The World’s Largest Loyalty Programs™ – Global Brands Redefining Customer Loyalty (#763)

PAULA :: Hello, and welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty & Loyalty TV, a show for loyalty marketing professionals.

PAULA :: I’m Paula :Thomas, the founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty & Loyalty TV, where we feature insightful conversations with loyalty professionals from the world’s leading brands.

PAULA :: If you work in loyalty marketing, join us every week to hear the latest ideas and insights for loyalty marketing specialists around the world.

PAULA :: Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty & Loyalty TV.

PAULA :: I’m delighted to be introducing today a very special episode as we launch a new global ranking of the world’s largest loyalty programs.

PAULA :: This is the first ever report of its kind that captures the simplest data point publicly available to compare what’s resonating with consumers at scale around the world.

PAULA :: Today, we reveal those brands with memberships reaching into the hundreds of millions, as well as the only program in the world that boasts more than half a billion members.

PAULA : : It gives us a truly global perspective of the scale and success being achieved by the biggest loyalty programs in the world.

PAULA :: Today’s report was created through a year of collaboration, behind the scenes, between myself and two leading loyalty industry experts, Laurent Guinand and Rich Long, who join me for the launch and you’ll meet them today.

PAULA : : As you’ll see, this episode was recorded as a live podcast in partnership with our friends Capillary Technologies and is hosted by MEGAN : Fiorendino.

PAULA :: Enjoy!

JIM STURM : Well, hello, everyone.

JIM STURM : And thank you for joining us for this special live session.

JIM STURM : As we all know, the future of loyalty is no longer about simple points and tears.

JIM STURM : It’s about making every interaction with a customer account.

JIM STURM : It’s about emotional bonds and mutual value exchange.

JIM STURM : Customer experiences are more important than ever.

JIM STURM : And in my opinion, customer loyalty is the single greatest enabler of your business’s success.

JIM STURM :  I’m Jim Sturm from Capillary Technologies and on behalf of the Let’s Talk Loyalty team, we’re thrilled to have you join us today.

JIM STURM :  I personally have been in the loyalty industry for a very long time.

JIM STURM : I’ve had the pleasure of watching the loyalty industry grow and become a very strategic weapon for brands.

JIM STURM : In today’s session, we’re shining a light on those brands that are leading the way.

JIM STURM : You’ll see how the largest brands in the world are building a large base of very loyal customers.

JIM STURM :  I believe this growth is through their shift towards AI, data-driven personalization, experiential rewards, and ultimately emotional connections with their consumers.

JIM STURM : Capillary Technologies is proud to sponsor this event.

JIM STURM : We originally planned to announce this at our global customer event that we call Captivate was going to be held in Abu Dhabi this year, but we decided it would be even better to present live to everyone.

JIM STURM : Here at Capillary, we are working with brands across the globe to help them harness the power of AI, data, loyalty strategies, and consumer experiences to drive business outcomes far beyond the traditional results of the past.

JIM STURM : Our clients are deploying consumer experiences in minutes, not months, and achieving significantly improved top-line results now, not in the future.

JIM STURM : Our mission at Capillary is to help you achieve the same dramatic results.

JIM STURM : Now, for our session today, did you know that there’s one program in the world that boasts over a half a billion members?

JIM STURM : That’s a lot of people.

JIM STURM :  There are at least 10 other programs with over 200 million members each.

JIM STURM : Today, we will review the top loyalty programs on the planet.

JIM STURM : We’ll cover which brands have cracked the code at scale, and how these top programs are setting the stage for the future of the loyalty industry.

JIM STURM : Now, I’ll hand it over to MEGAN : Fiorendino, who will be our host for today.

MEGAN : : Well, thank you so much, Jim, and welcome everyone.

MEGAN : : I’m Megan.

MEGAN : : I’m on the marketing team here at Capillary.

MEGAN : : I’m thrilled to be hosting today’s launch of this extremely impressive and extremely important piece of research for the loyalty industry.

