#322: Guest Host Announcement for 2023 - The Loyalty People

Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. 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.

Just before we share today’s episode, I want to ask you to sign up to the Lets Talk Loyalty email newsletter. Our email newsletter is by far the best way for us to keep you up to date with all of the latest, incredible loyalty stories we’re sharing each week. It’s also the easiest place for you to find our show notes.

With links to everything mentioned in all of the episodes, you can sign up at letstalkloyalty.com.

Paula:  So Tom Peace, Managing Director for The Loyalty People. Welcome back to Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Tom: Thank you, Paula. It’s a pleasure to be here and Happy New Year.

Paula: Happy New Year. Exactly, Tom. Yes, yes. We’re actually recording sneakily in 2022, but uh, yes, this is the first show of 2023. So really excited to be kicking this off with you, uh, with some exciting news for our audience.

And we’re not gonna do, uh, a long show or an interview even today. It really is focused on our announcement of our partnership and working together even more closely in 2023. But given your industry expertise, Tom, let’s just chat quickly about your favorite loyalty program, cuz I always love to get that insight from my guests.

Tom: Sure. Well, I mean from a consumer point of view, I would say it’s probably BA Avios or, or, or Prime membership. But actually looking around the industry and, and, and, and looking for innovation, I’d say one program that stands out, which I do use occasionally would be BrewDog. I think BrewDog, um, is a brand that is obviously expanding fantastically quickly.

But I think for a loyalty point of view, I think what they do with their, um, with their brand is to give their loyal members actually shares in the business. So when you, when you join as a member, you can, you can get these EPU shares and you also get your discounts. And they also encourage trial of lots of different brands, which the people that are into micro brands are really into.

But I think essentially they’ve, they’ve created. Uh, an element of control, almost an an element of feeling part of a, of a wider community. Yeah, and I think that’s very clever and I think that’s a really interesting model that you don’t see to too many places elsewhere.

Paula: You’re absolutely right, Tom. I think from memory, I’ve heard of two technology companies that have, um, developed solutions.

I don’t know the names of course, but, what I do believe is, you’re absolutely right. First and foremost, to feel like I’m actually a fractional owner, let’s say, of any company means of course I want to go there in every single instance. So, um, yeah, I, I think it’s genius. Um, probably difficult to execute, I would imagine, but maybe we’ll try and get BrewDog on the show at some point.

So I’m sure there’s a lots of people having a dry January, but nonetheless, you know, craft beer always has a place in the world. So, um, so thank you for that. Great. So listen, Tom, the big, uh, news, I suppose from our perspective today is Let’s Talk Loyalty is that you are taking over as the host of our Tuesday shows going forward for this year.

So first of all, I’m thrilled and delighted to welcome you as a guest host on the show, and wanted to say thanks a million, and tell us your thoughts about taking on this role.

Tom: Sure. Thank you. Well, I think, uh, you know, this is an absolutely fantastic opportunity for me and for The Loyalty People. Um, I’m a massive fan of the podcast. I love the, all of the podcasts that you put out. Um, I find them really interesting and I find the format, um, fantastic to be able to listen to actual experts from the field actually talking about how their programs work. Um, and I think really this is just such an op, great opportunity for The Loyalty People to get involved in Let’s Talk Loyalty, which is a fantastic brand within the loyalty space, and bring additional content to our community of loyalty professionals that we, uh, that we engage with through our, uh, network.

Paula: Amazing. Amazing. Thanks for your, for your kind words, Tom. Um, I know we’ve worked so closely together, uh, based on obviously mutual respect for each other’s businesses. So everything you are doing with the loyalty people to me is exceptional. I know your clients are thrilled with what you, what you do, and obviously your interest is in terms of building your global brand.

And, and I’m delighted to be able to support that. Um, when I think back to when we first started chatting about this, I know you’d always talked about a podcast for The Loyalty People and that was always something that you wanted to do. And what I’m finding with my show is nobody realizes how much work it goes into.

Ah, yes. creating, absolutely, content. So, so I think this is, you know, from my perspective, you know, really satisfies a number of really big and exciting ideas of growth for me. Um, as we come into 2023, there’s lots of opportunities to both build the Let’s Talk Loyalty community, which we’ll talk about in a minute.

Um, and build maybe new content formats. Like, what I really want to be able to do is think about video and think to think about, for example, you know, going live on LinkedIn, which is something that I’m just starting to, to work with. So I think there’s massive opportunity and a hunger for the knowledge that, that you have, that I obviously love to bring as well through this format. So, and, and to be honest, Tom, as well, I said to you before, like, to me, the Tuesday show was probably the one that I looked forward to the least primarily because I’m always, I’m dying to move on to the next thing. Um, so, but at the same time, it gets a huge audience.

People love the short format. So I think to have your expertise, looking back at an amazing previous interview, calling out the kind of key lessons and learnings from your perspective means I get to hear your perspective and I get to remind myself what, uh, what the guest said. So yeah, I think it’s gonna work on a number of levels.

Tom: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, um, you know, from my point of view, I, I’m, I’m very keen to get involved in this, in this brand and this venture, but really this is for, for The Loyalty People. This is about engaging our community with a really strong and customer strategy and loyalty sector inside.

Yeah. So you, you are able to bring incredible brands to the podcast and The Loyalty People are able to amplify that message to our community of some, I think we’ve got something like five and half thousand people now Yeah. Uh, globally, um, who are engaging with our content and we don’t, we don’t. Video blogs or podcasts, et cetera, of our own, but this is an absolutely fantastic way to provide superb content, um, and amazing brands. So, um, we’re thrilled and I can’t wait to get stuck in, to be honest.

