honor and a pleasure to be part of it.

PAULA: Wonderful.

PAULA: Well, on that note, Antonio Ricciardi, Senior Vice President of Consumer Intelligence and Engagement at Etisalat, thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty.

ANTONIO: Thank you.

PAULA: This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketeer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights and research.

PAULA: The Wise Marketeer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 245 executives in 27 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

PAULA: For more information, check out thewisemarketeer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.

PAULA: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

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