#509 : Strategic Partnerships & Loyalty Manager ANZ Bank

Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. I’m Paula Thomas, the Founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty and also now Loyalty TV. 

Today’s episode is hosted by Carly Neubauer, Co-founder and Director of Elevate Loyalty and Pay2Elevate, an Australian based company specializing in loyalty marketing in loyalty and incentive services, global rewards, and digital payment technology. 

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Carly: Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty. My name is Carly Neubauer and I’m the Co-Founder and Director of Elevate Loyalty, a loyalty and incentive services company specializing in global rewards and digital payment technology. I’m excited to be introducing Aussie Merciadez, Strategic Partnerships and Loyalty Manager at ANZ Bank.

Aussie has an extensive background across a range of loyalty, incentives, and promotional companies locally and globally. Developing some of the biggest brand promotions in FMCG before moving to the loyalty space, but she is well known for bringing innovation and new ideas to the programs she has launched. Always data driven minded, Aussie is an expert in delivering loyalty programs that prioritize customer intel and engagement.

Welcome Aussie. This interview is going to be fabulous because I am lucky enough to have one of the most dynamic people in the loyalty space. Join me today on Let’s Talk Loyalty. Aussie, you have covered so much ground in this industry, including partnerships with some of the biggest brands in the world, worked on some of the most well known programs across the country.

And if anyone has met you, they would know you bring such drive and passion to your programs. So welcome today. 

Aussie: Thank you. Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you. 

Carly: So excited to have you here. Now, as everybody knows, we always start this podcast with one very important question, which is your favorite loyalty program.

Aussie: Wow. Okay. I hope you’ve got all day. I don’t have a very favorite one, but I do love a lot of loyalty programs. And they’re so different in why I love them, but the ones that stand out for me, I think is that new Adidas one that has experiences in it and it contributes to, you know, the whole loyalty mechanic. And I think Pipeline did something similar. So I love that there’s more emotional, I guess, emotional drivers in these programs, because let’s face it. Loyalty is an emotion. And so the programs I think that are so heavy in transaction really lack that balance. And so I’ve been quite vocal about that.

You know, I like doing things that are really customer centric from a point of view of their experience and doing it myself and going out there and seeing customers doing it and asking them, getting the verbatim. And I think that’s what makes a great loyalty program. 

So my other favorite one has to be Priceline. I did spend some years, re launching Priceline and through meeting, I guess now my mentor Julie Fitzpatrick who is going on to winning, you know, amazing awards with Maya. I think she just gave me, so she opened my mind to I didn’t even know about loyalty till I met her. I’d come from at that point, FMCG, and that was my center of gravity, was FMCG. It was my whole world university marketing. And so when, I met her, she said my world’s data. And I just thought, wow, when I was at Uni, we had data coming out of everywhere, but we didn’t really do anything with that customer data from a one to one point of view, she’s like, actually you could market one to one.

And all I could think about was the 85 promotions I did. How would you talk to everybody one to one in every brand in every category? So I love Priceline because of what I learned and I think so many different new things that we did and that won awards for the first three years after we launched. And I think my daughter’s favourite one, Mecca. Yeah. So Mecca and Sephora, I think they’re doing a great job. So, I’d say they’re my top ones for now. 

Carly: Yeah, fair enough. I think it’s pretty hard to choose these days. We’ve got some pretty compelling programs in market these days. So yeah, good call and a big shout out to Julie. She is a powerful player in the industry at the moment. And obviously so smart to be talking data. So, so early on as well. 

So let’s talk a bit about your background as well. You’ve already mentioned Priceline. Tell us a bit about how you, how did you become to be in loyalty? Because it’s not really an industry that everybody knew about in the earlier days. So how did you get here and tell us about that? 

