#159: Sports Loyalty - Innovation with UK Premier League Football Club Launch of "My Arsenal Rewards"

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.

KAREN: Thank you.

PAULA: This show is sponsored by Comark, a global provider of innovative software products and business services.

PAULA: Comark’s platform is used by leading brands across all industries to drive their customer loyalty.

PAULA: Powered by AI and machine learning, Comark technologies allow you to build, run, and manage personalized loyalty programs and product offers with ease.

PAULA: For more information, please visit comark.com.

PAULA: Welcome to today’s super-exciting episode where I’m talking for the very first time with a loyalty program in the world of professional sport.

PAULA: With one of the UK’s Premiership League football teams, Arsenal Football Club, who recently launched a program called My Arsenal Rewards.

PAULA: With a great background in airline and retail loyalty, Karen Dumbrell was appointed the Senior Loyalty Manager for the club in early 2021.

PAULA: In our conversation, she shares firstly why the club decided to launch My Arsenal Rewards, given how loyal and dedicated sports fans already are, and sometimes for several generations.

PAULA: She shares the fascinating story of how loyalty mechanics can be used to drive engagement and connection with fans, and how the programme has even been able to support the operational side of the Emirates Stadium, which is Arsenal’s home ground.

PAULA: So I hope you enjoyed this super interesting episode about leveraging loyalty for a sports brand, with Karen Dumbrell from Arsenal Football Club in London.

PAULA: So Karen, first of all, thank you so much for joining me today from London.

PAULA: How are you doing over there?

KAREN: Very well, thank you.

KAREN: Yes, I’ve got a spectacular view of the Emirates Stadium here.

KAREN: So yeah, it’s all good.

PAULA: It’s absolutely stunning, Karen.

PAULA: I can see over your shoulders, so we’ll have to make sure to link to the Emirates Stadium as well in the show notes because it does look magnificent.

PAULA: So I’m actually, I confess first of all, not a football or soccer fan, so you’re going to be educating me a lot today.

PAULA: And I think one of the reasons that I really wanted to talk to you on the show was just the amount of innovation and the work that you’re doing right now.

PAULA: So we’re going to be talking about My Arsenal Rewards, a pretty brand new loyalty program.

PAULA: But before we get into talking about the program itself, Karen, please tell me, what is your favorite loyalty statistic?

KAREN: Well, it’s one that you learn in school really, which is Pareto’s Law or the 80-20 rule.

KAREN: And what I’ve found really throughout all of the businesses I’ve worked with is it is true that 20% of your customers provide 80% of your revenue.

KAREN: And so what I’m really interested in finding out, as you said, My Arsenal Rewards is new, Sports Loyalty is relatively new, particularly in the UK.

KAREN: I am really looking forward to getting data out of the program and seeing if it holds true for Sports Loyalty too.

KAREN: And do 20% of our members create 80% of our points engagement in the program.

KAREN: So I’m fully expecting they will.

KAREN: We will see.

PAULA: Yeah, absolutely.

PAULA: So we’ve already teed this up, Karen, that we’re gonna have to do at least another interview so we can check.

PAULA: So it’s amazing how quickly time flies, I think we all know.

PAULA: So yeah, we’ll certainly be listening and learning to what is going on with Arsenal.

PAULA: So I have to start with the obvious question, Karen, which is going back to, we chatted obviously briefly offline, but to me, the foundational principles of a loyalty program is usually coming from, let’s say, an industry where there’s, I’d say complacency is probably the best word, where, for example, there are products which are perceived to be very similar, whether it’s airlines flying to the same destinations or whether it’s a bank that’s offering the same services.

PAULA: So there’s lots of reasons why loyalty is a big investment and used as a differentiator.

PAULA: But obviously, in the world of particularly professional football, there is an extraordinary amount of passion.

PAULA: And, you know, there’s already a loyalty, I guess, to particularly a brand like Arsenal, which is obviously a premiership football club.

PAULA: So first of all, will you tell us why did Arsenal decide to invest in a loyalty program at all?

KAREN: So I think the first point to say is, you know, that there have been member rewards in existence in sports and particularly in football for a while, where you will offer some rewards to fans.

KAREN: I don’t know, it might be that they get to play on the pitch.

KAREN: Oh, nice.

KAREN: Something like that.

KAREN: But with the advent of technology, you can take that type of experience to a different level now.

KAREN: And in North America particularly, they’ve been using loyalty technology, has been linked in to platforms that provide ticketing as well.

KAREN: So you’ve got a very good overview of the fans’ whole engagement with the club.

KAREN: And now we can gather the data, and there are platforms available that allow us to use that.

KAREN: Why not extend the loyalty offering in a way that we can nowadays?

