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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.
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Welcome to episode 1 55 of “Let’s Talk Loyalty” where I’m sharing with you what I learned from Camilo Courtenay, the loyalty product owner at Vodafone in the UK, a large telecommunications company with a history of excellence and innovation.
For example, in 1985, Vodafone made the UK his very first mobile phone call. And in 1992, the company sent the world’s first text message. It’s hard to even imagine a world without mobile phone calls and SMS. So truly Vodafone has made an amazing contribution to all of our lives and that commitment innovation has continued with its approach to recognizing and rewarding customer loyalty in a market that some people think has become tired of points and even status tears in some industries. So Vodafone’s loyalty program developed a very different proposition. It’s cold, very me rewards, and it was originally launched for contract or postpaid customers. But by the time of our interview in October, 2020, the program had been extended to all Vodafone customers, both pre-pay and post pay, and had even been extended beyond consumer loyalty to some enterprise customers. Camilo shared with me that the very main program is designed first and foremost with simplicity in mind, instead of traditional points in tears, very mere rewards is based on partnerships, gamification, personalized offers and content. He emphasized that the program is fully digital with its own app designed to be both easy to join and easy to use. And that has proven to be true for customers with over 30 million rewards redeemed already at the time of our conversation, as one of the ways that Vodafone is delivering value to customers, those rewards included a free movie download and with the goal to ensure both emotional loyalty, as well as transactional loyalty Camillo shared with me their latest innovation, the launch of gift, or keep a way for members to share that reward with anyone they wanted, whether or not those people were votable customers themselves. I have to say, I really love this idea as a great example of generosity and flexibility. Exactly what customers are asking for the proposition is a truly unique feature in the industry. And it was so powerful, Vodafone invested in a full marketing campaign above the line, across print radio and social media. And it had even managed to begin trending despite all of the other news in the UK media at the time in the full interview, Camillo also shared their approach to partnerships and segmentation. So it’s definitely worth listening to the full episode. If you’d like to learn more about both of those aspects of their strategy. It’s episode number 55 of let’s talk loyalty. One of my favorite insights that Camillo shared is that the Vodafone loyalty team has been structured to be fully self-sufficient with 13 people, including a graphic designer, copywriter and data analyst, as well as proposition and partnership skills. In closing, we discussed the two loyalty magazine awards that very may rewards had one in the most recent event. And in some of the most competitive categories, awards that most of you probably know have now been rebranded as the international loyalty awards. That’s it from this episode of let’s talk loyalty as we come towards the end of 2021, but don’t forget, I do have one more interview for you on Thursday. So please do tune in for a fun brainstorming session with Steve hooey CEO of I fly flat in Australia. Thanks for listening guys. This show is sponsored by the wise market here. The world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news insights and research. The wise marketeer also offers loyalty marketing training through its loyalty academy, which has already certified over 170 executives in 20 countries are certified loyalty marketing professionals for more information, check out the wise market tier.com and loyalty academy.org. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of let’s talk loyalty. If you’d like me to send you the latest show each week, simply sign up for the show newsletter on let’s talk loyalty.com and I’ll send you the latest episode to your inbox every Thursday, or just head to your favorite podcast platform. Find let’s talk loyalty and subscribe. Of course I’d love your feedback and reviews. And thanks again for supporting the show.
