Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals.
Paula: 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.
Paula: Thank you.
Paula: So welcome to the final edition, actually, of Let’s Talk Loyalty for 2019.
Paula: And this episode is going out now on December 19th.
Paula: So hopefully, everybody who’s listening is very much in wrap-up mode for the end of the year, and hopefully celebrating lots of exciting loyalty performance.
Paula: So today, I am super excited to be talking to an award-winning loyalty program based in the UK, and that’s British Gas Rewards.
Paula: So I think most of you know by now that I’m a judge for the Loyalty Magazine Awards.
Paula: And as part of that, I did see some fantastic work coming in from British Gas, which I have to say was very different, highly innovative, and really exciting.
Paula: So I took the opportunity and reached out to the two ladies who are on the line with me today to get an understanding of exactly where this whole concept came from.
Paula: Very unique and, I suppose, unusual in utilities at all to have such a comprehensive program.
Paula: So I have, first of all, Cathryn Lodwidge, who is the Loyalty Marketing Lead at British Gas.
Paula: And I also have Charlie Hills, who is the Managing Director and Head of Strategy for Mando-Connect, who manage all of the partnerships and rewards for British Gas Rewards.
Paula: So first of all, let me welcome Cathryn and Charlie to Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Paula: Great, great.
Paula: So Cathryn and Charlie are together, obviously, in the UK.
Paula: As always, I’m in my recording studio in Dubai.
Paula: So as always, what we’re going to do is we’re going to talk about separate loyalty statistics that appeal to all of us.
Paula: So I’m going to start.
Paula: First of all, I did read, Cathryn, that you’ve actually spent, I think it’s nearly 15 years now, British Gas.
Paula: Is that correct?
Cathryn: Yeah, just clocked up 15 last month, actually.
Paula: Wow.
Paula: So amazing employee loyalty and career loyalty for a start.
Cathryn: There you go.
Paula: Brilliant.
Paula: So Cathryn:, first of all, tell me and tell the listeners, what’s your favourite loyalty statistic?
Cathryn: Well, I think for me, it’s about brand engagement.
Cathryn: I think it’s something that keeps you awake at night.
Cathryn: And I think it’s something of what we are laddering up to in terms of why we created a loyalty scheme in the first place at British Gas.
Cathryn: We know that the engagement in the brand is really important.
Cathryn: So it’s about how can we make sure that customers feel that they are with a company that’s relevant, that is meeting their needs.
Cathryn: And that’s one thing that I think is super important when measuring the success of our loyalty programme.
Paula: Yeah, yeah, super, super.
Paula: And I think I’ve always said, actually, and we were talking before the show, I mean, energy particularly, I mean, it’s a super competitive area and so difficult to differentiate.
Paula: There’s so many consumers that find it hard to go, well, why would I have British Gas energy versus any other provider?
Paula: So and so to be really keen to get the kind of context in terms of developing your whole proposition.
Paula: And so, Charlie, you can probably tell us a little bit about Mando-Connect.
Paula: But before we get into that, what’s your favorite loyalty statistic?
Charlie: Well, my favorite loyalty stat actually is a market specific one.
Charlie: I know one of the angles for your podcast is very much about how the markets vary across the globe.
Charlie: And I think we’re really lucky operating in the UK that we’ve got a really engaged population in our whole sector.
Charlie: So we did some research with YouGov back in 2018.
Charlie: We’re recommissioning it next year.
Charlie: But as part of that, we discovered that the majority of Brits think that loyalty programs are a great way for brands and businesses to reward loyal customers.
Charlie: So we’ve actually got 72% of our population agreeing with that stat, which is fantastic.
Charlie: And I think one of the reasons we really enjoy working on the British Gas Rewards Program is because we’ve got an even more engaged audience with our British gas customers.
Charlie: Actually, 75% of them think that loyalty programs are a great way for brands and businesses to reward loyal customers.
Charlie: And actually, 57% of them think that every brand in the UK should offer a loyalty program, which I think is somebody who works in loyalty, goes to bed, gets up and kind of, you know, it’s such a huge part of our lives.
Charlie: It’s lovely to think that we’re sort of working on something that people want and that matters to them.
Paula: Yeah.
Charlie: So that’s my favorite loyalty stat.
Charlie: One of the things I’d love to do is look at how that varies market by market, actually.
Charlie: Maybe we should look at that in the future.
Charlie: But the Brits are big fans of loyalty programs.
Paula: Brilliant, Charlie.
Paula: And I think from looking at it, you said you have access to about 300,000 UK consumers, which is a massive number.
Paula: And YouGov, then, I’m guessing, is literally a government division that does UK consumer research across multiple areas.
Paula: And you’re the chosen partner for the loyalty piece, is that right?
Charlie: I mean, they’re a fantastic company.
Charlie: We do a lot of work with them and particularly in the loyalty space.
Charlie: But they cross kind of B2B and B2C areas.
Charlie: They do do a lot of government work.
Charlie: They do a lot of polling, which is interesting and kind of topical at the moment in our Brexit themed market.
Charlie: But they’re not actually government owned.
Charlie: They’re completely independent.
Charlie: So YouGov is the proposition is about YouGovern, which is actually it’s about people being in charge of their own data and actually a kind of a robust and accurate view of the world.
Charlie: So we love working with YouGov.
Charlie: They’re one of our kind of our favorite insight sources.
Charlie: And as we say, we’ve got 300,000 people in that panel, which is fantastic.
Charlie: It means we can look at sort of every brand in the UK and we’ve got 160,000 data points on them.