PAULA: Yeah, for sure.

PAULA: No, absolutely.

PAULA: And again, being a non-football fan, I know the level of engagement with fans must be absolutely extraordinary to experience on match days.

PAULA: But I guess what the programme does is it gives you an opportunity, I guess, to extend that level of excitement and engagement beyond the direct events, I guess, where people are physically present with you.

KAREN: So what we’ve found in the past is although we have had rewards available, there hasn’t been any…

KAREN: Everything is so focused around the match day.

KAREN: Our communications will be building up anticipation, excitement for the next match that will be coming.

KAREN: Whereas the loyalty programme is giving our members a reason to go to our website, to go to the app, on non-match days as well.

KAREN: And we have some great content there for them.

KAREN: But this now allows fans another place to go.

KAREN: They can log in to their My Arsenal Rewards account.

KAREN: And maybe a weekend during the international break, there isn’t any football going on.

KAREN: They can still engage with the club.

KAREN: They can browse what rewards they can use.

KAREN: They can do some online polls, enter a few competitions.

KAREN: And it just keeps that…

KAREN: The fan wants to engage with us.

KAREN: As you said, it’s something that…

KAREN: It’s beyond just choosing which flight you’re going to go from A to B.

KAREN: This is something that people, in many cases, have actually had since day zero.

KAREN: Their parents took out, welcome to our world membership for them.

KAREN: They’ve literally been there since the cradle.

KAREN: So yeah, they want to engage with us at so many points.

KAREN: And now we’re giving them a reason to do that.

PAULA: OK, OK.

PAULA: So with that kind of background and context, Karen, what kind of objectives do you have for my Arsenal Rewards?

PAULA: Because there’s lots of different reasons, as we all know, for investing in a loyalty program.

PAULA: Sometimes it’s a very commercial objective.

PAULA: I think in its simplest terms, I always use the idea that it’s to drive a different type of behavior.

PAULA: So what kind of behavior, I guess, is Arsenal looking to recognize and reward?

KAREN: Well, for us, this is about our fans.

KAREN: And so when we were designing and building the program, we were consulting with our supporters groups.

KAREN: We were having regular calls with them.

KAREN: And actually the development that was happening during the COVID lockdown periods as well.

KAREN: So some great Zoom calls with our supporter groups.

PAULA: Yeah.

KAREN: And yeah, just as an aside, it’s been fantastic to meet them in person now, now that the stadium is open again.

KAREN: But the imperative, if you like, for us was to ensure that the fans, it was a program that was being built for the fans, almost by the fans.

KAREN: And so we asked them what was one of the most important things for them to get out of a loyalty program.

KAREN: And they said, we want to have that behavior, see that fan behavior where we’ve got a great atmosphere in the stadium, where it’s a full stadium.

KAREN: So even on a wet and windy Tuesday night in November, we want to be part of that great big Arsenal family.

KAREN: We want everybody to be there in the stadium.

KAREN: So first and foremost, the program is designed to support the fan in giving them that atmosphere in the club, also to support our team because they want to have a full stadium.

KAREN: They want to be on the pitch, looking out at that wave of fans.

KAREN: So we have designed it that you earn the most points, if you like the weighting of the program, you earn the most points for attending matches and for purchasing tickets and then engaging digitally with the program.

KAREN: So the objective is to reward our fans for great fan behavior.

KAREN: But that has obviously a knock on effect on the club.

KAREN: It does have a commercial impact as well.

KAREN: It’s more ticket sales.

KAREN: There will be more sales at our food and beverage outlets.

KAREN: So it does have that commercial side to it too.

KAREN: But that is almost a byproduct of the true purpose of the program.

PAULA: And actually, I had to do a little bit of history work as well on your website, Karen, just to go back and understand where Arsenal has come from.

PAULA: Because again, as a brand, I just know it as a Premiership League football club.

PAULA: So instant recognition.

PAULA: But that was literally the extent of my knowledge.

PAULA: So for other listeners who might be like me, I was just really, I thought I was just very impressed to see it was formed by, you know, a group of guys working in a factory to alleviate the monotony of life, working in a factory in 1886.

PAULA: So 125 years old already.

KAREN: Absolutely.

KAREN: Yes.

KAREN: And south, south of the river, I believe.

KAREN: And then, yes, moved to the stadium near us.

KAREN: We have our new amazing Emirates Stadium.

KAREN: We did have a hybrid stadium before that, all up in London.

KAREN: And yeah, I think the other clubs, I understand, had to kind of vote and accept that Arsenal could move up to this area.

KAREN: But then we have some great imagery around the office and around the stadium that shows you just how far back the club goes and the history and the heritage.

