#99: Paula's Predictions for Loyalty Marketing in 2020 - Summary Show

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

PAULA: I’m your host, Paula Thomas.

PAULA: 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: Today’s episode is a summary of an already short show that I did in early 2020, which featured my predictions for the loyalty industry for last year.

PAULA: Of course, at that stage, none of us had even heard of the concept of the global pandemic.

PAULA: Yet I can safely say that the predictions I made are still ones I stand by as important trends.

PAULA: And in my opinion, all of them still represent huge opportunities for loyalty program owners.

PAULA: So what did I predict?

PAULA: Well, firstly, I specifically didn’t predict ideas that are already well covered extensively in business media.

PAULA: So the importance of personalization, because as we know, data is the new oil.

PAULA: Also the whole area of subscription loyalty or paid loyalty, which I do love.

PAULA: And also the increasing customer demands for environmental propositions with the companies they do business with as a key driver of how loyal they will be to those brands.

PAULA: So I wanted to add a couple of different ideas to all of what the industry we’re discussing.

PAULA: So it was really interesting for me to look back now 15 months later and reflect on the accuracy of my predictions.

PAULA: So what I would say is now there’s quite a few more ideas that I would add to the list.

PAULA: But the three that I highlighted in January 2020 are definitely still huge trends and opportunities that I believe businesses can benefit hugely from.

PAULA: So here they are again.

PAULA: Firstly, I predicted an increasing focus on CX or the field of customer experience as a way to drive customer loyalty, which really goes way beyond the use of loyalty programs.

PAULA: At the time, I had recently just completed my own CX diploma with the CX Academy.

PAULA: And back then, and actually still today, I am convinced that more and more loyalty marketeers will become CX leaders, or alternatively may under-reporting to them.

PAULA: My second prediction was around the importance of emotional loyalty.

PAULA: And in the show, I summarized one of my favorite campaigns that was doing exactly that.

PAULA: The campaign was for Maccafe in the United States.

PAULA: And I explained the concept for the campaign, as well as why I see it being so significant for marketeers in both 2020 and 2021.

PAULA: Finally, another favorite topic of mine, even then, was the power of the human voice.

PAULA: And I talked about the increasing adoption of voice assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa, and one example of how a voice skill was used for one of the UK’s biggest loyalty brands to help members check their points balance.

PAULA: So that’s my short summary of the show of my loyalty predictions from January 2020.

PAULA: The original episode was only around 15 minutes long.

PAULA: So if you like what you’ve heard in the summary and want to understand these ideas some more, please do go back and listen to the original one.

PAULA: It was episode number 18 and released on January the 16th, 2020.

PAULA: That’s it from this episode of Let’s Talk a Little Loyalty.

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

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

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