Charlie: So it gives us kind of a unique data-led view and helps us choose what rewards are right, what program structure is right, and it’s, you know, it’s live data as well.
Charlie: So we can see how it’s changing month on month, week on week, or even day on day.
Charlie: So it’s a really fantastic tool, actually, very helpful in British Gas Rewards.
Paula: Of course, of course.
Paula: Yeah, now we’ll get into all the detail around that.
Paula: And certainly, Cathryn:, I know you love data.
Paula: And, you know, what we’ve talked about is that your entire proposition has been led by a massive amount of research and supported by the kind of data that Charlie has available.
Paula: So just as a point in the show notes, obviously, we’ll make sure we have, you know, links through to the YouGov reports for 2018.
Paula: And obviously, again, when it comes out in Q1 next year, Charlie will make sure to publish that for you as well.
Paula: So I think we’re all mad hungry for as much insights as possible.
Paula: So we can never get enough.
Paula: It’s fair to say.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: Wonderful.
Paula: So, Cathryn:, I think from looking back, so the program I know was launched in April 2017.
Paula: But when did the original, I suppose, context and idea of British Gas Rewards come about?
Cathryn: Well, it came about.
Cathryn: So if we can kind of rewind to 2015, 2016, we had a partnership with the NECTA program, which is a coalition program in the UK that Sainsbury is one of our major supermarkets that we’ve got out in the UK, uses, and it’s got a lot of different brands associated to it.
Cathryn: And it gave us, you know, this gave us a really great view on actually what was important to our customers, and they felt rewarded through that.
Cathryn: However, we felt that we could reward our customers more personally by being able to create our own in-house program.
Cathryn: So, back in 2016, we started looking at what is it that our customers want and what’s going on in their lives.
Cathryn: And I think, if I just kind of set some context in terms of the market, so, at the time, British Gas is part of what is known as called the Big Six.
Cathryn: The Big Six are six big large energy suppliers, of which we’re the biggest, and, you know, we are, we became the whipping boys for the press and the government due to energy prices because we all know that energy prices are going north.
Cathryn: And that’s just because of the sources of energy are getting harder to purchase, especially in global markets, as well as the increased investment that we need to have in renewables.
Cathryn: So all of that plays a lot of big role.
Cathryn: And because of that context of the government kind of using the energy market as a political tool and the press not particularly being very warm to it, this doesn’t lead to a great emotional engagement with our brand because we’re closely linked to all of the bad press that goes on essentially.
Cathryn: So we just have to strip it right back and just understand, right, what is it that our customers want from us?
Cathryn: How can we reward them?
Cathryn: And at the time, our customers felt very resigned.
Cathryn: They didn’t feel valued at all.
Cathryn: We were giving the best deals to new customers, so existing customers weren’t able to get the best energy tariffs from us.
Cathryn: And they felt a little bit shortchanged essentially.
Cathryn: So we knew that we had to do something different.
Cathryn: We knew we had to create emotional engagement, and we needed to build trust by being fair and putting our customers first.
Cathryn: And that led to us creating British Gas Rewards because they are the foundations of what we built the program on, was about being fair, making sure our customers were rewarded, making sure that loyalty was rewarded, that we were giving our customers the best discounts out there.
Cathryn: And that’s what led to our decision to create British Gas Rewards in 2017.
Charlie: What was so interesting in that research as well was the insight that actually they didn’t want a points program because that was such a big shift from the NECTA proposition that actually what they really wanted was simplicity and engagement.
Charlie: So actually the way that you built the program with sort of same rewards for everyone, I think was quite revolutionary at the time.
Charlie: It was quite new thinking, and it’s been quite interesting in the last year or so that we’ve seen some fairly big moves in the UK sort of into that space.
Charlie: I think Shell is probably one of the bigger brands that’s made a similar move from a points program to a non-points program, and it does seem to be something that everyone is talking about.
Charlie: And you guys kind of were one of the first, I think, to sort of start with that.
Cathryn: Yeah, and I think that the reason for that was that customers felt that you had to kind of have your, you had to work out what points meant.
Cathryn: So you had to calculate how many points you would get, what that means in cold hard cash, and then what they could then go and redeem it with.
Cathryn: And I think what was difficult for British Gas is when customers went to go and redeem their Nectar points that we were giving them, it wasn’t being redeemed within British Gas.
Cathryn: And so therefore the engagement they were having with the brand was with Nectar.
Cathryn: And although Nectar is a fantastic program, the way that we were going with our market, what our customers wanted, it was just a different proposition.
Cathryn: So we had to create something different.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And there’s massive amount of insights there.
Paula: I don’t even know which point to pick up first on what you both talked about.
Paula: But again, I suppose, first and foremost, I know the margins are super challenging within energy in general.
Paula: So if you had tried to do something with points, it wouldn’t really feel like a very powerful reward, which is exactly obviously what you’re trying to create.
Paula: So I think the strategy of partnerships and everything that you’ve built, which we’ll talk about, really does give something very compelling.
Paula: And I know value is something that comes through in all of the research, particularly in the UK.
Paula: So you’ve been able to obviously achieve that through this kind of partnership approach.
Paula: So I’ll be dying to talk through the detail of that.
Paula: I also, though, love the point that you made.
Paula: You mentioned Shell, and certainly Charlie and we were together there in London recently at the loyalty surgery.
Paula: And I think there was a point that we both learned, which was Shell also, I mean, have a global perspective, in fact, which I know doesn’t apply to British Gas Rewards, but have also made the decision to move from coalition to company owned loyalty program.
Paula: So, I do think, again, Nectar is hugely well respected, and there’s real value, obviously, in that program for millions of customers.