MEGAN : : I am absolutely delighted to welcome the authors who are behind the World’s Largest Loyalty Programs report.

MEGAN : : We have Paula :Thomas, Laurent Guino, and Rich Long.

MEGAN : : So welcome all three of you.

PAULA :: Thanks, Megan.

LAURENT : Thank you.

PAULA :: Thank you.

MEGAN : : So I know you all need no introduction, but for the audience, can each of you briefly describe your background and what drew you to this research topic?

MEGAN : And Paula, let’s start with you.

PAULA :Absolutely, Megan.

PAULA :Well, thank you so much.

PAULA :And as we said, we would dearly love to be together in person in Abu Dhabi.

PAULA :Presenting this research on stage, but given the circumstances, we’re thrilled to do it as a Let’s Talk Loyalty live session.

PAULA :So very exciting times.

PAULA :And actually, the origin story for this report, Megan, specifically goes back to a very vivid moment at Captivate 2024.

PAULA :And I think we all know that obviously there’s a lot of loyalty conferences that go on all of the time.

PAULA :And there just was this extraordinary moment for me when the Tata Group was presenting at the Caporee event.

PAULA :And there was an extraordinary speaker on stage talking about a loyalty program with over 100 million members.

PAULA :And honestly, Megan, it blew my mind.

PAULA :Now, at the same time, I will say there was a tornado coming in the window.

PAULA :So it’s really dramatic all around.

PAULA :But nonetheless, I was just, I suppose, first of all, amazed, but equally humbled because when I started Let’s Talk Loyalty, the whole idea was to focus on education and inspiration.

PAULA :So really tapping into my own need to understrand what’s happening around the world for loyalty programs.

PAULA :So when I realized there was such a large program that I had never heard of, I really felt that this was an oversight on my part.

PAULA :And I really had to go and do some research on the topic.

PAULA :Now, I didn’t start immediately.

PAULA :I guess from my perspective, I really knew that we needed a lot of academic rigor first and foremost to make sure that any report of this nature, of course, would be absolutely valid.

PAULA :But equally, we needed something that would be exciting and relevant for brands.

PAULA :So I planted the seed, I guess, in my mind that I’d love to know, as a loyalty nerd, as a loyalty geek, as so many of us are, would love to know who the biggest loyalty programs were in the world.

PAULA :But it wasn’t until I met Laurent, actually, that I thought, okay, here’s somebody else who’s interested in the same topic.

PAULA :And then, of course, Rich.

PAULA :So I’ll hand over to Laurent to explain his origin story for this topic.

LAURENT : Thank you, Paula.

LAURENT : Hello, everyone.

LAURENT : Laurent Guinand, I’m the CEO, founder and CEO of Aramis Advisors, which is a growth and innovation firm.

LAURENT : I specialize on loyalty myself.

LAURENT : And we do work either as consultant or fractional executives.

LAURENT : It’s seen that one of these roles, I was the general manager of the loyalty program for FIA.

LAURENT : I’m based in Geneva and FIA.

LAURENT : Most people know them for the F1 racing, but not so much for the Federation of Automobile Clubs around the world.

LAURENT : And they have 90 million members, which is not small, obviously.

LAURENT : And as we were trying to establish strategic partnerships with brands that were more or less at the same level as we were, I was looking for a list of who has at least 90 million members, if not more.

LAURENT : Such a list did not exist.

LAURENT : So I started it, doing some research, and created a slide that really helped us open many doors to the brands we wanted to work with.

LAURENT : And we ended up working with many of them.

LAURENT : And I showed that slide to Paula.

LAURENT : She said, oh, that might be an opportunity to push that a little bit further.

LAURENT : And she invited Rich to join as well, because guess what?

LAURENT : He had also the same, from a different perspective, and I will let him explain it now.

RICH LONG : So I’m Rich Long, I’m based in Chicago, and for more than 20 years, focusing on loyalty.

