Audience Rewards: Transforming Broadway Loyalty Through Fan Engagement (#795)

Paula: Hello, and welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, a show for loyalty marketing professionals.

Paula: I’m Paula Thomas, the founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, where we feature insightful conversations with loyalty professionals from the world’s leading brands.

Paula: Today’s episode is part of the Wiser Loyalty Podcast Series and is hosted by Bill Hanifin, Chief Executive Officer of Wise Marketer Group.

Paula: Wise Marketer Group is an education, advisory and research and media service company, providing resources for loyalty marketers through three business offerings.

Paula: A global leader in loyalty education through the Loyalty Academy Platform, which offers the Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional or CLMP designation.

Paula: A trusted advisor through its advisory and research services supporting loyalty brands.

Paula: And a leading source of news, information and insights through the Wise Marketer Digital Publication.

Paula: I hope you enjoyed this episode brought to you by Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV in partnership with Wise Marketer Group.

Bill: Welcome, everybody.

Bill: I’m Bill Hanifin.

Bill: I’m the Managing Editor of the Wise Marketer.

Bill: And we’re here with the Let’s Talk Loyalty Podcast, which today we have a really special guest.

Bill: We bring Audience Rewards President Katie Dalton to center stage.

Bill: And literally, since we’re talking about Broadway, we’ve got to speak in terms of being on center stage.

Bill: So welcome, Katie.

Bill: How are you?

Katie: I’m great.

Katie: Happy to be here.

Bill: Good.

Bill: I’m glad to have you.

Bill: Katie leads the on-going development and operation of Audience Rewards.

Bill: She also serves as a co-founder of the Broadway Women’s Alliance, which we’re going to talk about a little bit later.

Bill: And she’s a graduate of the University of Virginia.

Bill: So we are fellow alums, which is another nice little thing we found out along the way.

Bill: So for those who don’t know, Audience Rewards is the only loyalty program for Broadway, and it continues to grow and evolve in its 17th year.

Bill: Katie’s going to talk a little bit about it, but you’ve been there through most of it, haven’t you?

Katie: Almost the beginning.

Katie: I joined about a year in, so have really been here to help drive the trajectory from startup to where we are now, which is really exciting.

Bill: Yeah, that is exciting.

Bill: So you’re almost synonymous with the program, or the program is with you.

Bill: So we’re going to get into that a little bit, but I just want to set a little bit of baseline for those who don’t know.

Bill: I mean, everybody hopefully knows about Broadway.

Bill: Hopefully most of our audiences attended a Broadway show at some point in the past, but the Audience Rewards program was founded in 2008 by the primary theater owners, of which there are several, and Katie, you can talk about that a little bit, as well as the Independent Presenters Network and Broadway Across America.

Bill: So Audience Rewards is a loyalty program designed for the main stem ticket buyers.

Bill: It’s central to everything that happens on Broadway and very interesting in terms of like a coalition style program that has enlisted the cooperation of a lot of diverse partners that have sometimes competing interests but also shared interests.

Bill: So there’s a lot of interesting aspects to the whole conversation.

Bill: So the program has spent the last two years evolving Broadway’s official loyalty program into a really a best-in-class audience engagement platform.

Bill: It helps shows better identify and engage and retain their theater goers.

Bill: And it connects Broadway to the inbound travelers.

Bill: And that’s another interesting aspect of the program.

Bill: You have so many people that attend Broadway shows that are local, in quotes, and then also so many visitors to New York City.

Bill: So it’s interesting, but the program is award-winning.

Bill: It’s earned recognition from the loyalty industry, from the travel industries, and it’s created all sorts of new opportunities for Broadway shows to reach ticket buyers.

Bill: So again, under your leadership, Katie, Audience Rewards has seen massive revenue growth.

Bill: I mean, I want to quote this number, but at the risk of jeopardizing my own credibility, you’re gonna back me up later, I hope, but we’ve seen revenue growth of over 700%.

Bill: I’ll just say that.

Bill: Quadrupling, the customer base.

Bill: And you’ve cultivated long-term partnerships with a lot of major brands, and we’re gonna talk about one in particular a little bit later.

Bill: So I could go on, but I’d rather just welcome you and jump into the conversation again.

Bill: So let’s just start with the basics.

Bill: Start with the storyline.

Bill: You’ve been with Audience Rewards 16 and 17 years.