Paula: But clearly, when you want to have a direct relationship over time, there really is a very strong mandate, I think, from customers to actually own that relationship.
Paula: And they want to have that relationship when they’re spending so much with you guys.
Cathryn: Yeah, I think what we really needed to get from the program was to make our customers feel more positive about us.
Cathryn: And the best way to do that was to treat them fairly and to reward them for being valuable customers and loyal customers and making sure that they were recognized for that.
Cathryn: And that’s not necessarily in terms of what we give customers, it’s even just kind of within communications, being more personalized, recognizing how long they’ve been with us or for the simple interactions they’ve recently done with us, but it’s about recognition.
Cathryn: And I think that was just so important for our customers.
Paula: Amazing.
Paula: So, tell us, I’d love, Kat, just to talk through what is the British Gas Rewards proposition then, as it currently stands?
Paula: It is.
Cathryn: We say thank you to our customers.
Cathryn: So, it’s our way of giving something back to our customers.
Cathryn: So, we created a program where customers would get something for nothing, they would get the exclusive discounts and some great prize draws.
Cathryn: So, we created within the rewards proposition, one of our hero offers, which is called Loyalty Days.
Cathryn: And that is free energy days to customers for the length of time they’ve been with us at British Gas.
Cathryn: So, that folds in a lot of things in there.
Cathryn: So, that’s the recognition of how loyal a customer has been with us, whereas giving customers something that they want, which is essentially money off their bill, was also, it’s a great way of giving something back to customers.
Cathryn: It’s giving them something for nothing.
Cathryn: We’re not asking anything for them.
Cathryn: They just claim these free energy days, which are then credited onto their bill and they get a discount.
Cathryn: So, it’s great.
Cathryn: And we’re starting to evolve that proposition a little bit more.
Cathryn: So, we started to look at how we can reward our services customers.
Cathryn: So, these are customers who have boiler and central heating care with us, as well as any sort of plumbing and drains and home electrical cover they’ve got with us and any home insurance products they’ve got with us.
Cathryn: And this is about how can we then open up loyalty days to more of our customers?
Cathryn: How can we say thank you to these customers as something for nothing?
Cathryn: We’ve also laid in some exclusive discounts.
Cathryn: So, the discounts that we give our customers, you can’t find anywhere else.
Cathryn: So, we’ve got some great discounts of British Gas that you won’t be able to get anywhere else.
Cathryn: So, no comparison websites, no EEL codes or anything like that.
Cathryn: And the partner offers that we get, we try to get something a little bit extra than you would normally get.
Cathryn: So, we might be able to negotiate half price this or a discount of certain products or days out or some goods or what have you.
Cathryn: It’s the little extras that we can give.
Cathryn: So, whether it’s kind of like a freebie when they get their discount or something like that that we can do.
Cathryn: So, we would try to give something to our customers that’s better than what they can get elsewhere.
Charlie: And I think what’s quite interesting in that is the role of the different types of rewards as well because the loyalty days are very much our perceived sort of hero within the program.
Charlie: We know that they’re the most preferred and the most loved rewards.
Charlie: And then what we do is we use the kind of the top brands in the UK that we know British Gas customers really love and really want to kind of supplement that.
Charlie: So, effectively, that’s the heart of the program.
Charlie: And then we extend into everybody’s everyday lives by giving them things that they really love and want.
Charlie: So, you know, we’re a nation of TV addicts, 50% of British Gas customers actually describe themselves as TV addicts, 57% love movies.
Charlie: So, a natural partner for us to work with was Sky.
Charlie: They create some of the most incredible content.
Charlie: They’ve got Sky Store.
Charlie: You can get all the kind of great movies.
Charlie: So, we created amazing kind of movie nights in for those customers, which was really great.
Charlie: Another kind of key passion that we know British Gas customers are absolutely nuts about is travel.
Charlie: 48% of them absolutely love holidays, and it’s kind of what they think about all year.
Charlie: So, we’ve done some brilliant partnerships with brands like Haven, Forest Holidays, and Accor to help British Gas customers kind of be able to experience those wonderful trips, whether they want to go on a staycation or they want to travel around Europe or they want to head over to Dubai.
Charlie: And wherever they want to go, we kind of want to help enable them and say thank you and give them those kind of rewards, offers, and experiences that they can’t get anywhere else, sort of align to the things that we know matter most.
Charlie: And so it’s really fun to work on actually, where they’re a really great kind of customer base to work on.
Charlie: They’re really responsive and they really care about the rewards and we see kind of off the charts, engagement, increases in kind of NPS.
Charlie: And yeah, it’s absolutely great.
Charlie: It’s really rewarding to work on something that you know is so loved.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And we’ll definitely get into KPIs now because again, I know you’re both very keen on measuring and obviously winning awards based on all of the performance of the program.
Paula: So yeah, and sometimes it’s just even interesting, I think, on the KPIs piece because Kat, I loved what you said there.
Paula: I think there’s very few countries that have as challenging media landscape as you have in the UK.
Paula: So to be almost labeled negatively for everything that goes wrong in the industry is super challenging.
Paula: And when we talk about KPIs, just as you were talking about that, it kind of occurred to me, we have the very measurable ones, which we’re going to talk about now.
Paula: But actually the PR value of having a loyalty program is something that we probably should maybe put more focus on from a commercial perspective.
Paula: Because you know, publicity is publicity at the end of the day.
Paula: And if you can start to change the narrative, that’s an extraordinary achievement on top of all of the NPS and everything else.
Paula: So yeah, I think that’s just something that occurred to me as you were talking.
