Gamification is the use of game-play mechanics for non-game applications and it has grown in popularity as a loyalty program tactic. Indeed, when used effectively digital games have achieved fantastic results.

 Equally, there have been numerous examples where the gamification execution has failed to deliver. This can be extremely problematic for businesses as the financial investment and staff resources required to design and deploy gamification can be considerable.

 The top three reasons why gamification tactics and campaigns failing to deliver the desired ROI have been identified as:

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the global pandemic has caused challenging trading conditions for a lot of businesses. Lockdowns have meant drastically reduced or zero product sales. Customers have become less motivated to buy from you and are more cautious about their spending. And if your company runs a loyalty program, the knock-on effect may well be that program members have given up on it.

After a period of dis- or even un-engagement, cancellations, and plummeted sales figures, it is time to reconnect with your B2B loyalty program members.

Cash vs Experiences - Building meaningful and longer-term connections with customers through loyalty programs is an essential strategy for brands to survive in crowded marketplaces with little differentiation and low switching barriers. Rewards offer opportunities for unique relational positioning.

Over the past 10 years we have seen the rise of the pre-paid card (both MasterCard gift and reloadable) as well as the use of online retail vouchers, become the preferred reward medium in our loyalty and incentive programs.

Have you ever wondered why points are used in a loyalty program, and how many points should you award your B2B loyalty program participants?

Check out our Five Point Plan for setting the value of a reward point:

Every company needs them; re-seller top dogs. They drive success, they show others how it’s done, they collect the rewards, they stash the cash, they may come to expect the white glove treatment. At the same time, it is becoming clear that incentivizing these star business partners also has a dark side. And it is good for companies that run performance incentive programs for their channel partners to be aware of this.

Just in case you might have missed it; a wind of change has started to blow in the loyalty marketing landscape. In Europe the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is about to go live and it marks a heightened privacy consciousness among businesses and their customers. And ultimately, we expect that the principles of GDPR will go global.

Even if you are not operating from the EU, it is not a bad idea to start reflecting on what the new model of data protection will mean for you and your program. Almost certainly, the bar will be raised and your program members will expect you to take your protection of their data to a whole new level.

So, are you GDPR ready? Read on

In our conversations with organizations that are assessing B2B loyalty and incentive programs, a number of negative perceptions inevitably surface.

Here are the top 5 myths about loyalty programs and our evidence as to why they simply aren’t true. 

Getting the balance right between the hard and soft benefits of your B2B loyalty program can be the key to its effectiveness. Dr. David Cox - CEO writes why soft benefits are the key to keeping participants loyal to your program.

Most loyalty marketers focus on rewarding customer or business partner behaviour. Yet, there is another important side to the loyalty coin and that is recognizing the performance of employees. There is a so-called profit chain that links employee motivation and behaviour with customer loyalty. We have witnessed an important shift when it comes to employee recognition programs; the focus is no longer on incentivizing individual employees, but on rewarding the performance of teams. 

The Pokémon Go craze, which is based on a killer app that has got millions of people leaving their computer screens. Responding to Nintendo’s call to action to 'catch Pokémon in the real world...' Strange as it may seem, there is a very, very important lesson for your loyalty program.