Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in loyalty marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas from loyalty specialists around the world.
Hello and welcome to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty. Today, I’m super excited to introduce you to the 2024 International Leaders in Loyalty Summit, which is taking place in South Africa this September.
Many of you know, I often talk about South Africa, as one of the world’s most sophisticated loyalty markets, as the breadth and depth of the programs there is so much further advanced than most of us realize. I’m thrilled to be personally traveling to this conference this year, and you won’t be surprised to hear that it’s our friend and guest host, Amanda Cromhout, who created and is running this conference as well as the South African Loyalty Awards, the winners of which will be announced at the same event.
Amanda joins me today to explain the incredible lineup of international speakers and why Cape Town is such an appealing destination for any international loyalty brand looking to learn from this incredible market. Enjoy the conversation.
Amanda Cromhout, welcome back to Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Amanda: Oh, thanks, Paula. What a joy. Lovely to be here.
Paula: Oh, that’s the exact right word, Amanda. Old friends chatting as if there was nobody else listening, which clearly there are hundreds listening, but it’s really wonderful to catch up with you again. I know it’s been a long time since we’ve recorded together and there is so much going on for you right now. So we’re here to talk about the Leaders in Loyalty Conference in South Africa that you’re running very soon. And of course, which I’m attending and of course your South African Loyalty Awards.
But before I give everything away, of course, we’re going to start off our session with our usual favorite opening question. You’ve answered this in a couple of different ways in the past for us, but things are always changing. So Amanda, do tell us, what is your current favorite loyalty program?
Amanda: But I always laugh that you ask the question, your current, because like, it’s always like, am I being unfaithful by changing my mind?
Paula: Totally.
Amanda: I’m sticking with my current, which was last time we spoke actually VodaBucks in South Africa from, by Vodacom because they are a very big, supporter of Blind Loyalty their charitable redemption partner is Blind Loyalty Trust.
But I am also going to give a second mention to Amazon Prime. South Africa is a new market for Amazon. They’ve just entered the market and swiftly I purchased something. It was seamless. The prime benefits kicked in. It was rapid. They had stock. They were the same price as a competitor and it was just completely seamless. And I just had that feeling of, oh, I feel like I’m being taken care of.
Paula: Oh, wow. What a great way to articulate it, Amanda. Honestly, if every loyalty program or even every business just gave us that sense, honestly, there’s loyalty right there. It’s absolutely incredible.
I’ve said it a few times on the show, what I’ve noticed about Amazon Prime, and I don’t know exactly how long they’re in this market, but certainly they acquired a local version, which was called souq.com. And today, like just today, for example, I have ordered three times on Amazon, which purely means I’m extremely disorganized, but again, I’m not thinking about shipping. I know they’ll consolidate everything. I’m buying my groceries on Amazon now, which I think was a really big change in behavior. So honestly, kudos to Jeff Bezos and his obviously massive team that he has now behind him. So amazing to hear they’re in the South African market.
And I know you also counted Amanda, we should also reference in your Blind Loyalty book. I know you counted the amount of people that answer for each loyalty program. And tell us where did Amazon Prime come in terms of all of the episodes you counted from?
Amanda: Yeah, so we did. We did exactly that to get you a list of the top 100. So it’s Chapter 100 of Blind Loyalty, the Top 100 Favorite Loyalty Programs of Loyalty Professionals on the Let’s Talk Loyalty show. And Amazon Prime’s right up there as number two.
Paula: Incredible.
Amanda: So, number one is Starbucks and number three is Emirates Skywards, but yeah, number two is Amazon Prime.
Paula: There you go. So, listen, plenty to talk about. No doubt they will be disrupting the market, as you said and that gives you more and more ammunition, I suppose, as an industry professional in, as you know, my most favorite market. So, I’ll be dying to look back at the end of this year, having done all of this incredible travel, I think a lot of the audience know that I’m traveling down to the event from the Australian Loyalty Association, of course, also in the Gold Coast in August.
And then I am dying to get down to Cape Town for your International Leaders in Loyalty, Amanda. So let’s get straight into, first of all, I suppose the history of this conference, I know it’s a massive undertaking for you. It’s not your core business. Clearly you are a loyalty consulting firm, but tell us why did you start doing a conference? Like it’s a huge amount of work.