Aussie: Well, I went from FMCG, so I was like Unilever. And I was working on the brands there and the closest thing remotely that came close to loyalty for me was I ran this small promotion for bushels. And we called it a mini loyalty program. So the more bushels packs you, you bought you, you were able to fill a kettle, and that was the mechanic. And then you went in the draw to win this car. And it was this vintage car that I’d had made. And it was custom, customized. 

And the other one I ran was for Continental. And we did cross all the whole Continental range over a period. And you could earn Continental currency and you could bid and buy for rewards a bit like a catalogue. And so there was a point system because you know, the side dish was more points than a pack of soup.

 And so that was my introduction to loyalty and it was fun. It was really fun because we got to source rewards, we got to see spending patterns, but by no means did we then retarget customers to, to cross sell upsell that, that didn’t even come into, you know, into the process.

So when I was going out to agencies to sort of look for another job, I was at at McCann Worldgroup for a little while. And I applied the thinking that I’d learnt. And I found that it was transferable. So Unilever is very much the university of marketing. And I feel very smart when I left Unilever. But when you’re in Unilever, they make you learn things all the time. You just think, am I not smart enough yet? So that was interesting to come out of there and then apply. 

And then I knew I needed more. I couldn’t be just about consumer promotions or, you know, doing brand you know like, new product launches or brand launches, et cetera. So I met this lady and she said, Aussie, you’re so smart, you have such a different background and I think you should meet Julie Fitzpatrick. And so I met Julie. And she was as loud as me, and as wild as me. And we had so many ideas. And then she said, so where did you work? And I said, I worked in FMCG. And she said, so you know FMCG well. And I said, I believe I know FMCG well. And she said so what did you do with the data? And I had to pause and think, and I said, well, we did category management, you know, we did category strategies and we did, you know, we’ve thought about our brand amongst the categories because, but what about the customer?

Well, the customer gets the product. It’s just like, well, I mean, a loyalty program is about you know, being loyal to a brand. And I just said, no, I get that. But if your product’s good enough, there’ll be a loyal anyway. Right. 

Carly: Oh, it’s just a debate. I love this.

Aussie: Just say, well, it was, so then Julie would say, well, how did you come up with promotions? How did you know you were measuring well, and I said, Oh, cause we sold lots of packs. She said, how do you know that those customers wouldn’t have bought the packs anyway? And I’d stop and think, and I just went, no, she’s right. 

And then she said, what if I told you that you could speak to every customer? And then if they bought, for example, a pack of vitamin C with 30 tablets, that at day 26, you could trigger them to buy another packet. Or you could get them to try another brand or, and then my mind just popped, it exploded. Then after that, it was supposed to be a one hour meeting. We ended up closing the agency and continuing the interview at her house. That went on into the evening at 10 o’clock. And then she said, can you come back again tomorrow? I said, I’d love to come back tomorrow. And that’s when she had said to me, she, you know, she was going to remortgage your house. She was going to set up an agency, the seven of us. And she said, and I, and she put, she banked everything on this price line pitch.

And I was just like, do you know what? I love your energy. And I love the fact that I’ll be actually talking to customers and not from a brand perspective. So, I went on for the ride and the agency grew from like 7, 15, up to, you know, 80 people. And I had things that personally in my, you know, my dad passed and I had a baby and Julie was like no, don’t leave. Don’t leave.

And I, I just had to sort of move myself. And but Julie stayed close contact. She’s remained my mentor. She went to Telstra and I went to Optus. And that was so enjoying for me because I got to stand on my own two feet and apply the learning that I learned from her and the past and I think, you know, partnerships was something I fell into.

I built the you know, the loyalty program with an amazing team from the, you know, from the organization I learnt. The tough bit isn’t actually designing a loyalty program with awesome partnerships. The tough bit is actually aligning internal stakeholders to buy into. This is the strategy. This is the framework. This is what’s in scope. This is what out of scope. And this is the lens we apply from the customer and the lens we apply from the business. And that, I mean, four iterations of the loyalty program, I think at Optus I went through and and incredible bunch of people. And it was incredible you know, program and we ranked in our first year we launched with no above the line support. So I was very proud of that. 