RICH LONG : But I started off by championing just the voice of the customer, the critical interaction of the brand promise and the outlive brand experience.

RICH LONG : I spent the first part of my career in management consulting, actually, just supporting, advising just a wide range of brands across industries on tons of client engagements.

RICH LONG : It all dealt with either one specific or multiple touch points that all shape both good and bad, positive, negative, kind of that customer experience, just that breadth of experience just gave me a deeper appreciation for how customers truly feel and engage with brands.

RICH LONG : After that, I chose to specialize in the strategy, the mechanics around loyalty programs themselves on the brand side.

RICH LONG : It was actually during my time at McDonald’s, so as we were creating my McDonald’s rewards, I began to closely track global loyalty programs just well beyond the QSR category for greater context and inspiration.

RICH LONG : During that time, I just personally was realizing there’s a big gap there in the amount of information that’s out there, and there’s just not a lot of good comprehensive research.

RICH LONG : With that, I was doing that really more out of personal passion, but then I was realizing it actually provides a lot of value to the community as well.

RICH LONG : I connected with Paula :who I’ve known over the years as well as with Laurent, so we decided this would be a great project for us to work on.

MEGAN : Lovely.

MEGAN : Clearly, three people who live and breathe loyalty.

MEGAN : With that, let’s get into the research.

MEGAN : Rich, I’ll start with you.

MEGAN : What was the single most fascinating or tidbit metric that you found with this research?

RICH LONG : I guess I wouldn’t call it, say, fascinating, but I would say that I’m really surprised how few brands really seem to publicly lean into their customer loyalty program membership numbers, its performance, and a reflection on their overall company’s strategies and priorities.

RICH LONG : They just don’t really talk about it that much.

RICH LONG : So in this report, it was a total surprise that not as much of that information was publicly out there as I would have thought, because I was doing it on a small scale when I was at McDonald’s, but not to this level of kind of really across the entire globe.

RICH LONG : And so that kind of surprised me.

RICH LONG : And even at the most basic level of membership size is that we would also see lots of the brands who did report anything just talking about their account reporting, how many members they had, but rarely would they ever talk more meaningfully about how many of them actually engaged.

MEGAN : Got it.

MEGAN : All right, Laurent, over to you.

MEGAN : Same question.

MEGAN : Sure.

LAURENT : There are many things that surprised me in this research, to be honest.

LAURENT : But I guess one of the most important one was the fact that you have four categories that represent more than 84 percent of the companies on this list, led by retail.

LAURENT : And honestly, I was not really expecting retail to be the leading category, but they represent almost half of all the companies here.

LAURENT : So for me, I was expecting more other categories.

LAURENT : And that’s a great lesson to learn that you think you know an industry well, well, sometimes you don’t know it that well.

MEGAN : Exactly.

MEGAN : And Paula, you’ve had a front row seat to the industry for years, let’s talk loyalty.

MEGAN : What surprised you the most?

PAULA :You know, Megan, for me, absolutely, there was first of all, the lack of information.

PAULA :You know, what we really wanted to do when we started this report, I can tell you, was we wanted to understand everything.

PAULA :So of course, we all love data.

PAULA :So we wanted to know the mechanics, you know, we wanted to know, do they have paid, do they have subscription, you know, what exactly is working?

PAULA :And we ended up with a spreadsheet that I think was three miles wide and very quickly realized that actually the only comparable piece of information that we could credibly source was actually the membership number.

PAULA :And even that, I know we’re going to talk about the definition of membership, because even that brings controversy.

PAULA :So, you know, most brands we discovered will quote their total membership numbers and, you know, people like Rich, for example, would always have only talked about active membership numbers.

PAULA :So there’s a whole piece around debating that between the industry professionals.

PAULA :But I guess the other piece, Megan, was I was initially quite disappointed in the fact that a lot of programs and some even in our top three that we’re going to unveil today, they literally have not published updated numbers in five years.