KAREN: So it is a fascinating place to work.

KAREN: And I have to say, the fans as well, you can feel it going back all of those years, because so many fans, their father would have been a member or would have been attending matches.

KAREN: So you’ve got that true feeling of, as you say, going back so many years.

KAREN: It’s a completely different kettle of fish working for something that is built on passion as opposed to something that’s built on a commercial name.

PAULA: Yeah, and you did come from a very commercial role, obviously, with your airline background, Karen.

PAULA: Maybe just give us a sense of the kind of work you’ve done in loyalty in order to get to where you are now with Arsenal, because I think that’s also super interesting.

KAREN: Yeah, so my background for quite a number of years was with Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club, and I’ve worked in different roles there, so I’ve managed the team that looked after the operational database, managed the partnerships team, and also, if you like, the program design, what the core program design of Flying Club be.

KAREN: So I’ve worked in different areas of loyalty, and actually what I’ve found, and then for other organizations as well, some retail, and what I’ve found is there are a lot of similarities actually in the way you approach here at Arsenal, the construct, if you like, of the different membership tiers.

KAREN: So underneath it all, how you structure the program is very similar.

KAREN: So something I was struck by, you would have different levels of membership for Arsenal, so you would have your red membership.

KAREN: You have silver, which means you’re on a waiting list for a season ticket.

KAREN: You have your season ticket holders.

KAREN: You have club level.

KAREN: So you could almost imagine the different cabins in an aircraft and the different benefits that you get for your different level of membership as well.

KAREN: So those frequent flyers that have got to the heady heights of gold or platinum status, they are getting actually quite similar benefits to the fan who has purchased maybe a club level season ticket where you have dedicated account management.

KAREN: You would have some complimentary products.

KAREN: So I found there are similarities at a theoretical level, but I found there are, as I’ve said, a lot of differences between the motivations of the customers, let’s say.

PAULA: Yeah, yeah.

PAULA: And as we often talk about in this show, Karen, loyalty programs are often roughly classified into transactional type objectives and then emotional type loyalty.

PAULA: As we’ve touched on, obviously, you already have all of the emotional type of engagement.

PAULA: So what kind of things are you doing through the program?

KAREN: So we’re offering amazing rewards.

KAREN: It’s, I suppose, the backbone of it for the fan.

KAREN: So for their points, they can redeem those points for merchandise that they would not be able to just buy, let’s say, in Arsenal retail stores.

KAREN: So typically, actually going back to the heritage.

KAREN: So we have specially designed, for example, some posters that take us back to the Invincibles, which was a period when Arsenal remained unbeaten for many, many, many, many matches.

KAREN: So we have a great poster that has been designed by our creative team that has the programme covers for every single one of those matches.

KAREN: Some of them will be signed by our legends, the players that played at that time.

KAREN: So we’re able to create some real kind of money, can’t buy products, and also experiences.

KAREN: So at our disposal, we can have somebody go and play on the pitch.

KAREN: We can arrange for a training ground visit so that they can go and see the team training up at Colney.

KAREN: So we can do that.

KAREN: Obviously, we can’t do that for all of our fans.

KAREN: Of course.

KAREN: Money can’t buy.

KAREN: We’re letting our fans achieve those rewards, either through redeeming points or by using points to enter enterprise draws as well.

KAREN: So yeah, fans can enter prize draws to tickets as well to come and see again.

KAREN: We have our exec box.

KAREN: So so many things that we can offer that gives something back to the fan.

KAREN: But equally, finding ways for them to earn those points, really by just exhibiting the great behavior, which I said, buying tickets, attending games.

KAREN: We’ve also issued our membership card.

KAREN: We’ve sent out new membership cards this year.

KAREN: And for 18 plus members who are based in the UK, we have a new membership card that has got prepaid elements incorporated in it.

KAREN: And that’s issued by bar players.

KAREN: And so the fans can kind of accelerate their points earning if they spend on the prepaid card with certain affiliates.

KAREN: We’ve signed up that worked well with the brand.

KAREN: But as I’ve said before, the balance of that, the most important thing and the best way you can earn points is by attending matches.

KAREN: But then that engagement again, when you aren’t at a game, you can go and use the prepaid card, keeping that engagement going on match days as well.

KAREN: And get the points balance increased.

PAULA: Yeah, and I loved actually as well another way to earn that I saw on your website, Karen, because it’s one thing to obviously either buy a ticket or buy a season ticket and show up, you know, as and when you can obviously to support the team.

PAULA: But I do think you explained to me, there’s a lot of maybe season ticket holders who may not be able to attend every game, either because it is a rainy night on a Tuesday, and they’re just not as much of a fan as others might be.