Amanda: Yes, you’re absolutely right. So isn’t, we’re not conference organizers or event managers. We are consultants and the training academy. But effectively about probably now about eight years ago, I just had this burning feeling that we could play a role of gathering the loyalty leaders of South Africa.
The market, whilst it’s very big and very advanced in loyalty is still very small in terms of friendships. And if I use the word intimacy, I don’t mean that in the wrong context, professional intimacy. Yeah. So, so we pulled together, it’s a great story. Actually, we pulled together. Like I remember that we had Johan Moolman, who was then CEO of eBucks. He’s only just left that role and obviously very well known internationally. As one of our speakers, we had Foschini Group, Jean Tranter. We had some really phenomenal brands sitting around a little classroom of the Vega Advertising School. I was an advisory board member for them. And we had 40 people sitting there taking notes in classroom style, just having this intimate discussion around loyalty. And we had some strange, awful cheese sandwiches in the corner. So it’s those fond memories and those individuals who are at that still remember that event.
And then every year we built slightly so it gets slightly bigger and slightly more speakers. And then COVID happened. So, my colleague Lauren and I decided, well, we could do this online and it was a terrifying experience in case the tech betrayed us, but we did it online for a day or two days for two years. We did online events. And then the last three years, this will be our third year of doing full scale events. So Rowan, our team project managers, as we have a full, you know, a full focus on it for many months leading up to us.
But I think the big significant change this year versus previous years is we’ve renamed it the International Leaders in Loyalty. We have been very South African focused until now, literally, you know, all South African guests, all South African speakers. And this year we have a complete U turn on that in the sense that 70 percent of our keynote speakers are not South African. They’re international, including yourself. You know, it’s actually, you’re over and above that. So excluding your, they’re just keynotes. And then yourself, you’ve got your own panel. And we’ve got another panel as well. So, so, so it very much is now the international leaders in loyalty. And a lot of international loyalty professionals have spoken to me at other events where I’ve been saying, well, what about your event? Like why isn’t it so far away? And, you know, and I’ve there’s a million reasons why actually it’s actually super easy. There’s no time zone difference with Europe or the Middle East. Granted that is from the US or from the Far East or Australia, but it’s a very easy trek to get to Cape Town.
It is far, but it’s well connected. There’s, incredible value for money because we’re sitting on a dreadful Rand exchange rate. So for anyone coming in with proper hard currency, it’s so cheap when you get here. And you will be then surrounded by you know, obviously the, I would say 50 percent or more of the guests will be the South African loyalty industry. Which as you said, it’s, you’ve put it as one of your favorite loyalty industries is one of the most advanced loyalty industries in the world. So the conversations and networking you’ll have at lunchtimes breaks and so on will be super, super useful.
I came across this wonderful stats actually recently, and I know this because I had the pleasure on your show interviewing Charlie Hills for Mando and their paper states that in the UK market, the average number of programs that Brits actively use is three. In South Africa, that’s 9. 4. So the South African consumer, not only do we think the market is advanced, but it’s in response to the market demand. The South African consumers are three times more involved in three times more programs for example, a market as advanced as the UK.
Paula: Wow.
Amanda: So honestly, from a market learning point of view and the other wonderful thing about South Africans, and I’m not South African, I’m British in South Africa, but the other wonderful thing about South Africans is that incredibly generous with themselves and their spirits.
So the way the speakers will speak and the way the panelists will speak will be so open. You won’t be short of sound bites and takeaways. And we’ve had the last couple of years, we’ve had Comarch as a platinum sponsor. And every time the team from Comarch have said, there’s no conference quite like this, where everyone just talks and gives away real nuggets and insights. So from that point of view, I’m incredibly excited.
Paula: Well, I’m incredibly excited as well, Amanda. As you’ve said, obviously Cape Town is easy to get to. I managed to get a redemption flight as well, by the way, I’m feeling very smug about that. That’s a personal achievement. And it’s a long time since I’ve been in Cape Town.
But genuinely I’ve said so many times on the show, you know, exactly that piece around. The, I suppose the level of expertise, like just extraordinary expertise. Like I’ve never, you know, heard of any program in South Africa that left me wanting or left me confused or in any way, unsure of whether the value was going to be there.