I guess, and that’s when the business said to me, we’ll go get the partners now. And I said, hang on now, I built the program now. I built it and they will come. No. And then, yeah, so I enjoyed that process as well of bringing on board. Awesome partners who have remained contacts and supported like some of the mad ideas we did.

Like, I’ll talk to Verity, I’m talking to this afternoon from the iconic and she and I were talking and it was like, Oh, you know, can we, you know, we should partner together, you know, perks programs be awesome, you know, the iconic brand. I was like, yeah, but can we do something different? And she was all for it. I said to her, look, the insight from my program is that customers actually love a pre-sale. We were doing like these music pre-sales and customers were like getting on board and they loved it. And that’s it, playing to their passion, you know? And she said, Oh, well, we don’t do pre-sales. That’s kind of like music. And I just said just hear me out for a minute. 

So imagine if I know for a fact, so the insight was I could not talk to my team if there was an iconic sale. Cannot talk to anyone because they’re all saving things, wishing things, checking out. They’re all like, they’re all on their laptops. So I said, what if you gave my customers access to that before public, that would be essentially a pre-sale. So their delivery would be arriving while people are just logging on. 

And so she did an awesome job of getting her business on board in terms of you know, allowing authors to access the pre-sale and and that was an awesome outcome, I think, for both businesses. I activated customers that didn’t want a movie ticket, didn’t want music, they didn’t want dining, but you give them an iconic presale, whoa. A lot of conversation. 

Carly: That was good. Well, you’re talking to the demographic and you’re talking to your customer instead of going with the standard. It’s really clever and good on you for getting her to agree to something new like this. I loved it. 

Aussie: She was way, she was on board and we worked together really well on that one. And I have to work with her again. She’s awesome. And that team was just brilliant and bringing things together. But you know, we went to the little agency as well big and small. So, Bonnie MacTavish has a small agency called Nightjar and I saw Bonnie Pannington one day and I said, what are you doing? Cause she was a extraordinary strategist. She said, Oh, I’ve opened a little agency and we’re very forward thinking. And they came to me with an idea around the very first promotional chatbot. And it was in the world, globally, with Facebook, do you want to be the beater? And I was like, I’ll be the beater, I love the beater, I’ll be the innovative one.

And there was a lot of reluctance internally, you can imagine. I was like, why do we have to be the first? We don’t have to be the first, let someone else do it, you know. Imagine the images, it’s going to go up on this chatbot. And I just said, listen, they’ll be looking at themselves if they post anything.

And it was, it was so awesome to get something up like that as well. So, I don’t, I love pushing the boundaries and I love doing things differently, but it’s for the customer. And I think that’s what has been my driving passion for loyalty is, being able to do things differently and introducing things to loyalty programs that haven’t been done before in that particular program.

I get that some of this stuff is, you know, rinse and repeat. But when you know it works, you can’t help but say, you know, if you’re talking to customers at their level, then you are actually giving them something that they love and they want to be a part of people will switch, you know. cards and switch loyalty programs and ring their friends and go you know, you, do you have that card or are you a member of that so that I can access this, you know, so.

Carly: You’re taking it up a notch to advocacy as well here. You’re not just talking loyalty, you’re going up a whole nother level with your programs. And I do want to go and ask you one thing as well. I really do. Because yeah, you’ve talked about that internal alignment and how it can be really challenging to get your ideas across. I can’t imagine anyone saying no to you, having known you for a long time. 

However, do you have any advice or any examples? Because that’s a really challenging one for, you know, people in loyalty, head of loyalties to say, I want to go this way. I’m sure it’s going to work, but you’ve got to sell it internally. It’s a big change sometimes and it can be tough. 

Aussie: It can be very tough. Look, there is a lie here. I, when I was talking to Live Nation, I was talking to Greg when his wife was pregnant. I think by the time we got Live Nation his child had started school. 