Paula: Excellent. So, so what should people expect, Tom? Um, I’m thinking, you know, you know, we’re going to stick with the same format. It’s gonna be based on a short summary, pulling out the key insight. So, you know, in terms of that going forward every Tuesday, anything you wanna say in terms about how you’re, you’re thinking about it or approaching it?

Tom: Sure. Yeah. So, I mean, we, we already published some of your longer form, your full podcast on our website, and we let our community know that they’re available through our, uh, through our email and our LinkedIn channels.

And we’ll be doing much the same. We’ll have a, a page for these short form, uh, these, uh, catch up podcast. And we’ll also be communicating so people will be able to go onto our site or, or connect through the email and LinkedIn and be able to listen to these, uh, these short form podcasts.

And I, I know that you are gonna publish them through your traditional channels also. Of course. So once we, people will be let know that they’re gonna, the, the podcast is coming and what the, the theme of that particular one is. And then from Tuesday, every week, they’ll be available on our side. Wonderful. So, uh, so yeah.

Excellent. It’s, uh, it’s looking like an excellent partnership, I think.

Paula: Totally, totally. And you mentioned, listen Tom, and the other thing I wanted to, I suppose, um, let our audience know, both our audiences know today was the opportunity to respond. So we have started just with a couple of shows in 2022, uh, with a fabulous new, um, functionality, which to be honest, is something that I didn’t know I’d been looking for for a long time. So I’m really glad they reached out to me. And it’s very rare that I get a cold email from a software provider and instantly, um, implement their software. So, so kudos to this company, they’re called Galas, which I had never heard of, but in simple terms, Tom, I think it’d be useful. I’ll just explain, you know, my expectation and hopefully again from your side, this is something that will become part of your, I suppose, Tuesday conversations with our audience. And for me, it’s, literally called the feedback link, and essentially in the show notes of every single episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty. Whether it’s a Tuesday show with you or a Wednesday show with me or any other guest host, we will always have this opportunity to compliment or comment or question. The particular episode that somebody’s listening to. And what I really like is that is a single conversation that will happen no matter where you’re listening.

So whether it’s on Let’s Talk Loyalty’s website, whether it’s on The Loyalty People website, or in fact, 75% of our audience are listening on Apple Podcasts. You can literally put a text comment or a voice comment directly in the show notes. And what I love about this, Tom, is that we’ll be able to continue the conversation. Again, it’ll be one community conversation regardless of where people contribute. So tell us, what are you thinking about this? Uh. Brand new functionality.

Tom: I think this is great. I think, um, uh, learning about the customer, learning about the people that are engaged in your brand is absolutely key to loyalty generally as a strategy.

Yes. We would always, we would always advise any brand that we are working with when we’re consulting on customer strategy. We would always say, listen to the customers, pretty much the most important thing that you do. Um, so to have this feedback loop for the the people that are listening to the podcast is, is not only essential, but I think it’s gonna be so, so valuable.

So I’m really thrilled you found this tech. This, this sounds really, really good.

Paula: Totally. Totally. And you’re right Tom, I cannot tell you how many times, you know the word and the idea of community is discussed with guests on the show. And inwardly I cringe because I feel like I’m broadcasting for the last three years and I haven’t done enough to let people talk back.

So I do get some lovely emails, of course, and LinkedIn and we’re both very accessible if people do know where to find us. But I think what we’re doingwith this piece of tech is making it easy and again, making it one coherent conversation. So I suppose as we start 2023, I really want to encourage everybody to go and find it.

Have a look, even put a little test message there. Um, it doesn’t matter, doesn’t have to be words of wisdom, uh, but literally try it out. . And what I love is you don’t need to download an app. You don’t need to leave the podcast. You don’t even need to put your name in it. So if you want to put something anonymously, it’s super easy.

But also if you do put your name, then actually it’ll retain that. So if you put something from Tom Peace, then of course I’ll respond and I’ll know I’m talking to you. So it’s super nice and every time afterwards your name will automatically be there. And again, even on the go, you can leave us a voice note if you want to, uh, get involved in the conversation.

Tom: Yeah, it sounds really clever. So yeah, good luck with that and, um, can’t wait to see it.

Paula: Okay. Well listen, Tom, as I said, we’re keeping it short and sweet for today’s conversation. Um, really want to, uh, again, welcome you into the Let Talk Loyalty family. It’s going to be a sensational year and from my side, I’m looking forward to building the relationship with The Loyalty People.

So, is there anything else you wanna say before we wrap?

Tom: Uh, no, I don’t think so. I think just for the benefit of our community, I’m sure that people can’t wait to, to be able to engage with these. So, um, so yeah, I’ll, I’m just really looking forward to getting this, uh, getting this up and running.

Paula: Great stuff. So listen guys, you’ve heard it here. Every single Tuesday you’ll be listening to Words of Wisdom from Tom Peace as a guest host of Let’s Talk Loyalty. So with that said, I wanna say thank you so much to you, Tom, Managing Director of The Loyalty People. Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Tom: My pleasure. Thank you very much, Paula.

This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketer, the worlds most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights, and research. The Wise Marketer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty academy, which is already certified, over 500 executives in 38 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

For more information check out, thewisemarketer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.

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 this show.