And I think it’s, you know, from what I’ve learned from you, that’s a factor of a number of things. I think it’s been established for a very long time in a country that I think loyalty has a real role to play in, like balancing the household budget, you know, times can be tight on a regular basis. I know it’s a tough country, as you said, with a weak exchange rate a lot of the time. So loyalty is just essential. You know, so, so it has to be done and it has to be done well. Otherwise you’re wasting your time and you’re out of business.
Amanda: Absolutely. And there’s a number of executives who speak so openly about that, how their research shows, and they just know that the loyalty program properly makes, helps their consumers reap the end of the month, which is an incredible, you know, it’s not a luxury for a redemption flight, which many of us think loyalty is about it is, can I afford to put food on the table? Can I buy electricity for my electricity meter this month? So from that point of view, you’re right. It has to work.
And the level of professionalism of the industry is world class, which we saw at you know, at the International Loyalty Awards with South Africa, picking up so many awards there. South African brands. So, yes, I’m more than excited that we’ve extended this to be the international leaders in loyalty. And I joke saying when anyone says, well, which conference should you go to? It’s like, well come to Cape Town in September.
Paula: Well, I think I’ve got a few people already, as you know, whether they’re on the actual lineup like I am, and we’ll chat about the full lineup now, but yeah, as I said, I hear from a lot of people other than yourself who are living and working in the South African loyalty market.
And they always just talk about how much they’ve learned. And as you said, that intimacy, which I feel like is missing actually at a lot of conferences. You know, with the best will in the world, sometimes the best meetings are the ones that you have just because you happen to be in the same place rather than actually what’s happening on stage. So I think it’s going to be the best of both worlds in in September.
Amanda: It is. It will be, I can’t wait.
Paula: Incredible. And I am guessing actually as well, I don’t want to put words in them, in your, I suppose, attendees mouths, but I’m guessing that they have already learned so much from each other over the years that it’s probably time then to bring that global perspective in because again, like every market, they want to know what’s happening internationally and I’m sure there’s demand just to get that global perspective.
Amanda: But absolutely. So that is one of the reasons we wanted to turn it on its head this year. So, yeah, I didn’t want to, I didn’t want the team to put my team to put on another display of the same brands, the same leading brands, potentially saying a little bit of change, but the same sort of story. So it is for that reason that I wanted to bring to the South African marketplace, newness and new insights from a global set of speakers, but also for The international attendees who wish to join us to gain from that as well.
You know, they can travel all over the world to hear some of our speakers, but they can travel to South Africa as well. And also combine that with what South Africa can offer. So it’s a very deliberate strategy, but it’s come out of, having the luxury myself of being at different conferences, hearing what attendees are saying they want and knowing that we could scale ours.
Previously it’s been a one year event. So now it’s a two day, sorry, one year, one day event, forgive me. Now it’s a two day event cause there’s no way we could accommodate the volume of speakers and content in one day. So I’m really excited that we can bring two solid full days to this conference.
Paula: Amazing. So what are we going to be learning, Amanda? What is the speaker lineup? I clearly know what I’m going to be doing down there. So, yeah, shout out to all of the winners of the International Loyalty Awards because I’m looking forward to interviewing the three South African brands and that are coming on stage with me. So that’s going to be my panel session. And, but I know you’ve got lots of others, as you’ve said, so a couple of South African brands, and then talk us through all of the other international speakers you’re bringing.
Amanda: Yeah. So you have definitely got a key role to play. You know, the three brands you’ll be interviewing with Foschini Group, African Bank and eBucks, none of them are strangers to the international loyalty world. So they all have a lot to say and they’ve been recognized globally. So let’s see, let’s give them the air time to really share their insights. We have another panel focused purely on gamification and we have Vitality as part of that panel, which are very Vitality, Discovery, Vitality, or extremely advanced in the use of gamification.
We also have Sarah Richardson, our friend from the Australian Loyalty Association speaking on the panel, rather than as a moderator, because she really does know an enormous amount a deep insight into gamification. And we have a gentleman called Glenn, and Glenn is one of the contributors to Blind Loyalty on the chapter of gamification. So deep insights for that particular panel. And it is moderated by Mateboho Malope, who we all know, who I’ve interviewed on your show for Vodacom Vodabucks. So she will be moderating that panel.