Carly: He had five kids. Gotcha.

Aussie: We were wondering if if they were going to be in high school. No. So it was it was a challenge, but it was one that I had the data from the outside. This is what’s interesting, right? So you’ll say, well, what data is telling you that is good? And if it’s not their own data, it is, it’s very quite I think that they just, I don’t know whether it’s, I don’t believe it, or they can believe it, but they don’t know if it’s right, or no one else is supporting it, whereas I don’t mind trailblazing and going, you know what, I’ll be the throat to choke. I’m telling, I believe this because, and I’ll pull all the data points that I can pull, because data is key. Data is key in terms of driving proper decisions, well informed decisions. 

And so, on that point all I had was the data around how many people were interested in those sort of events. I even had the venue guys giving me data, and this was you know, before we even had Optus Stadium, they were giving me data around, you know, venues and the numbers that they were, they would they would say. So I would say if you truly believe it, you need to think outside of your business and to find best in class around the world, bring it to the table and help, you know, bring the business on the journey in terms of what you’re thinking and what results that can then drive. 

Because it’s one thing to have an idea, but if you don’t know the result you’re trying to drive or the business outcome, desired business outcome that it aligns to, then it’s an even bigger struggle. So, for me, on those on those out there trying to bring the outside in and be really forward thinking, I say keep going, you know, keep going because there’s nothing more frustrating for me when I go out and people say, Oh, it’s so Aussie. What are you doing? Oh, I do loyalty. Oh, you need points? It’s no, it’s more than points. 

Carly: It’s a little bit more to this industry, right?  

Aussie: More than points. This is like, this is really trying to build relationships with your customers. 

Carly: Like you said, an emotion, it’s an emotional attachment and you’re looking for more than just the sale. And I think it’s so interesting that you’ve gone from an FMCG, such a strong FMCG background in promos and comps and things like that, where you had all the data and then, and wasn’t using it at the time. And then you’re now the biggest convert to this is driving strategy. I’m driving this to get my engagement internally, externally outcomes and alignment with the business. So it’s such a cool journey you’ve been on as well. 

Aussie: Yeah I can’t say that I’ve, I haven’t been extremely fortunate in meeting the most, I think the smartest people that I could have met along the way. And I think it is also about building your network and not being afraid to ask questions, not being afraid to put ideas forward, not being afraid to, you know, to actually go out there and speak to other people. So, I’d encourage that. On LinkedIn, I encourage that as well. I always say it, people say, Oh, I think we should connect. Sure, I’ll give you 10 minutes if you want to have a coffee chat as well. It’s like, Oh, okay. So, no, I think broadening your thinking is around exploring as well.

Carly: Oh, gosh. If you think back in, you’ve had some huge roles and like I said earlier, locally and globally, no question about it. What do you think would have been your best experience and or sort of worst challenge? Can you talk to us a bit about the high and or low?

Aussie: Yeah, look, I have to say, one of the best experiences I had was probably last year at Komo, and they just changed my life. One, not only are they, millennials, young, forward thinking, so sharp, zippy on the ball and they can move like I have never seen agile and nimble like I saw in that company. But what blew my mind was the speed at which they can go to market. So I’m now back in enterprise and and I remember it fondly and I remember it well.

And when I think about Komo and they show me how they could get something up in minutes, it’s just mind blowing. And it’s not just, oh, we’ll just get a competition off. I mean, that can be done in the seconds, but they can have vouchers and they can have rewards attached to that engagement. That engagement platform is something else. So, for me, that was a highlight. 

But what it also showed me last year was, it didn’t matter that I had the most sophisticated and awesome platform. Once again, it’s the sale. It’s the actual sale and then the convincing of multi stakeholders to open their minds to something so different, so new, and so forward.