Bill: You spent a lot of your career in Broadway, in the arts.

Bill: I know you’re passionate about the arts as well.

Bill: So tell us a little bit about yourself and how you found yourself in this industry and how you’ve been there for so many years.

Katie: Sure.

Katie: That’s a great place to start.

Katie: And just briefly, I will back you up on those numbers.

Katie: We can get to them later, as you said.

Katie: But for me, this career path really started with a passion.

Katie: And that’s a passion that I started as a theater fan.

Katie: My family went to see Phantom of the Opera, when I was maybe 12 years old.

Katie: And I think that was just because of the pop culture moment that Phantom of the Opera was having in the 90s.

Katie: Yeah.

Katie: We went to see it, and that started everything for me.

Katie: We lived in Orlando, Florida, at the time.

Katie: And after seeing Phantom of the Opera, I then wanted to go see every other show that toured through Orlando.

Katie: And I just loved the experience of going to the theater.

Katie: At the same time, from a career perspective, I found myself drawn to communications.

Katie: And what really opened up this path for me was sort of a lightbulb moment coming across an internship at the community theater in my college town, our college town, rather, in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Katie: There’s a theater there called Live Arts, and they offered an internship that was in the PR and marketing team promoting the shows at their theater.

Katie: And for me, that opened up, I can combine this art form that I enjoy so much with the type of work that I want to do in communications and stay very focused on that path ever since.

Katie: Started my career in the DC area and then made my way here to Broadway.

Katie: So started out as a fan and now I lead the program that is all about how to engage Broadway’s biggest fans.

Bill: It’s something, it’s really been a life journey then for you, hasn’t it?

Bill: I mean, it’s truly, you know, people talk about the most wonderful thing is to be able to make a career out of something that you’re passionate about and you love.

Bill: And it sounds like that’s the case right here.

Katie: Definitely.

Katie: It becomes so much more than a job in that case.

Katie: And Broadway, you know, on all of Broadway is very, it’s very much a community.

Katie: People work here because we love it.

Katie: And that comes with a lot of a lot of joy and a lot of ways to really engage.

Katie: I’m not, I’m not just leading Audience Rewards.

Katie: I am a member.

Katie: I, you know, I also see a lot of Broadway shows.

Bill: Yeah.

Bill: Lucky you.

Katie: Lucky you.

Katie: Yeah.

Bill: Let me ask you something.

Bill: Paula Thomas, you know Paula Thomas, of course, and our host and brought us together.

Bill: I’m grateful for that.

Bill: She is a tradition, I guess, if you will, of asking our guests about a favorite book that they’ve read most recently, nonfiction.

Bill: So it could be a favorite all time, could be something that you just read, could be something that you’ve got your nose into right now.

Bill: But do you have one in mind that you could share with us?

Katie: I do, and I love this question.

Katie: One that has stuck with me over some years is called Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed.

Katie: She’s the author of Wilde, which was made into a movie with Reese Witherspoon, if you have seen that.

Katie: The book is a collection of advice columns, which may sound like an unusual book, but it touches on themes of things that people are going through, everything from grief and love to guilt and resilience.

Katie: And it just sort of becomes this reflection on what it means to be human.

Katie: And I think one of the reasons that that one sticks with me, it sort of hits on the same themes that draw me to the theater, which is, at its best, theater does a lot of those same things.

Katie: It can reflect the human experience.

Katie: It can sometimes provide comfort, sometimes challenge us, and hopefully a great theater experience allows us to see ourselves a little bit differently or see someone else a little bit differently.

Bill: Yeah, that’s great.

Bill: That’s one I’ve got to add to my reading list.

Bill: I’ve not read that yet, but it sounds intriguing.

Bill: So thanks for that.

Bill: So give us just the overview, like Audience Rewards, like how was it conceived?

Bill: What was it trying to accomplish?

Bill: And how does it work today?

Bill: Just talk a little bit about structure and then we can kind of build on that.

Katie: Sure.

Katie: I think a great starting place to share about that is to note something that you mentioned in your introduction, which is that Broadway is not one single business entity.

Katie: It’s really more of an ecosystem, and that ecosystem is made up of every individual Broadway show is its own business.

Katie: There are multiple theater owners, different ticketing platforms.

Katie: There’s just a lot of separate entities that operate and make up what is Broadway.