So there’s a two panels and then we have three separate breakout training sessions that the three main sponsors, I’ll talk about those in a moment are running. So they’re proper training, half hour slots, but then our keynotes. So we have 10 keynote speakers and three of South Africa and seven are international.
So I’ll start with the South Africans first. So we have a gentleman called Brandon de Kock who is an incredible speaker. He is our partner with the loyalty white paper. We release every year, The Truth and Brand Map White Paper. And he’s going to set the scene of the South Africa marketplace with, he’s very provocative. He’s very funny. He speaks on TV and radio all the time. So he’s a bit of a comedian and he will set the landscape and ask provocative questions over, like, well, why the hell are you doing loyalty anyway? Like, what’s the point?
The second South African speaking is a gentleman called Peter Case, and he is from Olgilvy, the CEO and Chairman. And again, incredibly experienced. Like I can’t even begin to tap into his depth of experience. He’s not a loyalty expert. And he actually said to me, Amanda, are you sure you want me to speak at your loyalty conference? I said, yes, please. Cause he’s going to speak about the power of doing the right thing, doing sustainability or purpose led activities within your marketing strategy, which obviously is completely transferable to our industry of loyalty.
And then even, sorry, I’m not South African, but I’m from the South African marketplace. I’ll be speaking, I’ll be delivering a keynote because I’ve obviously had the privilege of either from releasing Blind Loyalty as a book or speaking internationally as a keynote speaker. I’ve had a bit of rap over my knuckles, not doing it locally. So I’m going to do it at my conference, which feels a bit strange, but so they’re the three South African content.
And then internationally as speakers. I’m going to start with, this is in no particular order, but we have Rob McDonald from IAG loyalties, the Commercial Director. He’s also been a show a guest on your show that I interviewed Rob. Rob and I go back years, we’ve worked together in the airline industry. So he’s going to talk through the story of Avios over the years, which is just fascinating how that program has grown from just being a mileage airline currency into what it is now.
We have from Mauritius, Cecile Henry, who’s actually, ironically, as I’m saying this, I realize so many of these individuals have been guests on your show. So Cecile, also as a guest of myself and you, I know she’s been on your show twice. She’s from Weave Rewards. Now, Truth, our company designed Weave Rewards, and they’ve been through a wonderful program. It won an award quite quickly after launch, but they’ve been through quite a tumultuous time in their platform selection and re-platforming the system environment. So she’ll talk through that. It’s very operational.
So you’ve got Rob talking through much the strategic story of a program like Avios and then the real practical side from Cecile from a program in Mauritius.
We have Jay Weinberg, who I know you, you know, from Ascendants Loyalty Marketing and Jay has spoken at our conference before. I love his way of explaining business commercials. So he’ll focus completely on loyalty, business case, and commercials. So very practical, but very, some people love it. Some people hate it. It’s one of those areas that a lot of people shy away from. So Jay is a very critical decision for us to bring Jay in as a keynote.
We have Emily Ong, who, you know, from Landmark.
Paula: Of course. Yeah.
Amanda: And she’s actually going to, she’s I’m not sure if she’s been a guest on your show, but I’m sure Landmark has. Emily is going to actually give a different market perspective. So she’s going to talk about loyalty in the Middle East. So obviously that’s something you could chat to her about as well. So, Emily’s joining us.
And then we have Tom Peace from the Loyalty People and Tom will be talking through a little bit more of the tech, you know, the innovation of web three zero metaverse AI and so on. So we haven’t quite buttoned down exactly how that will sit versus our gamification panel, but Tom’s super excited and I know he’s got some wonderful experience in that area.
We have Wojtek Kempny from Comarch, so Comarch are our platinum sponsors. So they will be giving a keynote and Wojtek, I’ve heard him speak at many events, including the Comarch User Group. He and I have just worked together on our Diploma in Loyalty, and he is so knowledgeable and so engaging in how he presents. So I’m really looking forward to Wojtek’s presentation.
And then if I haven’t missed anyone, last but not least, again, thank you for the introduction. We have Rafael Martinez from MasterCard.
Paula: Yes.