Paula: But I know you’ve got, I think it was five or six different KPIs.
Paula: And again, I’ve seen some of the award entries.
Paula: But tell us, what are the categories?
Paula: I know you can’t talk through any particular figures, given the commercial sensitivities.
Paula: But what areas do you measure in terms of your KPIs?
Cathryn: Well, it’s actually an interesting time because we’re starting to shift our KPIs now, actually.
Cathryn: So obviously, at launch, your key KPI is the number of customers that have signed up.
Cathryn: So whilst we will continue to track that and have targets set to that, what we’re now looking at is engagement.
Cathryn: So we’ve got a number of engagement segments within the program.
Cathryn: So we’ve categorized our customers into different types of engagement.
Cathryn: So whether they engage with us on a really regular basis, so more than two or three times a month, all the way through to those that don’t even log on over three months.
Cathryn: So for us, it’s all about moving those customers up the engagement ladder so that we can see more customers interacting with the rewards.
Cathryn: Because we know when customers interact more with rewards, they’re more engaged with us.
Cathryn: They feel more positive about our brand, and that helps them to stay longer.
Cathryn: So we have already seen a lot of great results come in for those customers who are highly engaged with British Gas Rewards.
Cathryn: They are significantly more likely to stay with British Gas.
Cathryn: Now, in an industry where we are seeing customers leave at record levels, that’s massive for us.
Cathryn: So that’s a really huge KPI.
Cathryn: It’s also a massive focus within the business at the moment.
Cathryn: And we know we’re going in the right direction.
Cathryn: So that’s great that our program is kind of ticking that box.
Cathryn: But obviously, we’ve still got to keep up with that.
Cathryn: There’s no room for complacency within that.
Cathryn: So our main focus is this engagement ladder in moving those customers up those.
Cathryn: I guess also we do measure MPS.
Cathryn: So we know that our members have a higher MPS score than our non-members, which is brilliant.
Cathryn: So the more customers that we bring in to the rewards program, the better that we treat them, the more exciting things they hear from our brand, and the better experiences they get from us.
Cathryn: That helps contribute to a better MPS, which is brilliant.
Cathryn: We also measure customer lifetime value.
Cathryn: So we know that our rewards members and particularly those that are more highly engaged are more valuable to us.
Cathryn: So they tend to stay longer, they tend to take more products from us, they are more sticky with us, and they just feel more favorable about us, they’re more likely to be advocates of ours.
Cathryn: So it’s about trying to scale that a bit more, and making sure that we can get more customers experiencing the great things that we do within rewards and having more of those positive interactions with those customers.
Paula: Wow, beautiful.
Paula: Yeah, well, there’s plenty there.
Paula: And I’m about to write an article about KPIs and loyalties.
Paula: So you’ve given me plenty to think about, Cat.
Paula: It’s great to get direct access to the brains of the business.
Paula: So that’s all amazing.
Paula: And I’d love to just even talk on, I suppose, on a practical level as well, Cat, because it’s quite a challenge, I think, that the kind of scale that you’re operating at.
Paula: And I know when we were chatting before, you built this program actually pretty quickly, I think, compared to lots of programs.
Paula: So tell us a bit about, I suppose, the team and the timescales from, I suppose, the context and concept through to launching British Gas Rewards.
Cathryn: So we were toying with the idea at the back end of 2016, and we’d done some QOL research right at the back end of that year.
Cathryn: We then went into the new year of 2017 and started doing some more quant research just to really validate some of the points of what customers have picked up at QOL.
Cathryn: So in terms of what do customers want to be rewarded with?
Cathryn: What would they feel would be great for them?
Cathryn: What are the foundations we can pick up and create a program with?
Cathryn: We essentially went from zero from the 1st of January through to a first kind of MVP, minimal viable product by the 27th of April, 2017.
Cathryn: So that was four months.
Cathryn: And then we had our decisioning engine go live in August, the 1st of August, 2017.
Cathryn: So all in all, that was seven months.
Cathryn: And I’m probably still recovering, to be perfectly honest.
Paula: Sounds pretty stressful.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: Yeah.
Cathryn: That was…
Cathryn: I mean, to be fair, it was a great atmosphere to working because we were given great license within the business to say, right, leave these guys alone, they’ve got to hit something really quick.
Cathryn: They’ve got to get out of the market super quick.
Cathryn: So we had our dedicated kind of digital team, we had a dedicated IT team.
Cathryn: We had marketing, propositions, insight, and we had our own virtual team.
Cathryn: And we were given the license to be agile.
Cathryn: Now, that’s not saying that we’re not agile as a business, but to say actually, we’re always super agile.
Cathryn: We went at speed, at pace, and we got something from nothing through to a full decision engine live within seven months.
Cathryn: And that’s an amazing achievement and something I’m extremely proud of, because it took a lot of dedication, great collaboration, and just a lot of courage as well in terms of cutting through a lot of things within…because we’re a highly regulated business.
Cathryn: So we had to work and take our colleagues with us in terms of getting lots of sign-off, because sign-off at British Gas isn’t quick.
Cathryn: We’ve got a lot of compliance we need to adhere to on lots of levels in terms of kind of an FCA, off-gem, which is the energy regulator, as well as legal.
Cathryn: And we just got together a bit of a great virtual team, and we were able to cut through that and work in a really slick way to get that to launch super quick.
Paula: Wow, yeah, and it’s the kind of project that all of us, I think, who work in loyalty dream of, you know?
Paula: Yeah, it’s like it’s the mindset, the investment, the support, and then, you know, again, the resources to go out and work with agencies, top agencies like Mando-Connect.