So, I’m hoping at some point, you know, these there, there’ll be a way for you know, for enterprise businesses to be more agile and a bit more open to playing where the fish play. You know, like social media the whole digital ecosystem is so different now. And even the way that we speak to each other or engage with our customers, I believe needs to move towards that to truly stay relevant in those customers minds, because there is so many brands out there doing it really well, because, you know, they’re able to pivot and to course correct very quickly. 

So that was kind of like my highlight and my low light. The fact that I wasn’t able to convince too many of the bigger players, but you know, I think some of the brands that gave it a go. Live Nation gave it a go, Disney gave it a go. And I am so, so grateful that they had you know, actually taking it on. Knowing full well that they themselves had to be the, I guess the the pilot for me in terms of believing that this could actually penetrate more enterprise businesses.

But yeah, I think you can’t discount all the new tech that’s coming and I feel for small startups who have awesome ideas, brilliant ideas like OneTap, have fantastic ideas, but it’s actually trying to help them get, have a voice around thinking differently. Because they do think differently. That’s why they’re standing up. That’s why, you know, it’s only the few here that, that make it is because they get a little opening in the door. They’ve just got to run straight through it and go hard. 

Carly: So the thing is here as well, Ozzy, I think you really are a bit of a visionary around what’s coming and what you see coming and you’re also gutsy enough to take a chance to do it as well. Do you have any opinions on what do you see coming for the industry or what does it look like in the next five, 10 years? 

Aussie: Look I used to say when we were building out our programs and the mechanic, oh, it can’t ever be more than, you know, three clicks to, to get something. And now it’s almost like, if it’s not instant, it’s not there. 

Carly: If there’s a click, I’m out. 

Aussie: Yeah. If it’s just not there, like one click. No. I’m tapping out. And unfortunately that’s the speed at which we’re moving at. And so to do that and not you know, to, to accommodate, I guess, what’s coming the bigger organizations need to also think ahead. And how to, um, and, you know, how do you ride that wave to, to stay relevant? Otherwise, what happens is you just become an old dinosaur, right? You’re stuck and nothing worse than being stuck. 

So I think the future is exciting. I think it will be you know, it’s all very device led today. I think the mobile phone is strong and will always remain kind of strong in people’s lives. And so, you know, if you’re designing, definitely you should be designing mobile first. 

Carly: Absolutely. You mentioned earlier as well, when we were having a chat that, what you see for younger people entering the industry. So I’d love to hear a little bit about what you’re seeing that they’re doing that’s it’s cool and innovative because they’re bringing new ideas into this space. But then also on the flip side, like, what sort of advice would you give to younger generations starting out? 

Aussie: Oh, look, it is an education process. And it’s sort of funny, like, when you want to get an idea in the door it’s an education process. You’ve got to bring everyone on the journey.

And unfortunately, the young people, you’re trying to come into this environment, you’ve got to bring us on the journey. So they have to help educate us on understanding why is this the best way forward and also really dumb it down for us so that we can understand it because I think they’re so, you know, so well ahead.

And I’ll give you an example, like I said to Phil Shelper, who’s also a genius in my mind. And we were talking about a question on Web3 and he said, I’ll read my book. And I said yes. But Web3 was explained to me with pictures and I don’t know, some people work better with pictures. Some people work better with words. I’m very tactile. I like pictures. 

And I realized this Web3 is what we were trying to do back at back at Perk, so it is the true one to one relevant wherever you are, the right, you know, the right offer, the right time and all of that, but it’s just automated, so that’s what that’s what blew my mind. So the reality is we want those I guess those genius startup company ideas, but if you help us understand through, this is the way you used to do it, and this is the way you could do it, and you get a, you know, a quicker, smarter, efficient outcome. That’s probably my best guidance to, you know, to young people trying to speak to some of these enterprise or more established businesses is to get your data points, because we love data, nothing like good data and insights, anchor it to an insight and then you know, touch on the old and then bring us into the new.

And I think that should be the flow to for the penny to drop. Huh. Right. And then you got to show us how simple it is to apply in our business. 