Amanda: And he’s going to talk about co brand. So very specifically about a lot of the work they’ve done on co brands in the marketplace. And co brands do exist in South Africa, but they’re not enormous, but I know a lot of organizations are talking and thinking about it. So I’m looking forward to Raphael’s discussion. I’m just checking. I haven’t left anyone off here. I’ve covered everybody.
Paula: Okay. Incredible. Yeah. I mean, I don’t know which I’m more excited for Amanda. As you said, the the commercials piece is always the one that I have, you know, so much kind of nervousness from my loyalty career where I always felt very much like I had the clue what I was doing. So I, I love to learn about that. But again, I always kind of differ to people like Jay absolutely in terms of it’s an area I think you do need some specialized expertise on, you know, particularly setting up a program. So, so I love to meet and know who those kind of key people are around the world.
And co brand is definitely something as well. And as you said, Rafa is an amazing guy. He’s based out of Mexico. Does a lot of MasterCards, global consulting for loyalty. Again, he and I got to hang out together at a conference last year. So I was thrilled when he was able to show up and do something at your conference.
So an amazing mix, two full days, give us the logistics, Amanda, cause we actually haven’t even talked about the dates as I said, I’m all booked and whatever. But in terms of like, if people are listening, I mean, we’re releasing this now end of July. So give us the kind of the ins and outs, what are the tickets costing, you know, what are the dates people need to be there? I know it’s in what looks like a very beautiful resort hotel. So again, plenty of time to, I’m sure gather at the bar in the evening as well after dinner. And of course we have to talk about the award side of the whole event. So yeah. So talk us through the logistics.
Amanda: Yeah. So it’s the 11th and 12th of September. So we do start early on the 11th. So arrival would need to be on the 10th. And we finish probably about 5 PM on the 12th. So if folks want to move off and do their own thing after that.
But as you, and the cost of the tickets, so we’re pricing it, we’re going to leave it priced in South African Rands because we don’t want to, we don’t wanna disengage our own markets. So the price is 4999 South African Rands, which is approximately $279 at today’s exchange rate per ticket. So, we, our website is leadersinloyalty.co.za said all the information’s available on there. . And yeah, it’s, there is, it’s in a hotel. So the, we are slightly outta the center of Cape Town in a business area that also is a shopping mall area. Like, if anyone has any concerns about, you know, South Africa has a reputation sometimes for safety. We’re out of any dangerous area. It’s a very reputable Marriott Hotel.
Paula: Beautiful.
Amanda: And you can stay in the hotel, but they are telling us to get bookings, quicker rather than later, but there is another hotel across the road if that gets full. So from that point of view, we’ve got a big venue, but in a hotel that was very deliberate, actually knowing we were inviting international guests in the past, we haven’t done that. And I felt that it would give everyone internationally the reassurance that they’re in the location. They don’t have to move until they decide to move off maybe and have a fabulous holiday afterwards.
Paula: Totally my plan.
Amanda: Yeah, exactly. Why not? If you’re raised not to.
Paula: It would indeed. Yeah.
Amanda: So you touched on the South African Loyalty Awards. So on the evening of the first night of the 11th, we will celebrate the results of the South African Loyalty Awards that have been taking place. The entries have closed now. Our judges are almost at the end of their judging month. They’re the judging month of July. We spend Truth as the administrator of the awards. So I’m personally not a judge. I’m completely conflicted. But I’m a judging chair, so to speak. So my team and myself manage this process. We’re very grateful, Paula, to have you as part of our advisory panel which who meet once a year just to keep us in check.
And the South African Loyalty Awards is every year we do the awards typically around the time of the conference, we don’t do an awards dinner. We don’t do a sit down gala dinner. It’s not what Truth is about. And we’re also not a sponsored led awards. So it has no sponsors attached to it to keep in our opinion, to keep it completely sponsor free and no bias whatsoever. So it’s purely entry paid event. And it’s a cocktail evening. So the gentlemen and ladies can dress up in cocktail dresses.
And I, myself and the team will announce the awards to the winning brands. But the very exciting thing for us is it’s grown, you know, remember this is just one market, but we’ve, we have almost a hundred entries from one marketplace. It started in 2019 and that way back then we had 35 entries. So it’s grown threefold in the time. It had eight categories when we started, but now we’ve got 31 categories. So it’s really covering all the bases and I’ll never forget when eBucks picked up so many awards at the international loyalty awards. And then I remember your hand moment said, well, okay, we’re so flattered to have won these awards. And now we’ve got to face the immense competition in our own home market.