PAULA :So I was like, oh my goodness, does this mean they don’t care about us anymore?

PAULA :You know, is loyalty not a priority?

PAULA :But actually, I’ve come to the opposite conclusion, Megan.

PAULA :I really believe that the numbers are so powerful and the programs are so commercially valuable.

PAULA :To Jim’s point about being the single biggest driver of business, I think that some of these biggest brands have decided it’s too commercially sensitive to publish the scale of what they’re achieving.

PAULA :So that, as I said, started as a disappointment, reflected on it and came to the conclusion that actually, they’re doing more with loyalty and they don’t want their competitors to know.

MEGAN : Yeah, that’s a good point.

MEGAN : So yeah, that’s a good segue into more of the data side.

MEGAN : I know one thing the audience and me want to dig into is the methodology.

MEGAN : You mentioned you’re working with imperfect numbers, ever registered for the program rather than active numbers.

MEGAN : It’s a pretty big distinction.

MEGAN : So I guess, Paula, how confident are you in these rankings given that discretion?

PAULA :Honestly, we have done an extraordinary amount of work, Megan.

PAULA :So I’m extremely confident in the numbers.

PAULA :To go back to the point earlier about there being just massive amounts of information online, what we ended up deciding was we would only publish numbers if they were fully credible and quoted by the brand.

PAULA :So whereas there’s hundreds of websites and blogs and sources, we actually decided that the annual reports for these global brands particularly was the only place that was a number that we felt comfortable that we could actually quote.

PAULA :So certainly within the report, you’ll see that we have all of the appendices, all of the sources to absolutely say categorically, these are the correct numbers.

PAULA :Now, given the scale of the task, again, Megan, it actually took about a year from when Laurent and I presented at Captivate 2025 his initial research to today.

PAULA :Again, all of that’s back to we wanted annual reports, credible official information.

PAULA :And equally, I really believe there’s loads more out there.

PAULA :So, now that we’ve started this project and launched this report today, what we’re really hoping is that any other programs that are out there, particularly in countries that we might not be as familiar with, that there’s going to be more that’s going to come in over the coming weeks and months.

PAULA :So, super happy at 2026.

PAULA :And yeah, definitely think this is something that’s going to continue to grow over time.

RICH LONG : And Megan, just to kind of add on to that, that we probably honestly validated every number and source probably about six times for like every single brand here.

RICH LONG : So, we definitely did not spare, trying to make sure that our numbers were correct and accurate.

RICH LONG : So, just to kind of show some of the due diligence that we, that we spent on this.

MEGAN : Yeah, that level of sourcing is impressive and adds on to the credibility.

MEGAN : Rich, you touched on the engaged and other members earlier.

MEGAN : In the report, McDonald’s and Starbucks are applauded for reporting on their active members.

MEGAN : I guess, why do you think that is so rare?

MEGAN : And what do you think would take to change kind of the industry norms for other brands to do that?

RICH LONG : Sure, yeah, so as I was just mentioning that, yeah, it was surprising how few brands actually talk a lot about their loyalty programs publicly.

RICH LONG : And we did find that as a big data challenge with regards to sourcing that information.

RICH LONG : But it will kind of push us to dig deeper.

RICH LONG : So what we wanted to kind of get at was in focusing on accounts and membership size.

RICH LONG : So as you said, yeah, we were finding almost all the brands just talked about membership size, and that would generally be in terms of just total accounts, which we all know really doesn’t tell the full story.

RICH LONG : But there were a few brands out there like Starbucks and McDonald’s, which I knew firsthand that they report in terms of active members.

RICH LONG : And they actually define them in the same way, which that’s also kind of a challenges of those brands who do ever talk about active membership, how they define it is always going to vary.

RICH LONG : But in any event, McDonald’s, Starbucks, they both define in terms of 90-day active, which means they made a transaction in the last 90 days.