Paula: So Charlie, you can tell us a bit about that as well as we go through.
Paula: But yeah, I mean, certainly, I’d say in your whole 15 years, it probably was the most frantic, I guess, in terms of the expectations.
Charlie: I think one of the nice things we’ve observed is that culture’s really continued in the team as well.
Charlie: I mean, if anyone said to us, gosh, British Gas will be a really innovative brand to work with in loyalty, you know, before we actually got to know the team, I think we might have sort of scratched our chins and sat back slightly because of that level of regulation that they deal with.
Charlie: But one of the things that really hangs true, and we noticed it versus some of our other clients, is the way that the squad kind of works together and the team really pulls together.
Charlie: So propositions, partnerships and marketing work really closely together to kind of deliver a single proposition.
Charlie: And it’s great to be part of actually.
Charlie: And it really, I think when you put your mind to something, you really make it happen quite quickly, despite all of those kind of challenges that you operate in.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And it’s definitely the next thing I want to talk to you guys about.
Paula: And again, having seen all the awards that you’ve won, which we’ll talk about specifically, you know, I think innovation came through, as you said, as a surprising objective of the programme.
Paula: So I know there was augmented reality work done.
Paula: There’s mention of a chat bot.
Paula: So tell us a bit about exactly what has been the focus on innovation and what have you done that’s been very new and very different in the loyalty world?
Cathryn: So earlier this year, we worked with our digital teams and worked with an agency called Spark, and we launched the first augmented reality, web-based reality that was launched at scale within a marketing programme.
Cathryn: And that was really good.
Cathryn: And in terms of speed to market, that again was kind of launched within three months.
Cathryn: So we started that in January, and then that went live in April, in the run up to Easter that was on the 21st of April.
Cathryn: So for us, that was another kind of project at pace as well.
Cathryn: And what worked really well was that we were given license to play around with some new technology.
Cathryn: So our marketing director came to me and said, I really want to use augmented reality.
Cathryn: I want it to feel like a natural part of the customer experience.
Cathryn: Where could we use it?
Cathryn: And so together with our play into gamification, I said, actually, it worked really nicely with rewards.
Cathryn: So we know we want to kind of look at gamification in terms of an engagement strategy within our program, and the two married really, really well.
Cathryn: So the reason we used web-based AR, so that meant that our customers didn’t need to download a separate app to use it because a lot of programs would be able to do that.
Cathryn: Also building the functionality into our own app would have taken time because we were transforming our app at the same time, so the focus wasn’t there to be able to do that.
Cathryn: So by doing the web-based AR, it was a great experience because all customers could just click through on a standard web link and go and enjoy the game.
Cathryn: And they had a great interaction.
Cathryn: We’ve got a great kind of creative vehicle at British Gas called Wilbur the Penguin.
Cathryn: And our customers absolutely love him.
Cathryn: So whether he’s in the form of a cuddly Wilbur or a nightlight lil Wilbur.
Cathryn: And when we did the augmented reality, he featured in our game to go and collect the eggs and win a prize.
Cathryn: And that went down a storm.
Cathryn: And then the customers could go and share selfies with Wilbur.
Cathryn: And that went down tremendously well.
Cathryn: So even though customers weren’t successful in getting one of our kind of top tier prizes, they still had the opportunity to have photos with Wilbur, which was a great result for our customers because they loved it.
Cathryn: And, yeah, so we saw some great engagement in that.
Cathryn: We saw over 350,000 customers play the game.
Cathryn: And bearing in mind that was only live for 11 days, that was a significant amount of customers going on to engage.
Cathryn: And we saw when customers came on to play, they then started searching the rest of their rewards area.
Cathryn: So we saw a huge uplift in some of our offers within that.
Cathryn: And, you know, particular offers saw kind of 200% uplift in take up because of the game.
Cathryn: So we know by trying to draw customers into rewards through different mechanics, such as gamification, had a great result in terms of trying to improve the engagement elsewhere and rewards.
Cathryn: So, you know, this is something that I’m really passionate about.
Cathryn: So where we can use technology that is relevant for our customers, that feels nice and feels great without trying to shoehorn it into an experience, I think works fantastically.
Paula: Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right.
Paula: And I think what comes through as well, I can hear the passion in your voice.
Paula: And I’m like, I need a client now with that level of vision as well.
Paula: So I get to play.
Paula: But yeah, customers do really, I think their respect for the brand goes up when they see that you’ve gone out and say, you know, here’s something that is really different and really really fun, but also coming, I guess, from, you know, almost a family perspective.
Paula: Because as you said, Wilbur is such a gorgeous character.
Paula: And actually, I think he goes back before British Gas Rewards.
Paula: Am I right?
Cathryn: Yes, he does.
Cathryn: So he’s a creative vehicle for our brand.
Cathryn: He was there to create, I guess he was there to create some emotional engagement as well from an advertising platform, and he’s done a fantastic role within doing that within British Gas.
Cathryn: Amazing.
Cathryn: And that was something that was great to leverage within the program.
Cathryn: And we know our members are highly engaged with Wilbur.
Cathryn: So all of our giveaways of Wilbur merchandise has gone down really well.
Paula: Well, definitely learning for me now, I have to say, is I’m not the one on the creative front, but I can completely see how friends and family would get very competitive about that kind of thing.
Paula: And just on the communications piece, Kat, 350,000 plays over 11 days is extraordinary.
Paula: And I know you have millions of members in the program.
Paula: But just on the communication side, like was that from above the line communications?
Paula: Was it on TV, the particular augmented reality piece of loyalty?