So the international guys, the guys who picked up international awards, it isn’t a given that they’re going to pick up the same awards here in South Africa. It’s a competitive market. And the judges, we have 15 judges who, some of them will be there, which is wonderful. They’ll hand out the trophies to the winners. And it’s a really lovely evening. It’s a big evening of celebration. So that’s the evening of day one.
Paula: Okay. Amazing. So I’m glad you gave me a heads up there on the cocktail attire. I’ve been remiss in the past of not checking on those important details. And you know, I’m often guilty of overdressing, but it sounds like that this is the perfect occasion. So any opportunity. Yeah.
Amanda: Yes. And sorry, logistically, if we’re talking facts and figures and logistics, a ticket to the conference gives you automatic ticket to the cocktail evening of the awards.
Paula: Amazing.
Amanda: We will be selling separately tickets to the awards only should a brand not be able to send all of their people to the conference, but want to make sure everyone’s there at the awards. But that’s separate. That’s unlikely to be of interest for international guests. It’s more for the South African brands who’ve entered.
Paula: Yeah. Yeah. And my own sense, I suppose, Amanda, and again, I’m thrilled to be on the advisory board because again, I get to hear what’s going on in your incredible market and talk to the other amazing people on the panel.
And just it’s just always amazing to me, actually the how badly everyone wants to win your awards. Like, you know, like with some awards, like you often feel like, okay, great, you know, we’ll do the entry maybe at the last minute, or maybe one of our suppliers will put the entry in and that’s a nice to have. But with yours, I think they’re like, they’re prepping super early. They’re getting the copywriters involved. So it’s so ambitious and everybody wants the top ones.
Amanda: Yeah. So most of what you said there is true. Unfortunately, that all the entries come in last minute.
Paula: Okay. Okay.
Amanda: I think that’s the nature of the beast. It’s just, we’re used to it now. We don’t panic. We still see the entries come in, but it is hyper competitive. It’s very exciting. Like I know that, and what is amazing is the top brands enter. So when I issue, when we issue the list of the brands that have entered to our judges, they just kind of go, we can’t believe that all the top brands, not all of them, that’d be incorrect, but it’s not just a couple of brands entering. It’s the top players in each category enter. So they are in it to win it, so to speak.
Paula: Amazing.
Amanda: So it’s exciting and it’s competitive. And at that stage I sit back cause I’m not a judge. I, you know, so I always say if you’re not happy with the result, I’m not the judge.
Paula: Totally. Totally. Well, that’s important. Absolutely. Because everybody needs to feel like, Oh my God, you know. We’ve gone up against the best and we’ve been well judged and all of those important details. And again, get to clink a few glasses, put the cocktail dress on and and hang out together because just numbers wise, I mean, I know the conference itself, I think you’re expecting 170, if I’m right, is around that number. Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah. So we, last year we were at about 170. So we’re hoping for the same. We can go more than that. So we’ve checked with the venue. If we go more than that, we just have to play with the seating arrangements. So we can go up to 200.
Paula: Okay.
Amanda: But it’s important for you know, like yourself as one of our media partners and for our sponsors. So our sponsors are platinum sponsors, Comarch, and they are very active in the South African markets. I understand why it’s important for them.
And then our next layer of sponsorship is called the turquoise sponsors. And we have Eighty20, who are a South African organization who are very specialized in data. So the data strategist, data analytics.
And TLC marketing. So TLC is obviously known worldwide, but they’re very well known in South Africa. So they’re both turquoise sponsors.
So Comarch, TLC and Eighty20 will have their half an hour training workshops taking place. And in particular, we’ve made sure that as guests to the conference, you don’t have to choose. So we repeat that session three times. So you can go, they’re all going to be vastly different and you can go to every one of them.
Paula: Okay.
Amanda: To me, it’s very important because I stress quite a lot when I go to conferences and I have to make a choice. I always feel like I’ve lost out on the other panel on the other.
Paula: Exactly. Yeah.