RICH LONG : But I guess one outcome we hope is that this starts to kind of chip away at kind of loyalty industry norms so that more and more companies just feel more comfortable and are also kind of are expected to talk more publicly about their programs in a more meaningful way.

MEGAN : Well, let’s shift over to you, Laurent, let’s zoom out a bit, talk more about trends.

MEGAN : You mentioned that the retail dominates this list at 41%.

MEGAN : Was that what you expected going in?

MEGAN : And then kind of what, I guess, what does that say where loyalty creates the most value?

LAURENT : Yeah.

LAURENT : So yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, you know what we found?

LAURENT : So it was retail 41%, followed by hotel 15% and airline same 15%.

LAURENT : And then quick serve restaurants at 13, I think.

LAURENT : And you know, what’s really the thread here is that it’s either a program with frequent spent or with a high spent.

LAURENT : And that really explains the economics of having a loyalty program.

LAURENT : If you spend little money once a year, it will be much more difficult to actually build a loyalty program, as opposed to spending a lot of money once or twice a year, or on a regular basis.

LAURENT : And it’s interesting, I know we’ll show some results of the polls in a second, but that was certainly a little bit counterintuitive.

LAURENT : And I’m happy that a few others thought the same way.

MEGAN : Perfect, so yeah.

MEGAN : So Paula :shared a few LinkedIn surveys in the last week or so, asking the loyalty community within LinkedIn a few questions about the reports.

MEGAN : Yeah, let’s see what the community predicted.

PAULA :Yeah, so honestly, we had great fun.

PAULA :So again, the report’s been in the bag for about a month already, but we just decided to do a straw poll just on my personal LinkedIn, as you can see there.

PAULA :So this is the question we asked on Monday.

PAULA :Which country is the home of the World’s Largest Loyalty Program?

PAULA :And we offered four options, United States, India, China and Indonesia.

PAULA :And yeah, I think what was really surprising is that actually, most people got this incorrect.

PAULA :And in fact, 73% of people got the answer wrong.

PAULA :So you will hear the big reveal in a moment, not just yet, but actually the biggest program is in China.

PAULA :And the second piece was the category.

PAULA :So this was very much something that again, going into the report, I would have guessed that an airline loyalty program would be topping the results.

PAULA :So this is what again, 243 people of my followers voted.

PAULA :So retail come in, voted at 34%, then airlines, followed by QSOR 15% and hotel loyalty programs.

PAULA :So again, when you see the actual report, and of course, we’re going to provide a link to that today, the vast majority, like 85% of people got this totally wrong.

PAULA :Hotels are doing extraordinarily well.

PAULA :QSOR is actually, you know, blowing my mind, I’m going to say.

PAULA :But yeah, I think this proves the point that we all, I suppose, understand perhaps our own countries, our own categories.

PAULA :But when we do take this more strategic view, there’s a lot more going on out there that we weren’t even aware of before.

MEGAN : All right, do we think it’s time?

PAULA :Uh-huh.

PAULA :Let’s do it.

MEGAN : We’re going to count down the world’s largest loyalty programs, top 10 in reverse order.

MEGAN : We’re going to have Laurent kick us off.

MEGAN : I think we have a drum roll, maybe.

PAULA :We’re going to keep that for the top one, Megan, because otherwise, we’ll be here all day.

PAULA :That’s true.

PAULA :But I’m looking forward to that.

MEGAN : Perfect.

LAURENT : So number 10, we have two programs, The Booking Genius and Expedia One Key programs, that each about 170 million members.

LAURENT : Number nine is IKEA Family Club at $180 million.

LAURENT : And number eight, two programs, again, Amazon Prime and H&M, the membership at 200 million members each.

RICH LONG : And at number seven, there’s two tides.

RICH LONG : So one is Yum China’s Pizza Hut program, 210 million members.

RICH LONG : Then there’s McDonald’s, My McDonald’s Rewards, 210 million accounts.