Carly:  Absolutely.

Aussie: Because nothing worse than, Oh, this is awesome. This is genius. And then you know. 

Carly:  How do I implement? Yeah. Okay. That’s great. How do I make this real? Yeah. 

Aussie: Yeah. How do you make it real for us? So, you know, I guess that’s part of the discovery process once they’re sold into the idea. So, that’s probably your next step. Bye. Yeah, the first step is to educate. Young people, you’ve got to educate us so that we can keep up. Please.

Carly: It really is like you said earlier as well. You’re selling into your internal stakeholders and bringing everybody on the journey. So, no matter which sort of generation that team may fall into, you’ve got to talk to who the people you’re expecting to join you and, you know, participate as well, right? So it makes a lot of sense. 

Aussie: And the other thing I would say too is you will need to do different versions of that presentation. And what you’ll find is you’ll find someone who’s high up. And you’ll find and you think decision maker, but they’re a decision maker of one portion of the business. And then you need to understand that person’s KPI. If that person’s KPI is about acquisition, then you would talk about how awesome it is for acquisition. If that person’s responsible for retention, you talk about how you address their attention, retention needs. 

So I think it’s important that you don’t just have one presentation for everyone. But you actually tailor it to the person you’re speaking to understanding how you meet their needs within the business too and I think that will help you get the next, they’ll say, oh, they will make the connection go. You should be talking to our digital team who’s looking after digital sales, for example. So, that’s probably another what I learned last year when I was trying to help with formulating, I guess, facts that made sense to different people in different organizations. 

Carly: For sure. And I think we’ve all been there where you do need to do the multiple pitches, even as an internal process, but speak to the person, speak to what’s relevant to them. And it does go back to, again, what you said earlier about the customer mindset who am I talking to, whether it’s a customer or a stakeholder, make sure you’re speaking the right language. Absolutely. 

With, in regards to success, What do you see as success for you? What is success? How do you define it?

Aussie: Wow. 

Carly: I’m just going to go for a big one now.  

Aussie: I know. What is success for me? Success for me is to be able to design, create, implement, launch, operate a successful loyalty program that engages customers and creates advocacy for the program and delivers the desired business outcomes. That for me is success.

Like, I know that with perks we did a great job with engagement. We, you know, what we set out to do, we achieved, but then where we decided to pivot and COVID hit, then yeah, that’s when it kind of, and we, no one could have prepared their program for that. 

So, you know, what I learned about the agile process that I’ve taken on board is the pre-mortem. So I find that if I apply that, I’ll go, okay, you know, what would, what could be the worst thing that could happen to this program or to this promotion or to this part of the process and apply that thinking. So that you do stay ahead of the game, you have, you’ve lined up your risks and your mitigations and that’s when you have a well thought out plan. Wow. 

Carly: Look. 

Aussie: I know. It’s a lot to take in isn’t it? Even me just thinking. 

Carly: But it’s, but you’re spot on. You’re also exactly right. So that helps. But I love this as well. The thing I’m thinking about the most when you speak to that is your background, your history and then how you’re bringing that into your next venture and what you’re looking to do, you know, even in the imminent future here as well. If we look at that, what do you know for sure? What are you really sure about that you’re looking to do and what you’re focusing on? 

Aussie: I’m really focused on engaging customers and ensuring that they feel recognized and rewarded. Because to be loyal to a brand, you have to be engaged. If they’re not engaged, then there are risks.

Right, so, and it will be small steps, so if you don’t have a full blown, all of business, you know, single customer view program, then there will be iterations. You can’t say, bank, you know this is the program and it’s going to run. Even when I was at Optus, it was never one program. We had to build four programs before we got to where we got to, where we were in a pretty good place. And then I think it needs to be a loyalty initiative. 