Paula: Or was that purely from below the line with your email and push notifications?
Cathryn: It was purely below the line.
Cathryn: So we had mainly email and I actually that was the only form that we did.
Cathryn: I don’t think we did SMS in that in that particular campaign and the app push we definitely didn’t do because rewards wasn’t in the British Gas app at that point.
Cathryn: But we did use social media as well, so we can do targeting to our members in Facebook because we’ve got pega targeting within that.
Cathryn: So we were able to target our members or even non-members to try and get them to sign up to rewards.
Cathryn: And we saw a lot of customers actually went on to sign up to rewards just to play the game because it was so delightful for our customers.
Cathryn: I mean, when we’re a utility brand, we’re obviously the wicking boy in the press and the government.
Cathryn: So living something like this is really unlike British Gas.
Cathryn: It’s quite charming.
Cathryn: It’s quite fun.
Cathryn: And it’s not the functional, usual day-to-day experience they have with British Gas.
Cathryn: So this was something that was quite surprising for our members, but a lovely surprise, obviously.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: And just to pick up, because I haven’t done a lot of Facebook advertising cat, pega targeting.
Paula: Exactly.
Paula: So what does that mean then from a targeting perspective?
Paula: What can you isolate in that approach?
Cathryn: So our rewards decisioning engine uses pega.
Cathryn: So pega is the technology that we use to be able to target specific members with the rewards that we have within British Gas, so whether that’s the number of loyalty days they get from us, the 10-year-late being with us, whether it’s a certain discount they get from us, whether it’s free days out or whatever, we’re doing some nice surprise and delights.
Cathryn: Pega is the technology that we use to do that.
Cathryn: We can also use that technology to pass through to Facebook to target our own customers.
Cathryn: So we know who we’re talking to.
Cathryn: So rather than going to Facebook and buying impressions based on Facebook data, we can actually feed that in to Facebook from your side, which is great because it then becomes a more targeted campaign rather than broadcast.
Cathryn: Because although it’s great for non-members and non-customers to see and hear about rewards, that does help in terms of the brand connection and the brand perceptions they have.
Cathryn: But I guess from our perspective, that’s not what our budget was there to do.
Cathryn: Our budget was there to engage with the members that we’ve got.
Cathryn: It was to drive engagement with the customers that we’ve got.
Cathryn: So it’s a great tool to making sure that your spend is as efficient as possible.
Cathryn: And it’s brilliant at doing that.
Cathryn: And we continue to do that on a monthly basis, actually.
Charlie: And I think the marketing approach runs through the whole program as well.
Charlie: We see it a lot, actually.
Charlie: Now that we’re getting slightly older from our 20s, we are identifying priority groups within the base, and we are actually developing specific reward experiences that we knew they would like.
Charlie: So the augmented reality experience was very much designed with our family audience in mind.
Charlie: It was a very interactive game for parents and caregivers to share with their children alike.
Charlie: So that was fantastic.
Charlie: And then as we move into 2020, it’s a big part of our thinking.
Charlie: So how can we align and understand what different behavioral groups want in terms of different reward experiences or different brands that they might want to see rewards with?
Charlie: Confectionary is a really interesting area for us.
Charlie: We know that some types of our British Gas customers are massive fans of chocolate.
Charlie: We’ve got a load of Haribo fans within there as well.
Charlie: So actually, it’s about us developing exactly the right kind of reward with exactly the right brand for that audience.
Charlie: And I think when we invest time in that, we don’t just give one size fits all thinking.
Charlie: We see massive uplifts in NPS and engagement from those members as well.
Charlie: So I think that’s probably a big priority for us across everything next year about how do we target even smarter?
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And it’s such good strategy.
Paula: And we talked earlier, obviously, about the loyalty days.
Paula: The piece I love about the loyalty days is obviously the tenure, which I know mightn’t be a term familiar with all of our listeners.
Paula: But just recognizing exactly how many years your customers have been with you, I think is a very explicit way of using your core product to say, thank you for being with us another year.
Paula: But also, Charlie, I know the stuff because I’ve done similar work to you, as I think you know, the partnership stuff.
Paula: When we did research, what our customers used to say, again, in the Irish market, which is not hugely different, but people would say, OK, yes, I know you have your own rewards.
Paula: But there was almost extra respect again for them going, oh, you’ve gone out and talked to another kind of complimentary, whether it’s chocolate or whatever.
Paula: So I’m sure that probably comes through in your own research as well, does it?
Charlie: Yeah, it does.
Charlie: I think people love being part of British Gas Rewards, and they really want those great rewards, offers and experiences from British Gas, because intuitively, that makes sense.
Charlie: They see the value on their bill.
Charlie: I think that’s really great.
Charlie: But I feel that and we feel and they feel in all that research as well.
Charlie: And if that was the only thing we did, they almost slightly perceive a lack of effort from the brand.
Paula: That’s great.
Charlie: That’s kind of what I expected.
Charlie: So the role of the rewards within the program is to build in that extra kind of love and recognition.
Charlie: So we can say, you know, we know you are holidays, here are some wonderful holiday rewards.
Charlie: And actually, we work really hard to identify which is the right holiday brand, you know, should it be a core hotels, should it be Haven, or should it be Forest Holidays, or who else should it be?
Charlie: You know, do we have people who love camping, do we have customers that love high-end luxury hotels?
Charlie: Brexit for us has been a huge thing in this market.
Charlie: We’ve seen the rising popularity of the staycation as a direct result of that.
Charlie: The travel industry has talked about it.