Katie: And so Audience Rewards was created as a program to sort of put our arms around or umbrella over all of those different entities.

Katie: And to start to understand, connect with and engage customers holistically across all of those different entities.

Katie: And in order to do that, we are operating a loyalty program with all the basics.

Katie: Broadway fans can earn points when they buy tickets to see Broadway shows.

Katie: They can redeem points for free tickets to Broadway shows.

Katie: And then we also layer in all sorts of other ways for fans to connect more closely with the shows that they love.

Katie: Things like meeting cast members or attending insider events.

Katie: It’s a really fun, just sort of going back to the theme, Broadway is a passion product.

Katie: And so it’s a really fun place to be able to really engage that passion of customers.

Bill: That’s great.

Bill: So there’s two things that come to mind listening to you talk about this.

Bill: One of them is just to clarify so people understand you’re representing a variety of producers and theater operators, correct?

Bill: So you’re working on behalf of a very diverse group of people that have their own business interests in mind.

Bill: So how do you manage that?

Katie: Yeah, great question.

Katie: So every Broadway show, again, is its own business and is really focused on selling tickets to their own show, right?

Katie: Which makes total sense.

Katie: The producer of a Broadway show, their goal is the success and health of that individual Broadway show.

Katie: What Audience Rewards does is take a zoom out from that a little bit and start to understand not just the one time purchase that someone sees one show, but Bill, if you enjoyed Hamilton, you might also really like coming back to see the next new show and really cultivating, going beyond that individual purchase and cultivating a broader fandom.

Katie: And so what we have developed is a platform that understands customer purchase behavior across multiple shows, across multiple platforms, and can start to really leverage all of that customer data to connect customers with the next show that they might love and to really create meaningful incentives for them to come back again and again.

Bill: Okay, so that brings to mind another complexity.

Bill: I was thinking about this.

Bill: Most retailers or brands or companies that have loyalty programs, they have a business model that’s, I would say, either oriented towards maybe a high-frequency sort of environment, or maybe if you’re an auto dealer, you know the frequency of purchase much less so, right?

Bill: So you kind of have to adopt different methods to serve your audience.

Bill: It seems to me like you have to be successful in both those areas because you have people that might go to Broadway shows frequently, I don’t know, maybe several times a year, and then you have people that make their one big trip to New York per year, and then they want to see a show.

Bill: So how do you accommodate and deliver value to those different types of groups within one program?

Katie: Yeah, that’s a great observation, and I think something that audience rewards can sort of exemplify that loyalty is not just about frequency.

Katie: It can be so much about identity.

Katie: So that customer you mentioned who, maybe they come to Broadway once a year, in a different loyalty program, they might be viewed as, you know, the frequency is low, and, you know, in the Broadway space, that person coming once a year might really view themselves and identify deeply as a Broadway fan, and that’s important to us.

Katie: And so what we have just in the mechanics of operating this program, we develop ways to engage customers at every level.

Katie: So as you mentioned, we do certainly have subsets of very active customers who come to Broadway multiple times a year.

Katie: They might see every new musical of the season.

Katie: And then we also have fans who come once a year, and we have structured the program in such a way that they can still receive benefits at that level of frequency.

Katie: That’s really important to us.

Katie: So, you know, anyone who is savvy in playing the points game, they can earn enough points by seeing one show to get a really good deal on their next show.

Katie: And that’s really a core part of what we do.

Bill: Yeah, that’s great.

Bill: That’s great.

Bill: Probably a lot tougher than you’re making it sound.

Bill: So one of your core mission statements, which I really like, was helping that you’re helping producers to reach the right audiences.

Bill: And it relates to what we talked about before, you know, the diversity of the ownership that you’re trying to serve.

Bill: But what is that?

Bill: How does that mission statement come to life?

Bill: What does it involve?

Bill: And how do you deliver on that promise?

Katie: Sure.

Katie: You know, I think there, in some ways, Broadway can be, can again be perceived as one thing, where within that, every show is different.

Katie: Every target audience is different.

Katie: Every production has its own sort of goals and its own target customer base and its own budget.

Katie: And every show, of course, has a limited amount of time to find the people who are most likely to buy a ticket, who are most likely to love that show.

Katie: And Broadway also has an inventory challenge.

Katie: So unlike something like retail, where if something doesn’t sell today, it is still available for sale tomorrow.