RICH LONG : Number six is Hilton, Hilton Honors, 243 million.

RICH LONG : Number five is H World Groups, H Rewards at 266 million.

RICH LONG : And then Marriott is number four with their Bonvoy program at 371 million accounts.

PAULA :Amazing.

PAULA :So I will do the top three.

PAULA :So in third place, Nike.

PAULA :Again, as we talked about, 300 million members quoted even back in 2021.

PAULA :So no doubt that has exploded even further.

PAULA :So 300 million there for Nike.

PAULA :Adidas then have their Adi Club.

PAULA :This is much more up to date information.

PAULA :We got figures from September 2025, 330 million.

PAULA :So an absolutely extraordinary achievement.

PAULA :And then we will do our drum roll now.

PAULA :So, and the biggest loyalty program that we found in the world with more than half a billion members is Kentucky Fried Chicken in China.

PAULA :550 million members.

PAULA :I mean, it’s absolutely mind blowing.

PAULA :So this is where, again, I have written about KFC before.

PAULA :We’ve talked about it.

PAULA :We’re dying to have them on Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA :So hopefully at some point we’ll be able to get more of that.

PAULA :But this blew our minds, Megan.

PAULA :I will honestly say that one particular program, and this is hot off the press.

PAULA :So Yum China does publish their, their annual reports in February of every year.

PAULA :So we were literally waiting.

PAULA :We didn’t send the book off to design until we had the Yum China figures for KFC.

PAULA :But who would have thought, again, I would have guessed an airline, maybe a hotel.

PAULA :But that’s Kentucky Fried Chicken.

MEGAN : That was a massive amount of members.

PAULA :Can you imagine?

PAULA :Half a billion.

RICH LONG : Also, another key point I want to make for the audience here is that we didn’t just kind of focus on the top 10.

RICH LONG : We originally started off looking at actually close to 200 programs around the world.

RICH LONG : We scoped that down, actually got it down to the top 50.

RICH LONG : But actually, because of not wanting to cut off any programs that they were tied or things like that, that actually our top 50 is actually our top 53, which includes 86 loyalty programs.

RICH LONG : So didn’t want people to think that we focused only on the top 10.

MEGAN : Yeah, that’s a great, great call out.

MEGAN : Since the top 10 has been officially announced, you can now download the full report covering all 86 brands.

MEGAN : Puja has just dropped the link to download the report in the chat.

MEGAN : Also, everyone who registered for today’s event will also receive an email from Paula :tomorrow with the report.

MEGAN : So that will be coming in everyone’s inboxes.

MEGAN : There is also an email address in the report itself for anyone watching this event later.

MEGAN : And they have any questions for the authors, that information is in the report as well.

MEGAN : So when’s the next one out?

PAULA :Megan, I think we’re all a bit exhausted.

PAULA :It’s gone gray for sure.

PAULA :I think we’ve learned a lot about this.

PAULA :I would love to think that this absolutely will be an annual report.

PAULA :Again, we would align it with more of the annual reports that brands are publishing.

PAULA :I think that would make a lot more sense.

PAULA :But yeah, from my side, I do feel like I’m continuing to learn.

PAULA :We’ve had a great time.

PAULA :Honestly, the three of us, literally, we’ve been meeting every two weeks now for a year to get where we are today.

PAULA :So yeah, from my perspective, I would love to think it’s an annual piece.

PAULA :And I think I already mentioned it earlier, but I really would love to get more contributions from around the world.

PAULA :Because again, we don’t live in China, we don’t speak Mandarin.

PAULA :We’ve won program, I think, in the reports so far in Japan, quite a few in India, of course, as well.

PAULA :But no doubt, there’s a lot more to be discovered.

PAULA :So it’s like any piece of work.

PAULA :I guess it’s the first report.

PAULA :But yeah, lots more to come.

MEGAN : Great.

MEGAN : So Paula, is there a program that you wish you could have verified included in this report that you couldn’t just base off your methodology?