Now, I know programs today, we talk about a structured loyalty program. It’s got points or it’s got, you know, rewards and it’s got tiering and it’s got, like, there are elements. I think now we can be a lot more flexible because we’re attuned to this is our business goal, this is the gaps that we have in terms of customers not being engaged.

So I’m, I approach it more as what are, what is our loyalty initiatives to deliver loyalty? Especially if you don’t have a platform, you don’t have a program. So I know that it’ll be a loyalty initiative that eventually lines up to a customer loyalty program, but it may be a number of initiatives or it may be phasing.

It could be, you know, an approach because if you’ve, still in a product silo, you know, that is a big challenge to then flip like a pancake, go, here we are, we’re here now as a customer and this is how we’re going to, you know, because there’s a whole bunch of business metrics that needs to sit under that to ensure that you’ve actually scored and tiered customers correctly with a single customer view.

Carly: Absolutely. And the being comfortable with that iteration process sounds like a good approach here because, and obviously you personally, you have to be adaptable and the program does as well, because, and as you said, a phased approach not every time. Can you build out? Here’s the loyalty program. I’m going to roll that out. Perfect success. And there we are. Yeah. Happy days. Doesn’t normally happen. That way, especially when we’re engaging customers, we’re engaging human beings that everybody’s different and there’s different preferences and you’ve got subsets. So there’s a lot to it. It’s not quite as straightforward as that.

Aussie: Life is dynamic, right? Your customer segment is dynamic. Therefore, the ever changing needs of that customer needs to align with how are you servicing those needs? And so your program needs to be able to change with those ever changing needs of customers. So I think that you know you’d be naive to think, well, I’ll be on one program and it will serve as everybody and everything for everyone you know, in, in the first in the first go.

So I think that you actually need to be open to this isn’t forever, but this is good for now. And then this is how we future proof it, but you wouldn’t be able to future proof beyond three to five years. I don’t think. I think things change too much for that to be a reality. 

Carly: Well, even going back to Julie’s comment earlier around, you know, how did you know these people weren’t going to buy from you anyway? I feel like there’s a lot that’s happened in that space and that change and the perspectives now. That’s such a great conversation. And obviously, before we wrap up a big shout out to Julie Fitzpatrick, who is amazing and to Phil Shelper as well. Great idea. Diagram to explain. I love this. This is very cool.

So, I think before we also close out, Aussie, if there’s anything else you want to share with us, but I have no doubt everyone’s very excited to see the year ahead, how things shape up in your new role, Strategy and Partnerships in Loyalty at ANZ Bank. So no doubt having just had this time talking to you, what’s coming is going to be pretty phenomenal.

Aussie: Thank you. Thank you. It’s a very steep learning curve. I have to say going into to banking, but what an awesome place to work. I couldn’t help but look like a tourist taking photos in the foyer. Thousands of colleagues who actually offered to take photo for me when I went to the Melbourne office. And now everyone’s really, really, really nice. So I’m very happy. Thank you. 

Carly: Oh, fabulous. And congratulations. We’re looking forward to seeing how things roll out this year. So how can we connect with you? You talked about networking. I won’t try and get you too bombarded with people wanting that coffee you mentioned earlier. But where would people best find you if they’re looking for Aussie?

Aussie: My door is always open on LinkedIn. I’m happy to help, happy to have a chat and you know, I welcome anyone who wants to have a chat in my network or be a part of my network. 

Carly: Awesome. Thank you so much. It’s been fabulous to talk to you today and have a fabulous rest of your day. Plus as I said, we’ll be watching closely as to how things roll out in this particular role. 

Aussie: Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Carly.

Paula: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty. If you’d like us to send you the latest shows each week, simply sign up for the Let’s Talk Loyalty newsletter on letstalkloyalty.com. And we’ll send our best episodes straight to your inbox. And don’t forget that you can follow Let’s Talk Loyalty on any of your favorite podcast platforms. And of course, we’d love for you to share your feedback and reviews. Thanks again for supporting the show.