Katie: If our seats don’t sell, that inventory, that’s a loss of inventory that’s not recoverable.

Katie: And so again, individual shows are really focused on their own bottom line, while we at Audience Rewards are taking a more holistic view.

Katie: And that’s in terms of how do we deliver on that.

Katie: What we do is leverage the relationships that we have built with our members.

Katie: We have over 3 million customers who have opted in, who have said it’s meaningful to them to play the Broadway points game, to earn rewards when they visit Broadway, and to use what we know about them to really target our messaging and introduce them to the shows that we think they will love.

Katie: So it’s segmenting customers based on their interests, based on their behaviors, delivering personalized communications based on the shows we know they love, building automated customer journeys that keep people engaged.

Katie: And another core part of this is keeping people engaged in between the point of purchase.

Katie: So going back to sort of the frequency question that you asked, one thing that we focus on is finding ways to still keep Broadway top of mind, even in between those moments of purchase.

Bill: Right, right.

Bill: Interesting.

Bill: So I know a pillar of your growth strategy is partnerships, and partnerships is of high interest to anybody in loyalty marketing.

Bill: I think it’s something that we talk about a lot today about how do you put the right groups together to deliver extraordinary value to your customer base.

Bill: But you’ve had a range of partners over the years.

Bill: I think the big one right now, which I was really impressed with, is what you’re doing with United Airlines.

Bill: But can you talk about just your perspective on partnerships in general, and then maybe more specifically what you’re doing with United right now?

Katie: Of course.

Katie: For Broadway, partnerships are a really exciting way to expand our pool of potential ticket buyers.

Katie: In the Audience Rewards core program, we run our own currency.

Katie: It’s called ShowPoints.

Katie: It’s for people who value seeing Broadway and getting Broadway rewards.

Katie: A partnership like United expands that potential pool of ticket buyers for Broadway using a program that customers already value.

Katie: So for example, Bill, maybe you’re not a Broadway avid fan.

Katie: You’re a little more casually interested in Broadway, and you value earning your United miles.

Katie: We have a partnership with United that enables earning and redeeming United miles on Broadway tickets.

Katie: So it’s taking a program that customers are already invested in, and using that program to incentivize customers to come to Broadway.

Katie: So it’s exciting for Broadway again as an audience development tool.

Katie: And what we’re doing now through our United partnership is starting to expand beyond that earn and redeem footprint.

Katie: And really expanding how we can introduce Broadway earlier in the inbound travel sort of planning process.

Katie: So travelers who may be looking at coming to New York, might be exploring experiences while they’re here.

Katie: How can we incentivize them to choose Broadway as one of those experiences, and getting Broadway in front of them at every step of their travel journey.

Bill: That’s neat.

Bill: And I had to think about tier status.

Bill: With the airlines, tier status is always central to what the travelers are thinking about.

Bill: Is there anything that you do with that, necessarily, to, I don’t know, open up a more special experience in theater on Broadway to people that have a higher tier status with United, or is that not really part of the equation?

Katie: Not presently with United, but Audience Rewards has a tier.

Katie: We have a VIP program within the Audience Rewards ecosystem for people who are…

Katie: We talked a little bit ago about the spectrum of a fan who might come once a year versus a fan who might see every new show.

Katie: So the VIP tier is a way that we address the higher frequency customer on that scale.

Katie: Our VIP tier members earn points at a higher rate.

Katie: They can redeem at preferred rates, and they receive special perks.

Katie: So we are operating our own tier to serve that sort of higher frequency segment of Broadway fans.

Bill: That’s great.

Bill: Yeah.

Bill: I mean, experiences would seem to be a natural part of the value proposition there.

Bill: Just I know you talked about the opportunity to meet some of the stars and have meet and greets and things like that.

Bill: That’s pretty special.

Katie: Yes, those are fun.

Katie: We do offer those through our United Partnership as well.

Katie: So again, the strategy here is about finding new and exciting ways to connect people who are interested in Broadway more closely with the shows that they love, whether that’s through Audience Rewards or another program.

Katie: I will say we have an additional partnership that will be announced this fall, which is really exciting.

Katie: And some others that are in the pipeline, again, with the strategy of expanding the pool of potential ticket buyers for Broadway.