Charlie: So actually, a big priority for us was to give people the opportunity to have amazing staycations this summer, when perhaps they were a bit nervous, and we’re interested to see what happens next year.
Charlie: So it’s a huge thing for us.
Charlie: It sort of adds value.
Charlie: It adds engagement.
Charlie: And then, critically, I think, for the program as well, it enables us to give away more for less.
Charlie: So because we work so closely with brand partners and because we build sort of strategic partnerships with them that are mutually beneficial, it obviously costs British Gas a lot less than just going out and buying those rewards or even going out and offering rewards from themselves.
Charlie: So we see sort of a significant increase on return on investment from those partner rewards because we create them in a way that actually it’s a win-win for both brands.
Charlie: So the partner that we’re working with gets really great relevant and engaging exposure to millions of British Gas customers.
Charlie: So they obviously offer British Gas far greater rewards, experiences, and all the little extras that Pat was talking about.
Charlie: Then you can get anywhere else, and British Gas in return spend a lot less money on offering those great rewards to their customers.
Charlie: So it’s a bit of a win-win, and we curate a very small and select number of brand partnerships as well.
Charlie: I think that’s one of the important things in the program as well.
Charlie: It’s very targeted.
Charlie: It’s very focused, and it’s got sort of millions of rewards.
Charlie: We’re not asking our members to look through thousands and thousands, we’re literally giving them the kind of the two or three that we know they really want and that they ask.
Charlie: And actually, we respond when they ask for stuff as well.
Charlie: So the social media engagement that we have is great, because people are telling us what they love, and then they’re also helpfully suggesting other things.
Charlie: We put that into the research as well to make sure the great ideas that have come from across the business actually.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: Yeah, and again, I mean, this all feels so familiar, like I think you really are spot on with, you know, it isn’t about having hundreds of offers and hundreds of partners, because actually then there’s the downside of I have to search and see what ones I might be interested in.
Paula: So I think the approach around simplicity and hero brands based on really truly listening, I think customers really feel that.
Paula: So even if it’s not overt, or they understand how difficult that is for you to deliver as a brand, there’s definitely a feeling that comes through.
Paula: And I’ve often talked about the mindset and the intention of a management team.
Paula: And certainly that’s what I’m hearing that that’s happening in British Gas is there’s a genuine intention for the customers to feel that love of the brand.
Charlie: Yeah, and it’s very customer led.
Charlie: I mean, Cat was always pushed on us very strong objectives around customer centricity.
Charlie: Sometimes that can get quite subjective, like what would customers actually like and how do we know?
Charlie: And I think we’re all so close to the brand and we’re all so passionate about the industry that we are too close to it.
Charlie: So we always make sure that we use that customer data and research so that it’s customers telling us what they want, not us telling us what we think customers want.
Charlie: And actually, it really helps us get the right reward and get the right partner brand because we look to the customer first and British Gas is amazing at being reliant on that data and then trusting it as well.
Paula: Yeah, fantastic.
Paula: On another practical note, Kat, you mentioned the decisioning engine and the kind of technology.
Paula: Did you guys build your technology in-house or did you go out for a loyalty platform?
Paula: What’s your general approach to IT and the app and the whole digital strategy?
Cathryn: Well, we worked with our colleagues in the data and insight team to help us with, I guess, solutionizing that.
Cathryn: So we already had the partnership with Pega anyway.
Cathryn: So the recommendation from them was to continue to use Pega because actually at that point in time, it was the most sophisticated mechanic to help us with what we needed in rewards.
Cathryn: So going back to what our customers wanted, they wanted to feel rewarded and valued and recognized.
Cathryn: And Pega was the best platform for us to be able to do that.
Cathryn: Now, I think in that time, since we’ve set it up, there are now more platforms that are available that are able to do that, but I think at the time, Pega was the most sophisticated.
Cathryn: So because we already had a partnership with Pega at the time, it felt natural just to kind of extend that relationship and then go off and build the requirements for rewards.
Cathryn: So we were really integral in building those requirements.
Cathryn: So although I’m not a techie, I could come at it from a customer point of view and say, actually, this is what our customers want.
Cathryn: And then in terms of trying to translate that into the technical requirements of what we wanted, obviously, we had to work with our data colleagues to help translate that into sort of a technical document.
Cathryn: So it was just kind of marrying something that we had with what the customer really wanted and making sure that we have the right platforms to address that.
Cathryn: I guess if we didn’t have Pega on at the time, we probably would have gone out to and had a look at what else there was in the marketplace to see what would best meet that need.
Cathryn: But I guess with the speed to market that we needed to get at, we needed to use the existing capabilities that we had or the existing relationships that we had to see how it best fit the customer need.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And that’s actually my experience as well, Kat.
Paula: I really think you made the right call there.
Paula: So technology and making significant technology changes at scale is always more painful than anyone ever expects.
Paula: So let’s not do that.
Paula: You know, if there’s a trusted partnership, absolutely, that sounds amazing.
Paula: So delighted to hear that you have those trusted partners again on the tech side.
Paula: So I mean, that’s almost it, I guess, from my side, ladies.
Paula: The final one, I suppose, is I’d love to just summarize the kind of awards that you’ve won in 2019.
Paula: I think based on the results that you achieved in 2018, I know there’s lots of ambition for the program going forward and lots of award entries I’ll be seeing coming in.
Paula: But just tell us a bit about what awards did you win this year?
Charlie: We’ve had an amazing year.
Charlie: We got quite overly excited.
Charlie: I think you become part of the industry and you get inspired by everything that you’ve seen.
Charlie: So the Loyalty Magazine Awards, we love.