PAULA :Quite a few, to be honest, Megan.

PAULA :I think the one that I’ve always admired from, I suppose the positioning would be the priceless program that MasterCard operates.

PAULA :To me, that is a very distinct program, very separate to their payments business.

PAULA :But not something that I think they’ve ever disclosed membership numbers on.

PAULA :And it really feels to me like it’s something that they do invest very heavily, but very quietly behind the scenes.

PAULA :So I think it’s one that’s below the radar.

PAULA :And again, I think I see my job as trying to shine a light on what’s out there.

PAULA :So yeah, if we could get that, maybe MasterCard might tune in.

PAULA :We’d love to get the priceless data.

MEGAN : Great.

MEGAN : I guess this next question, I guess, is for anyone or any of the authors.

MEGAN : Anything else that you would do differently next time?

RICH LONG : I think in terms of, I mean, we learned a lot from going through this process among the three of us.

RICH LONG : And I think in terms of what we would do differently, I don’t think we would do for where we ended up, I don’t think we would do anything differently.

RICH LONG : I think we would want to continue to kind of iterate this list without any sort of geographic or industry boundaries and hope to kind of just refresh and expand that in the future.

RICH LONG : But for where we ended up from where we started is very, very different.

RICH LONG : So I think we probably over scoped and over thought we could, what we could deliver, but realizing that what we originally thought could take us seven years.

RICH LONG : So I think we course corrected and got this right.

RICH LONG : So I think now it’s just a matter of continuing what we’ve started.

PAULA :And I don’t know if Laurent wants to comment on that as well.

PAULA :Do you, Laurent?

PAULA :Because I would definitely like just to add something as well.

LAURENT : Yeah, I’ll do a quick one.

LAURENT : I think the hope for us is that we create more transparency for the industry and so that companies would actually come forward and provide more information that we could add to the next edition of this research.

LAURENT : Because I think that would benefit everyone to see where they are positioned and how they compare to others.

LAURENT : And so transparency would be a big one for me for the next edition.

PAULA :Yeah, that’s actually similar to what I was going to say as well, Megan.

PAULA :I mean, I think as loyalty professionals, again, we really care about the details of whether the numbers are active members or total members as we’ve talked about.

PAULA :I released or we released exactly today an interview, for example, with Qantas, where that particular topic was discussed on the podcast, and that was wonderful to hear the CEO of Qantas Loyalty, which is almost a $600 million loyalty business, again, talking about the kind of questions he gets from investors and what he doesn’t get.

PAULA :So he’s not required, for example, to disclose active membership numbers, which again, we would love to know.

PAULA :But what he did focus on particularly was the growth in active membership numbers as a percentage.

PAULA :So I think if the business community starts to leverage their weight onto understanding how these programs are driving the business performance, then I think us as a loyalty industry will definitely benefit.

PAULA :So I don’t think we can do it alone, but I do think if investors are asking the right questions, then of course, the annual reports and the brands will start to disclose more information over time.

MEGAN : All right, so are there any final closing thoughts you all like to share before we wrap up?

RICH LONG : I mean, I think it’s also important to note that this research isn’t just relevant for big brands out there and for anyone else, it’s kind of irrelevant that I think all brands can use this for benchmarking.

RICH LONG : It could be a starting point for them.

RICH LONG : It could be about learning.

RICH LONG : It could be aspirational.

RICH LONG : I think no matter where a company happens to be on their loyalty journey, whatever industry, wherever geographic location they are, that that could be as relevant to them as the biggest brands or the smallest brands.

LAURENT : I’ll add one thing.

LAURENT : Beside the list, obviously, we have conducted a number of analyses by country, by region, by industry, etc.

LAURENT : And I think for me, when I was designing and managing the FIA program, it was a global program.

LAURENT : So from the get-go, I had multiple regions, multiple countries.

LAURENT : And I was really interested to know in this research, how many of these are global programs as opposed to local programs?