Katie: And then outside of the currency partnership landscape, Audience Rewards has a partnership with the Tony Awards.

Katie: So the Tony Awards are Broadway’s biggest night, and we work with the Tonys on some fan engagement efforts, specifically running a game in which Broadway fans can guess who they think will win the Tony Awards, and they can earn points for doing so.

Katie: And as I mentioned, a key strategy for Audience Rewards is engaging customers in between the moments that they’re seeing a show, and that’s a key way that we do that.

Bill: Yeah, that’s great.

Bill: That’s a lot of fun.

Bill: So you teased us a little bit with these enormously successfully sounding numbers, successful numbers.

Bill: But everyone loves to hear about results.

Bill: So can you share a few more just performance metrics, if you will, or just tell us about the impact that the program’s had for its constituents?

Katie: Absolutely.

Katie: So in terms of scale, the Audience Rewards program has over 3 million members, and we are adding to that every week.

Katie: In terms of our historic sales, Audience Rewards members have purchased over a billion dollars in tickets, billion with a B.

Katie: So this is a really meaningful segment of customers, which again, is part of why this program was created, is to understand who are these customers who are coming back over and over again, which without a unifying program, individual shows only know their individual buyers.

Katie: By operating this program, we have the view of who these very valuable repeat customers to this ecosystem of Broadway, who they are and what they’re doing.

Katie: A few other numbers, Audience Rewards has offered presales for over 100 Broadway shows.

Katie: That means we offer first access to great seats, to people who are demonstrated, you know, active Broadway fans.

Katie: And we have produced over 200 of those exclusive fan events.

Katie: The meet and greets, the photo ops, we’ve done dance classes.

Katie: We have done some more creative events.

Katie: The show Wicked has a hot air balloon, an Audience Rewards member has taken a flight in that hot air balloon.

Katie: So all sorts of creative ways to connect fans in fun ways with Broadway.

Katie: And then I want to speak a little bit about the recent investments that we have made in Audience Rewards capabilities, which I know you referenced.

Katie: We have really spent some time to develop the tools in our toolbox as a marketing platform and as an audience development and engagement platform.

Katie: And since making those investments and building out new capabilities, we’re really seeing the results.

Katie: So our email engagement is up over 2X from a couple of years ago.

Katie: So we have really high open rates.

Katie: Our customers really engaging with the Broadway offers that we’re putting in front of them.

Katie: And a really exciting stat is that our weekly purchasers, so the number of customers buying tickets every week, is up 25% for the first half of this year compared to the second half of last year.

Katie: So we’re really seeing some upticks in engagement in Broadway and in customers coming back to Broadway.

Katie: That’s great.

Katie: And then another metric that I’m excited to share is that, as we think back to that sort of higher frequency segment, that segment, the count of members who see a lot of shows every year, that count is really back to pre-COVID levels.

Katie: So Broadway had an extreme period of disruption with COVID.

Katie: Our shows were completely closed for 18 months.

Katie: So I think what’s really exciting is to be past the point of recovery and really back to expanding what this program can do, what Audience Rewards can do for shows and for Broadway as a whole, and what Broadway can offer to our fans.

Bill: That’s great.

Bill: So I can tell you, you’re going to be an audience favorite with Let’s Talk Loyalty, because people are always hungry for numbers and metrics.

Bill: I appreciate you sharing all of that.

Bill: Listening to it is probably no surprise to also say that you’ve earned a lot of industry recognition for Audience Rewards.

Bill: So you can do your humble brag now, but I know that you just recently won, I think was it at Loyalty 360, and I think you’ve won some other industry recognition.

Bill: But can you, I mean, what does that mean to you?

Katie: Yeah, it’s really exciting to emerge out of again, a really disruptive period for our business with COVID.

Katie: Audience Rewards has made huge investments, as I said, in what’s next and how can audience engagement be part of the long-term health for Broadway.

Katie: So it’s really exciting for that work to be recognized.

Katie: So as you said, we received a Loyalty 360 Award this spring.

Katie: That was the first time that we had submitted an entry, so that’s really exciting.

Katie: And we were named by USA Today among America’s best loyalty and rewards programs last year and this year.

Katie: So that’s a really nice accolade.

Katie: And then personally, I was recognized as an honoree by NYC Women in Tourism earlier this year in the ticketing category.

Katie: And this is an organization that recognizes women who create excellent visitor experiences here in New York City.