Amanda: So we repeat that three times. It’s, they have to do their same training three times. And then we also have event sponsors who sponsored particular parts. So for example lanyards, which are going to be deliberately lanyards rather than name tags. You’re probably wondering why on earth I’m talking to you about lanyards, but the lanyards, the lanyard itself is beaded by the company that do our relate bracelets.
Paula: Beautiful.
Amanda: So it’s relate and all of the profit from that goes to the Blind Loyalty Trust. So at the end of the conference, you can throw away the piece of plastic at the end.
Paula: Yeah.
Amanda: And use the lanyard for your sunglasses, for example.
Paula: Amazing. Oh, there you go. Super creative. Oh, that’s very impressive.
Amanda: We have a sponsor for our lanyard and it’s HALA, which is a gamification platform.
Paula: Amazing.
Amanda: Very grateful to HALA for that.
Paula: Cool. Cool. And my very small contribution, but I’m going to be positioning it as ultra exclusive. As you know, we’ve got our Let’s Talk Loyalty mugs that we’ve done many times, but exclusively and for the first time, we’re going to be doing Loyalty TV mugs. So if anybody wants the match of the set, they’ll be exclusively available at your event.
Amanda: Yeah, brilliant. Well, we use a Let’s Talk Loyalty mug all the time and I think I’ve sent you screenshots of either me interviewing or being interviewed with a good cup of tea or coffee out of that mug.
Paula: Totally.
Amanda: So yeah, it’s great. It’s great advertising. Well done.
Paula: There you go. Amazing.
Amanda: And thank you.
Paula: No problem. Well, it amuses me greatly. And yeah, it is just one of those things that every time somebody brings one on screen or in person it’s just a joy to me.
So, so listen, Amanda, from my side as I said, it’s my first time coming down to your event. I know it by reputation and obviously we know each other extremely well. You have put together an extraordinary lineup and just from a purely, you know, fascination perspective, you know, all I love to do is talk loyalty. So this is going to be like two full days of inspiration. So I can’t wait to come.
I want to recap the the website address, Amanda, as well, cause I know you have a different domain. So am I right? It’s leadersinloyalty.co.za if people want to look for tickets?
Amanda: Yes, that’s correct. Yeah.
Paula: Amazing. Great. And I can’t remember if we did the dollar conversion, but again, just because I’m looking at pricing all around the world, it’s extremely cost effective in or around in dollar terms at 279 which I know is 4999 in South African Rand. But yes, I know there’s great value then to be had in terms of our glasses slash bottles of wine and beautiful dinners that we’re going to be having together.
So, yeah, so I think that’s all of the details, Amanda, in terms of the agenda, the lineup and everything people need to know. Is there anything else that you wanted to mention for our audience before we wrap up?
Amanda: No, not at all. I’m so grateful for you talking about this and I’d love to see any individuals. I mean, I’ve been to a couple of conferences over the last 18 months where individuals have come up to me going, Amanda, where can we get the best comfort? You know, where can we go to get the best insights? And I flippantly joke and go, come to Cape Town. I know I said that earlier. So this is a time like please book now.
I’d love to be a sellout, but hate to be a sellout that we’d have to turn people away. So the fact that last year we got 170 without the international focus and I know already our early bird is closed now, but that sold super fast. So please book, please come and join us. Please come and have fun. But please come and learn like we are gonna I’m confidently saying we’re gonna put on a show of notes.
Paula: Absolutely. Yes. Well, no doubt, Amanda, you above anybody is committed to delivering incredible value, incredible inspiration. I know how hard you work both on our show and of course in your own market, but particularly this with your flagship event.
So on that note, I am going to quickly wrap up. Of course, anybody who is interested, we’ll make sure our show notes have links. Amanda links to truth and links to the conference and of course the awards as well and you can reach out of course either to myself or Amanda with any further questions that you might have. So on that note, Amanda Cromhout, Founder and CEO of Truth. Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Amanda: Thank you, Paula. And we’ll see you very soon. Thank you.
Paula: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty. If you’d like us to send you the latest shows each week, simply sign up for the Let’s Talk Loyalty newsletter on letstalkloyalty.com and we’ll send our best episodes straight to your inbox. And don’t forget that you can follow Let’s Talk Loyalty on any of your favorite podcast platforms. And of course, we’d love for you to share your feedback and reviews. Thanks again for supporting the show.