LAURENT : For example, KFC China is mostly in China, right?

LAURENT : So this is the largest in the world, but it’s one country.

LAURENT : And when managing one country, it’s much easier than managing multiple countries or multiple regions.

LAURENT : And one of the key takeaways that we found that only 52% of these programs are truly global.

LAURENT : The others are either local or regional.

LAURENT : So they might be in one or two countries within the same region.

LAURENT : And I will let the reader discover the numbers and some of the explanations for that.

LAURENT : But I think that’s a very interesting takeaway, if you are working in the global space.

PAULA :And I guess just from my perspective, Megan, this just really feels aligned back to my imposter syndrome.

PAULA :I’ve often talked about it on the show.

PAULA :Like when I started running loyalty programs, I always felt that I just didn’t have all the answers I needed.

PAULA :And again, for the business leaders who were investing in the loyalty program, to be able to justify the investment.

PAULA :So I’m on a lifelong journey and I think all of our audiences as well, like, as you know, I think we’ve published like 750 podcasts now.

PAULA :And I would not have believed that when we started the show.

PAULA :But the values of our show are around education and inspiration.

PAULA :This is a step beyond anything we’ve ever done before.

PAULA :So it’s super fun.

PAULA :And given us, I think, a new lease of life as a content creation channel for the industry.

PAULA :So, yeah, I would just say lots more to come.

PAULA :Great.

MEGAN : I guess I would be totally remiss if I didn’t share final thought as well.

MEGAN : A little Capillary brag.

MEGAN : Thanks to our recent acquisition of Session M, Capillary is now proud to be powering more than 20 percent of the brands that are featured in this report.

MEGAN : We think that’s worth celebrating, and I’ll never miss a chance for a shameless plug.

MEGAN : So, yay.

PAULA :And that also is recent information, Megan.

PAULA :Of course, the Session M acquisition again, I know is quite recent, but it blew my mind when you guys said that you’re powering so many of these programs.

PAULA :So congrats to you guys.

PAULA :Yeah.

PAULA :Thanks.

MEGAN : All right.

LAURENT : We need more drum roll.

PAULA :Yes.

MEGAN : So, I guess I thank you all so much for joining us today.

MEGAN : This concludes the podcast recording portion.

MEGAN : A huge, huge thank you to our authors again on this amazing and incredible report.

MEGAN : I think it’s like 36 pages.

MEGAN : It’s absolutely amazing.

MEGAN : For those joining us live, we’ll get to the Q&A portion now.

PAULA :This show is sponsored by Wise Marketeer Group, operating the Wise Marketeer and Loyalty Academy.

PAULA :For nearly 25 years, the Wise Marketer is the industry’s longest-serving publication and source for news, information and insights, which now includes its own branded industry research, insights and advice.

PAULA :For global coverage of customer engagement and loyalty, check out thewisemarketer.com and become a Wise Marketer member or subscriber.

PAULA :The Loyalty Academy sets a global industry standard for loyalty education.

PAULA :With its Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional or CLMP designation, which has created a community of more than 1200 marketing executives and professionals across more than 50 countries.

PAULA :Learn more about global loyalty education for individuals or corporate training at loyaltyacademy.org.

PAULA :This show is sponsored by Wise Marketeer Group.

PAULA :Operating the Wise Marketeer and Loyalty Academy.

PAULA :For nearly 25 years, the Wise Marketer is the industry’s longest serving publication and source for news, information and insights.

PAULA :Which now includes its own branded industry research, insights and advice.

PAULA :For global coverage of customer engagement and loyalty, check out thewisemarketer.com and become a Wiser Marketer member or subscriber.

PAULA :The Loyalty Academy sets a global industry standard for loyalty education, with its Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional or CLMP designation, which has created a community of more than 1200 marketing executives and professionals across more than 50 countries.

PAULA :Learn more about global loyalty education for individuals or corporate training at loyaltyacademy.org.

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

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