PAULA: But I love the fact that you have built in points for them to essentially let somebody else enjoy that ticket for that match.

KAREN: Absolutely.

KAREN: So we have technical capability to do two things.

KAREN: We have ticket transfer and ticket exchange.

KAREN: So actually going back again to the airline points, ticket transfer is very similar to gifting points.

KAREN: Ticket exchange would be kind of selling your points.

KAREN: But so ticket transfer, if you can’t make a game, then put your ticket through the ticket transfer process and give it to a friend.

KAREN: And then if you do that, we will actually award points.

KAREN: Because going back to what I said earlier on, we want a full stadium, so we would much rather that ticket was used.

KAREN: And we want to incentivise our fans to do that.

KAREN: Ticket exchange is very similar, but that would be where you would put it into a pot of tickets that are available to buy through fans that perhaps don’t have a season ticket.

KAREN: And again, we encourage fans to do that early.

KAREN: You get bonus points if you post that ticket early, and then bonus points if it’s, or standard points actually, if that ticket is sold.

KAREN: We’ve also introduced another thing which is quite interesting, but we hadn’t thought of doing when we were designing the programme, then suddenly realised that actually we could use the technology available to us to do something a bit different with the way that you can be entered into the ballot for tickets for the cup final.

KAREN: So we have the capability to do something which is you can collect stamps, if you like, on a virtual card.

KAREN: And it might be that you could design it, that it would be after you’ve done five purchases in Arsenal Retail, you get the shopper stamp.

KAREN: What we’ve decided to do is to award attendance stamps.

KAREN: And then let’s say once you’ve attended five games, you get the five game trophy.

KAREN: And we’re actually going to be using these trophies as the way to put you into the ballot for cup final tickets.

KAREN: So again, supporting our objective of wanting fans to attend games.

KAREN: Yeah.

KAREN: With every week that goes by, we see another opportunity.

PAULA: Oh my God.

PAULA: But I can feel the excitement because I can’t imagine how many times oversubscribed the tickets must be for the big final days.

PAULA: So it’s a very fair way, I feel, of just level the playing field and literally the level of excitement and just even the concept of trophies and gamification and earning your way in through pure loyalty.

PAULA: It’s like the club is giving back to its supporters, probably, I guess, in the first way that maybe the members have been able to appreciate and enjoy.

KAREN: Yes, absolutely, because I think before it has been just the odd competition winner through the rewards that were made available.

KAREN: But now you can really participate and have more of an opportunity to drive your chances of those things through engagement with the program.

KAREN: So it is very exciting and absolutely loving it.

PAULA: Wow, I can tell.

PAULA: And just as a general, I suppose, interest from my side, Karen, I’ve always liked the idea that some loyalty programs can identify behavior beyond its own transactions, for example, or beyond the business of Arsenal and that membership base.

PAULA: So what I mean is things like somebody on the Arsenal fan page, on a third party social media platform.

PAULA: Do you have capabilities in that space at this point, or is that something that you’ve thought about?

KAREN: We’re three months old at the moment.

KAREN: So for the most part, we’ve been keeping to kind of the Arsenal-owned channels.

PAULA: We have control, yeah.

KAREN: Yeah, we have capability to obviously put things up on the big screen at matches.

KAREN: But we have an internal campaigns team, and we’re doing some exciting things, because we’re gathering the data, not only from ticketing and from our membership, but then the loyalty transactional data as well, all going into our CRM platform.

KAREN: And that’s going to enable us to do far more targeted campaigns to the members based on certainly the data we have about them.

KAREN: But they’re kind of going out.

KAREN: We are going to be working with our social media team as well to find ways that we can…

KAREN: I think we have to be careful with it as well, because MyArsenal Rewards is only available at the moment for paid members.

KAREN: In the future, we’ll be looking at expanding that to our digital membership, which will take us into kind of further a field at the international base.

KAREN: So we’ve got to be careful about social media, and I think just…

KAREN: Not upsetting fans that possibly don’t have access to the program at the moment.

KAREN: But certainly using push notifications is something we also want to start using.

KAREN: But really making the most of appropriate, let’s say, social media, because it’s…

KAREN: What we would really love our fans to be doing is, let’s say they’ve won something through the program, they’re at the game, then post a photo of yourself on social media, hashtag it, that you’ve got there through My Arsenal Awards.

KAREN: So we’d definitely be looking to promote the program through those channels and increasing that, definitely through the year.

PAULA: Okay, well, definitely another one for our next conversation.

PAULA: You know, so brilliant.

PAULA: So you mentioned it’s three months old, Karen.

PAULA: So here we are.

PAULA: It’s coming up to the end of October, so probably November by the time our listeners are hearing our conversation.