Charlie: We’ve been huge fans of it.
Charlie: It really set up Mando-Connect a couple of years ago, and the team there have been so supportive of us from day one.
Charlie: We’re really looking forward to entering a load of stuff next year.
Charlie: We’re already starting the entries.
Charlie: We all know the fun of that process.
Charlie: So we were really lucky this year.
Charlie: We won for, we got highly commended for best new program in the UK.
Charlie: That was a global award, actually.
Charlie: Very excited with the Loyalty Magazine Awards.
Paula: Amazing.
Charlie: We were able to win outright, but we still felt like winners with our certificates.
Charlie: Won at the IPM Awards.
Charlie: Okay.
Charlie: For the Expo Automotive and Utilities Initiative across everything.
Charlie: So that was lovely to see Loyalty kind of up against promotions, campaigns, the whole kit and caboodle.
Charlie: And actually we won the sector level award that.
Charlie: And then we also won for retention program and engagement at the IPM.
Charlie: So we were absolutely thrilled.
Charlie: Cat also would kill me for saying this, because she also won one of the rising stars 30 under 40.
Paula: Congratulations, Cat.
Paula: That’s amazing.
Paula: Wow.
Charlie: A great kind of personal recognition, I think, of what she’s achieved.
Charlie: With British Gas Rewards.
Charlie: So, yeah, we entered a couple this year, we’re going to enter a few more.
Charlie: We’re sitting down to talk about it.
Charlie: Actually, after this, I’ve got a whole sort of wish list of ideas.
Charlie: And I think what’s lovely in those awards is it actually makes you sit back and reflect.
Charlie: It’s a bit like doing things like today.
Charlie: It’s a wonderful chance to sort of sit back, get off the day-to-day thing, and think about, gosh, what have we achieved?
Paula: Yeah.
Charlie: And actually, what’s a priority for us next year?
Charlie: So, yeah, it’s a great process.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: It’s been a great year.
Cathryn: It’s been a fantastic year.
Cathryn: And I think, you know, obviously, with kind of the year coming to a close, it’s a really good time to kind of take stock and think, actually, although everyone is, oh, I can’t believe it’s December already, but actually, when I look at how much we’ve done, how much we’ve delivered, the amazing stuff that we’ve won, we’ve been recognized for, some of the amazing stuff that we’ve delivered, it’s incredible that’s been done in 12 months.
Cathryn: And I think the thanks goes out to the wider virtual team, because actually, they’re the people that make it happen.
Cathryn: And to Mando-Connect, if we work so closely with them, they’re like an extension to our team.
Cathryn: So collaboratively, everybody working together has kind of made all this happen in the last 12 months, and it’s been brilliant.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And that came through as well in your award entry, Kat, as well, like, you know, all of the recognition.
Paula: I think it’s, Jude, I think a direct team of four and a virtual team of 15.
Paula: Am I right?
Cathryn: Yeah.
Cathryn: Yeah.
Paula: Phenomenal, phenomenal.
Paula: And obviously, Charlie, we’ll put a link to Mando-Connect as well.
Paula: Great to hear all of the amazing partner work that you guys are doing to support the program.
Paula: And then Kat, as well, obviously, to British Gas Rewards.
Paula: We’ll make sure to link through.
Paula: I know there’s been some great publicity as well around the innovation stuff.
Paula: So we link to all of the kind of relevant stories.
Paula: So is there anything else from your side, ladies, that you wanted to cover off before we finish?
Cathryn: Not really, I think.
Charlie: I mean, I love this podcast because it’s so interesting to look at all the different markets and to hear the case studies.
Charlie: And I think that’s been really valuable.
Charlie: I particularly love the Earth Rewards one that you did.
Charlie: I thought that was really interesting.
Charlie: So knowing just kind of more of the same coming, it’s a really useful forum.
Charlie: And it’s certainly it’s my first ever podcast, and it’s been really fun to record.
Charlie: It’s been a great experience, although I’m slightly terrified about hearing my own voice on the board.
Paula: No problem at all, Charlie.
Paula: And Kat, from your side, were you happy with everything?
Paula: Is there anything else you want to mention for listeners?
Cathryn: Yeah, no, I mean, just more of what Charlie said, really.
Cathryn: Thank you very much for inviting us and also my first podcast as well.
Cathryn: So, yeah, really thrilled to be on this and to be on the ultimate one of 2019.
Cathryn: I feel quite privileged.
Paula: Absolutely.
Paula: Well, and definitely, you guys, I will want to go and do this again with you, maybe at the end of next year.
Paula: I think there’s so much work that you’re doing, and I love the strategy and the thinking and the passion for your industry.
Paula: So, yeah, I really am impressed with the work that you’re doing.
Paula: And yes, the year is coming to a close.
Paula: You are the final episode.
Paula: So, first of all, I want to say thank you both.
Paula: So, Cathryn: Lodwidge and Charlie Hills, thank you for talking to Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Paula: Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Paula: If you’d like me to send you the latest show each week, simply sign up for the show newsletter on letstalkloyalty.com, and I’ll send you the latest episode to your inbox every Thursday.
Paula: Or just head to your favorite podcast platform.
Paula: Find Let’s Talk Loyalty and subscribe.
Paula: Of course, I’d love your feedback and reviews, and thanks again for supporting the show.
Paula: Thank you.
Publisher’s Note:
This transcript was generated with the help of AI and podcast publishing tools such as Apple Podcast’s transcription service.
In the interests of efficiency and minimising our costs as a small business, it has not been checked by a human.
If you have any comments or concerns about the accuracy of this content, please do contact us for changes or corrections.