Katie: So Audience Rewards, unfortunately, is not eligible to win a Tony Award, but we are grateful for recognition in the loyalty space.

Bill: Yeah, absolutely.

Bill: Congratulations for all of that.

Bill: That’s clearly well deserved.

Bill: And so it’s a good transition as well, because I wanted to ask you, you have some passion projects that are more than just sort of sidelines, I would say.

Bill: But the Broadway Women’s Alliance, the Movement Foundation, there are a couple of really interesting things we talked about beforehand.

Bill: But just tell us a little bit about that, and just because I think they both deserve some good visibility.

Katie: Thanks.

Katie: I’m a co-founder of the Broadway Women’s Alliance, which is an organization designed to support, connect and empower the women working on the business side of theater.

Katie: We created this as a way to really foster collaboration and learning across the industry.

Katie: So as I’ve mentioned a lot, Broadway is not one single entity, and so we have created various touch points, programming, a peer-to-peer connection program, ways to connect women who are navigating similar challenges with each other.

Katie: I think I have been supported by some amazing women throughout my career and it feels really important to carry that forward.

Katie: The other organization that you mentioned is called Movement Foundation.

Katie: This is one of the few things in my life that is not theater related, but connects back to the same passion of supporting women.

Katie: Movement Foundation is a non-profit that our goal is really to support girls, particularly middle school age when it’s been demonstrated that girls at that age really have a dip in confidence that can have long-term effects on their growth and development.

Katie: We create programs to help girls build self-belief and resilience and really tools that will help them to grow into the next generation of strong women leaders.

Bill: That’s incredible.

Bill: Sometimes we were talking about leadership the other day and trying to define what leadership really is.

Bill: But when I talk to someone like yourself who just had inspiration, it came from somewhere.

Bill: Is it a little bit like people poured into you at some point and you wanted to pay it back, or did you see a specific need through encountering different people?

Bill: What leads you to put energy into founding two things like this we’re talking about?

Katie: I think two things.

Katie: One, as I said, I have been supported by some amazing women throughout my career.

Katie: And really early on from that first internship at Live Arts, and my first full-time job in a theater, I had some women who really encouraged me, and I know the impact that that had.

Katie: And at the same time, I would say something like the Broadway Women’s Alliance, we created that in part to pay it forward, and in part because it’s something that is helpful to me.

Katie: And so as an example, the sort of concept of leaders having your own personal board of directors, my co-founders at the Broadway Women’s Alliance provide that for me.

Katie: They are, the BWA is really designed to, we encourage people, find your people, find the people who are going through the same things that you might be going through.

Katie: That’s really meaningful for me as well.

Katie: It’s both, that organization is both in service of others and also helpful to those of us who have put it forward.

Bill: That’s beautiful.

Bill: And I’m with you 100% in the importance of having that so-called personal board of directors, because you need good wise counsel from a variety of areas.

Bill: And I don’t know if your experience has been this way, but sometimes they’re not always like types.

Bill: You might have somebody who’s a colleague who does similar things to you, and then some of them might be in an entirely different business, but it’s all valuable to blend that together.

Katie: Yeah, and can be even more helpful if it’s someone who thinks differently or is exposed to different things.

Katie: One of the things that has been exciting for me and Audience Rewards in the past couple of years is that we have gotten more involved in the loyalty space outside of just Broadway.

Katie: Broadway as an ecosystem has, I have my contacts and connections within Broadway, but engaging in the larger loyalty space has also been tremendously helpful because while Audience Rewards is Broadway’s fan engagement program, the mechanism that we’re using is loyalty, and so it’s helpful for me to expand my network to people who also think about loyalty engagement in a way that my Broadway colleagues may not be as focused on.

Bill: Yeah.

Bill: No, that makes sense.

Bill: That makes sense.

Bill: You know that Let’s Talk Loyalty has a global audience, and we have people listening that are from every industry imaginable.

Bill: So retailers, travel and hospitality people, financial services.

Bill: I always feel like there are lessons in what you’re talking about that others can take to their business as well, even if they were in a different business.

Bill: But what do you think that maybe two or three things that you’d say, like, it’s worked for you and it could probably work for someone else?

Bill: What could you share that way?

Katie: Sure.

Katie: The first thing that comes to mind is the discussion that we’ve had around frequency.