PAULA: So tell me, how is it going compared to your expectations?

PAULA: I know you joined Arsenal, I think, in January, if I’m right.

KAREN: Correct, yeah.

PAULA: Spent the whole year then, I guess, from a blank sheet of paper, as you said, through COVID, which might have been helpful in some ways.

PAULA: So talk us through maybe just how the year has gone from, you know, even the pre-launch phase and through to how it’s doing for you now.

KAREN: Yeah, so it’s, you know, joined in January, very much setting, working on the program or completing the program design because the team have been working on this for a good 18 months, two years altogether.

KAREN: So completing that program design, finalizing things with the fan groups, it’s kind of the early phases and then building that design.

KAREN: So we work with Barclays, as I said, on the card issuing side and with Fortress, provide us with the loyalty platform.

KAREN: They have a big presence in the US as well.

KAREN: North American clubs, sports clubs, Canadian ice hockey, etc.

KAREN: They use that platform.

KAREN: So then it was really building out our requirements.

KAREN: A big phase of user acceptance testing.

KAREN: And luckily, we managed to do a live game test.

KAREN: The last game of the season was, I think it was the 30th of May, if memory serves me right.

KAREN: And we were able to then actually be in the ground, have some of our supporters groups live testing with some test cards that we were using.

KAREN: Because not only is our membership card a prepaid card, it’s also your stadium access.

KAREN: So we wanted to make sure all of that was working.

KAREN: Got them to download the app and linking through to their test account at that stage from the app.

KAREN: So that was a very important phase for us.

KAREN: We were very glad that we were actually able to access the stadium to do that.

KAREN: And then, of course, MAD in the summer, getting cards out issued.

KAREN: We had well over 100,000 new membership cards to be issuing in a very short time period.

KAREN: And then first games and answering, moving into kind of that answering customer queries, supporting them.

KAREN: And now we are moving into that phase of starting to really look at how what are the levers we need to be pulling?

KAREN: Where are we seeing certain fan groups aren’t engaged?

KAREN: We could be doing a bit more.

KAREN: So really starting to use the data that we now have at our disposal to do that.

KAREN: So obviously we track by the different membership types.

KAREN: We will look at how frequently are they logging into the platform to engage with it?

KAREN: When is that happening?

KAREN: What type of rewards are fans using their points on?

KAREN: So it’s almost like a little playpen that we’ve now got ahead of us.

KAREN: So entering into that stage.

PAULA: Lovely, yeah.

PAULA: And it’s great, as you said, well, first of all, to have access in stadium to be able to test it, as you said.

PAULA: So I’m sure it was a nervous time for you.

KAREN: Very much so, yeah, very much so.

KAREN: And on the day, it was absolutely, the heavens opened, it poured rain as well.

KAREN: Yeah, we’re running around from turnstile to turnstile, trying to help out with that.

PAULA: Yeah, yeah.

PAULA: And it was good, actually.

PAULA: And thank you for mentioning the way that I suppose the technology is supporting, you know, the overall programme, because you mentioned, for example, that the guys in Fortress is very much like a sports technology, because I certainly wasn’t familiar with that platform.

PAULA: It sounds like their loyalty module is fairly new in their own development.

PAULA: Is that fair to say?

KAREN: Yeah, it has been up and running in the US, though.

KAREN: So Fortress are the experts really in stadium access.

KAREN: OK, so we can use some great and actually one lovely thing that we can do that we haven’t done yet that we want to do with the programme is combining that stadium access technology with the loyalty module and encouraging our fans to arrive at the stadium earlier.

KAREN: So from an operational point of view, fans arrive at the stadium really not that long before the match starts.

KAREN: That obviously creates operational issues.

KAREN: So using the technology, we can say if you arrive at the stadium and you’ve gone through the turnstile 45 minutes before the game starts, we can award you points.

KAREN: So not only does the loyalty programme help our fans, it can actually also make a better experience by managing the operations of the stadium as well.

KAREN: So that’s a fantastic example of fortresses combined technology, if you like, stadium access and the loyalty programme as well.

PAULA: Yeah, well, definitely.

PAULA: I remember somebody asking me, similar to that Karen, back in Ireland, and it was somebody involved in the rugby, the world of rugby.

PAULA: Now, I’m going to say this was 10 years ago, so certainly predates all of the fabulous capabilities that you’re talking about.

PAULA: But again, it was a very, very interesting conversation where literally the guys were saying, how can we get our fans to spend more time in our venue?

PAULA: And I didn’t have an answer, but it sounds like those things are coming through now, because definitely, like, I am the type of person, like if I am flying, for example, I’m there three hours beforehand.

PAULA: You know, I’m in the lounge.

PAULA: I’m doing all of that, like I’m already on holiday.

PAULA: So it’s almost like your airline mentality is also kind of being, you know, leveraged, as you said, for extraordinary operational benefit.

KAREN: Yes, absolutely.

KAREN: I think, as I’ve said, there are so many similarities of the ways that you can use loyalty in different sectors.

KAREN: And to your point about rugby clubs as well.

KAREN: So I know that Fortress have launched, they’ve launched with Harlequins, there’s Northampton Saints, and then Portsmouth Football Club, Cardiff City and ourselves as well.

KAREN: So it’s a similar operational problem that is experienced by whatever club it is.

KAREN: I think you’ve got to encourage the fans to come out of the pubs and the curry houses, let’s say, around the stadium and get them into the stadium as quickly as you can.

PAULA: Oh, of course, absolutely.

PAULA: Well, I mean, that’s such a tough choice, because clearly the pubs and the curry house are part of the day out for the fans as well.

PAULA: It’s important to encourage all of the right behaviours.

PAULA: So, I mean, I just I’m so excited about what you’re doing.

PAULA: So my mind’s kind of in overdrive, Karen.

PAULA: I think I said to you last time we spoke that I paid more attention now this year, perhaps to the Olympics.

PAULA: And just obviously is that the biggest sporting event that somebody like me might be interested in.

PAULA: And I can immediately think about, oh, wow, what extraordinary things could be done as well.

PAULA: And again, to support the legends, the athletes and the fans.

PAULA: And it’s almost a shame that that didn’t happen perhaps before Covid kind of flattened everybody, you know.

PAULA: But it sounds like it has truly global application.

KAREN: Yes, definitely.

KAREN: And one thing that we have our partners as well.

KAREN: You know, for example, we have Adidas, Emirates, Visit Rwanda, our key partners.

KAREN: And because they have global presence as well, we are able to work with them to offer things to fans and currently in the UK and our paid membership that we have internationally.

KAREN: So we have the ability to work with other partners and bring them into the programme that resonates pretty much wherever you are in the world.

KAREN: So we’re working…

KAREN: So the partners have also found that we have a…

KAREN: If you like, there is a new part, a new area of Arsenal, our My Arsenal Awards, where they can offer some great things to our very engaged members.

KAREN: So, for example, with Adidas, we’re offering gift cards that fans can redeem their points with gift cards.

PAULA: Ah, brilliant.

PAULA: Yeah.

KAREN: But it’s only available in that zone, if you like, of the arsenal.com.

KAREN: So that is something that we can definitely build on on a global scale, if you like.

KAREN: We’ve almost got a kind of ready-made totally global expansion base there, which is great.

PAULA: Yeah.

PAULA: And I did see your partnership with Emirates with Expo 2020, because obviously the shirt sponsor, the stadium sponsorship, we’ve just had Emirates on this show as well for the second time to talk about Skywards.

PAULA: But it was really nice to see Arsenal supporting Emirates and supporting Expo, actually, because, you know, for those of us here in the country to see such an extraordinary world Expo, and I just don’t think there’s enough visibility of it, perhaps in Europe, you know, I don’t think people realize what an extraordinary event it might be.

PAULA: So I was really, really impressed to see Arsenal doing all of that.

PAULA: But I did notice that one sponsor, Karen, which was the Visit Rwanda partnership.

PAULA: Is there a story there that you can share?

PAULA: Because I didn’t immediately understand why that might be a particular, you know, one single country that I didn’t realize had any connection with Arsenal.

PAULA: Is there a story there?

KAREN: Well, yes, because obviously, you know, footballers, we have, you know, international footballers play for the team, but the fan base as well, internationally, globally.

KAREN: In Africa, you know, there are some very, very passionate fans.

KAREN: Also, US and Asia, we, you know, the different zones, if you like, that we do get a lot of engagement from.

KAREN: And so for us, having those links, you know, with Africa, it’s great in terms of being able to connect with that continent.

KAREN: We have a really great partnership team who work with Visit Rwanda.

KAREN: And then we’ve been able to offer some member experiences too, where some fans have been able to travel to Rwanda.

KAREN: In fact, one of our rewards at the moment, we have a Visit Rwanda, a gorilla soft toy that you can redeem your coins for as well.

KAREN: But our players as well have kind of engaged and explained about gorilla.

KAREN: Recently, we’ve got something on our.com where you have gorilla naming ceremonies.

KAREN: And so we have our players that have participated a bit in that as well.

KAREN: So there’s great links to different parts of the world to make sure that even though Arsenal is a North East London club, actually it is global and it has that reach to places such as Africa.

PAULA: Well, I can tell you from my side, just on a personal level, Karen, Rwanda is way up.