Katie: I think the lesson is that audience rewards exemplifies that a loyalty engagement tool can still be very meaningful for a product or a program where the frequency is very different than, say, a business traveler, that being able to connect with passion and someone’s identity is just as meaningful as connecting with a high-frequency purchase, right?

Katie: That tapping into that identity can be really meaningful.

Katie: And I think the other things I would say are, when we first spoke, I know you reacted to sort of this curiosity around how Broadway connects with travel.

Katie: So I would say something to take away is that there are ways to mutually benefit brands or programs that may not feel like the obvious choice.

Katie: You know, the Broadway customer base is a high-income, really valuable customer base and a partnership with the Taps into the Broadway universe can be meaningful for brands that may not even be the first thought or the obvious idea.

Bill: Yeah, yeah, that’s great.

Bill: So, Katie, this has been a real pleasure.

Bill: Your experience there, I mean, I don’t talk to too many people that have been in a position leading for as long as you have, so it’s interesting to see how you’re continually evolving and you’re continuing to have success.

Bill: I mean, some of the numbers you shared were just outstanding.

Katie: So, you know, I have the benefit of coming in at the startup phase.

Katie: So a lot of opportunity for growth in sort of figuring out how to make a program like this meaningful.

Paula: Okay.

Bill: So like any good theater, I think there’s a day new month or there’s like a wrap up or something.

Bill: Is there anything that you really wanted to share that I haven’t asked you about?

Bill: Any other, any parting comments?

Katie: One sort of final thought that I would share is that Broadway is at a really interesting moment in time right now.

Katie: As an art form, Broadway has been around for over 100 years.

Katie: Right now, just like probably anyone listening, we are thinking about things like AI and digital tools and technology, and how technology sort of reshapes all of our lives.

Katie: And what’s interesting about this is I think that these things don’t have to conflict.

Katie: This discussion of what happens to theater with AI in the world.

Katie: And I think what I’m hoping to see moving forward is that technology and different tools don’t replace live theater.

Katie: That we use, instead we use these tools to get better at finding the right people to connect with the theater.

Katie: So, you know, the better that we get at Audience Rewards and on Broadway at using these new tools, that really what we’re doing is connecting more people to experience something that they can’t get anywhere else.

Katie: And connect them to something that is live and shared and in person and, you know, something that I think a lot of people are craving.

Katie: So, you know, the art on stage is timeless, but the way that we connect people to that art doesn’t have to be.

Bill: I love that.

Bill: I love that.

Bill: Yep.

Bill: And so Broadway, I would say, is an invaluable part of our culture in the United States.

Bill: And it’s globally known.

Bill: And yeah, that human element, I think, is ever more important.

Bill: And, you know, in the kind of world that we’re living in today.

Katie: So it’s irreplaceable.

Katie: You know, there’s really there’s really nothing like it.

Bill: Yeah.

Bill: So I want to thank you again.

Bill: So Katie Dalton is president of Audience Rewards.

Bill: Thanks again for your time.

Bill: Thanks for being here.

Bill: And and to Paula Thomas and her team at Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Bill: I appreciate the opportunity to be here and also just to have the chance to spend some time with people like Katie.

Bill: So I learned a lot.

Bill: And I am going to make a note over here to join Audience Rewards as soon as we can.

Bill: Sounds like fun.

Bill: But thanks again and thanks everyone for joining us today.

Katie: Thanks for having me.

Paula: This show is sponsored by Wise Marketeer Group, operating the Wise Marketeer and Loyalty Academy.

Paula: For nearly 25 years, the Wise Marketer is the industry’s longest serving publication and source for news, information and insights, which now includes its own branded industry research, insights and advice.

Paula: For global coverage of customer engagement and loyalty, check out thewisemarketer.com and become a Wise Marketer member or subscriber.

Paula: The Loyalty Academy sets a global industry standard for loyalty education, with its Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional, or CLMP, designation, which has created a community of more than 1200 marketing executives and professionals across more than 50 countries.

Paula: Learn more about global loyalty education for individuals or corporate training at loyaltyacademy.org.

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

Paula: 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.

Paula: And we’ll send our best episodes straight to your inbox.

Paula: And don’t forget that you can follow Let’s Talk Loyalty on any of your favorite podcast platforms.

Paula: And of course, we’d love for you to share your feedback and reviews.