PAULA: I’m going to say in the top three destinations that I want to go to and exactly for the gorillas that I think are still available.

PAULA: And very small numbers to be seen.

PAULA: So I think it’s one of those extraordinary kind of adventures that I hold.

PAULA: Hold out the hope I’ll get to in the next while.

PAULA: So thank you for explaining that unexpected part of your loyalty program.

KAREN: Yes, that’s it.

KAREN: I think that’s the what I would say about this is there are so many different elements that are completely unexpected.

PAULA: Brilliant.

PAULA: So the final area I wanted to ask you about was the rewards, actually, you know, what is working.

PAULA: Again, given the context we’ve talked about, the passion is already there.

PAULA: You know, a lot of the behaviours literally need to be amplified, so it’s super clear what you’re focused on.

PAULA: And I really love all of those lots of different ways that you’re leveraging the programme.

PAULA: But tell us, what are the members then and the fans actually claiming for their rewards?

KAREN: Well, without and this isn’t going to be surprising, I’m sure.

KAREN: But the most popular reward is to enter for tickets to get in.

KAREN: That’s what the fans absolutely love because our paid membership base isn’t just season ticket holders, it’s fans who pay to belong to the club and then that gives them ticket access as well, early ticket access to purchase tickets when they go on sale.

KAREN: And so the opportunity to win tickets for a game that you might not be able to, they might sell out, you might not be able to get access to is proving that’s definitely the most popular.

KAREN: So that’s the prize draws that we have.

KAREN: But then as I said, the unique merchandise that we have on there too is proving very popular.

KAREN: And back to talking with partners, one that actually early days made the site drop for a few minutes was we had a new partnership that launched in August with Socios, who issue digital fan tokens and you can buy kind of tokens as well.

KAREN: A trade is cryptocurrency, if you like, but associated with the different.

KAREN: It’s a really interesting area, actually.

KAREN: It’s coming.

KAREN: I mean, I can’t keep up with it, to be frank.

PAULA: Me neither.

KAREN: Yeah, and so European League, lots of the clubs issue tokens, and we’ve issued the Arsenal token.

KAREN: And for our paid members, we offered a free fan token, which is where you can vote for something to do with the club.

KAREN: So this token would give you the right, let’s say, to decide what would be the music that’s played in the stadium.

KAREN: We offered a free fan token to our My Arsenal Rewards members.

KAREN: And that one had that really did resonate.

KAREN: We took the site down for a short time, just through the communication went out to fans and warmth.

KAREN: The fans came back with a vengeance to the extent that we now have to just stagger the send sometimes on some of our communications to make sure that we are managing the flow back into the site.

KAREN: Well, yes, that one proved very popular.

KAREN: And we’ve also had something we have the when you’re looking at football match, you might say, over the cross at the top of the heads of the fans, they may have a giant flag that is kind of unfurled, let’s say, and held above the supporters.

KAREN: And one, we have the North Bank, which is one of the ends of the stadium.

KAREN: We have the North Bank Cannon flag and something we offered at the start for, if you like, the first members that were logging on to the platform.

KAREN: We offered them a reward where they can have their names stitched into the North Bank Cannon flag.

KAREN: So it’s kind of there for posterity.

KAREN: Yeah, that proved very popular as well.

KAREN: So as you can tell, the rewards that are pretty popular are very much the emotional rewards that link in to the club or the opportunity to support your club to be there as part of that great big Arsenal family in the stadium.

PAULA: Yeah, and also the exclusivity, because as you said, Karen, there’s plenty of what you’re doing.

PAULA: That flag being a brilliant example that I’m sure there’s absolutely no way that would have been operationally possible in the past, but now it becomes an extraordinary way to recognise and I can imagine the excitement that goes around all of that.

KAREN: Absolutely.

KAREN: Yes, so Fortress with their platform have just provided us with a great data capture tool, if you like, where the flag has gone in, captured the fact that they want to be on that flag.

KAREN: And yes, operationally and efficiency wise, it’s a great thing for us to be able to put together and capture tens of thousands of names.

KAREN: Which can then be, well, we had your fans contacting us saying, is it possible for me to have my father’s name stitched in it?

KAREN: He was a fan.

KAREN: So again, that emotion just keeps coming through.

PAULA: And you’ve reminded me actually of a gorgeous loyalty initiative that happened when I worked with O2 Priority.

PAULA: Now, I’m going to say it was 10 years ago, and it didn’t come from the loyalty department at all.

PAULA: It was very much a brand initiative, but it’s similar to what you’re talking about, Karen, in that what they did was, I can’t remember the entry criteria, but there was, let’s say, I don’t know, 10,000 people identified.

PAULA: And because O2 was sponsoring the Irish rugby team, those 10,000 names were literally put in minute form in a tiny font to make up the logo for O2.

PAULA: On the jersey.

PAULA: There you go.

PAULA: You’ve just reminded me.

PAULA: And the absolute joy that that brought to so many people.

PAULA: And I know it was very complex, obviously, because again, jerseys have to be monitored.

PAULA: So there’s a whole quality control about how logos are managed, of course.

PAULA: But it was feasible and did drive incredible loyalty.

PAULA: Again, without a mention of a point or reward, that piece of history for a fan to be part of was absolutely brilliant.

PAULA: So, yeah, I love what you’re doing.

KAREN: Great.

PAULA: So what’s the focus for 2022 then, Karen?

PAULA: You’ve had an extraordinary year, as we said, in the context of a pandemic and being the first in the country, I think the first Premiership Club to launch a formal loyalty programme.

PAULA: So what is your focus now going forward?

KAREN: Well, funnily enough, we may only be just three months into the season.

KAREN: But we are already talking about membership renewals for next season, so for 2022, 2023.

KAREN: So the end of the season is the end of May.

KAREN: Our fans’ points will expire at the end of the season.

KAREN: So there’ll be a lot of activity at the start of the year encouraging fans to make the most of their points.

KAREN: But also building in how can we use the loyalty programme to encourage renewals.

KAREN: Season tickets, once you have that season ticket, obviously fans are very keen to keep their season tickets.

KAREN: But for the paid membership that possibly don’t have access to the season ticket yet, how can we encourage them through the loyalty programme to take out early renewal of their membership.

KAREN: So that’s kind of where the focus is going to be shifting to.

KAREN: But then it’s kind of the cycle, if you like.

KAREN: It will be matching the seasonal cycle of the club.

KAREN: But then looking ahead, how do we develop the programme as well?

KAREN: So internationally, as I said, we would like to look at how we can take the programme out to our global fan base.

KAREN: And another very important thing for us is women’s football.

KAREN: Now Arsenal Women’s is a fantastic squad.

KAREN: And women’s soccer in the US, I think, is more popular than men’s soccer.

KAREN: There’s a lot we can do to start engaging, linking in with the women’s game as well.

KAREN: They play occasionally at the Emirates Stadium.

KAREN: They play up at Boreham Wood.

KAREN: So how can we link our programme into that?

KAREN: We’ve done a few offers already where we’ve had women’s football tickets for sale through Points.

KAREN: And there’s been a good interest in that.

KAREN: We’ve got a great game coming up.

KAREN: I think it’s December, at which date, with Arsenal Women versus Barcelona.

KAREN: So that’s going to be a great game to watch.

KAREN: So we spend time talking to the women’s team, commercial team, and we’ll definitely be looking at ways we can integrate further with that team as well.

PAULA: Yeah, well, that makes perfect sense, Karen.

PAULA: As has everything you’ve said, actually.

PAULA: So I love the global ambition.

PAULA: I love the diversity piece as well around the women’s football team.

PAULA: So I just want to acknowledge that lovely intention for 2022.

PAULA: I suppose I feel like I’ve learned loads in the power of sports loyalty, particularly the ideas you mentioned around getting people to arrive early, getting them to replace themselves if they’re not coming on a season ticket.

PAULA: Like just an extraordinary application of being loyal back to your fans in ways that probably technically wasn’t possible before.

PAULA: But it also takes a real leap of fate for Arsenal to decide that they really want to be loyal to their members.

PAULA: So yeah, that’s it from my side, Karen.

PAULA: Is there anything else you wanted to add before we wrap up?

KAREN: Just to say what a great opportunity it has been to chat with you about it, because it makes you realize not only how much we’ve achieved in a very short space of time, but actually the huge amount of learning we still have and the scope for so much more stuff to come.

KAREN: It’s exciting times.

PAULA: Oh, for sure.

PAULA: Great.

PAULA: And if people do want to reach out to you, Karen, with ideas or to connect in any way, are you happy to share a way to contact you?

KAREN: Yes, absolutely.

KAREN: So they can contact me at my work email address.

KAREN: So that’s kdumbrell at arsenal.co.uk.

PAULA: Wonderful.

PAULA: Well, listen, as I said, it’s been a fabulous conversation.

PAULA: We’ve waited a long time to be here, but you’ve done an extraordinary year’s work.

PAULA: So, yeah, just want to say congratulations and thank you so much for joining Let’s Talk Loyalty to Karen Dumbrell, Senior Loyalty Manager at Arsenal Football Club.

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

PAULA: The Wise Marketeer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 170 executives in 20 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

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

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

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