Our squirrelly editorial staff found some valuable customer loyalty acorns

Content Marketing in 2025 = Mowing the Grass

We publish a lot of content on The Wise Marketer covering a variety of topics. A member of our staff told me several years ago that “the content engine is a hungry beast,” and he wasn’t wrong.

Our editorial and content creation work is akin to mowing the grass. It’s work that needs to be done and when complete, you can sit back and admire some of that good work. But in an instant, that “lawn” needs attention once again.

Instead of a grind, we view the work as that which makes us feel productive and helpful to an industry that needs focus, clarity and unbiased opinions about what lies ahead. In other words, it’s the work itself that provides satisfaction and we attempt each day to deliver quality content that is useful to our readers.

We typically publish 10+ content items per week, approaching 50 per month. In contrast to others who cover this global industry, our content is weighted towards originally produced content, crafted by humans with experience in marketing, payments, technology, and strategic planning, all of those skills applied in dozens of assignments with brands seeking to build customer loyalty and profitability.

You may be interested to know these facts about our work at The Wise Marketer:

• Our editorial staff consists of loyalty professionals and professional writers. We’re all smart enough to use AI for research, but we actually write the words that you are reading to bring you the context and insight you expect.
• We lead with originally produced content supplemented by curated content from respected industry sources.
• When we feature sponsored content, we adhere to editorial guidelines to ensure that every article you read has value and is worth your time to read.
• All of this content continues to be delivered to you at no charge.

Predications that Met the Test of Time

While focused on feeding the content beast, it’s easy to lose track of what we have written and predicted to happen in the future. This week, we took time to reflect on a portfolio of market predictions that we made almost 10 years ago, just around the time that we were re-imagining what The Wise Marketer could mean for this industry.

We ran an 80-page deck created in 2016 for a major payments network through an AI engine, and were delighted to see that 7 of our predictions came true over time. We filtered each prediction to test for the occasional AI hallucination, and the list we have here is accurate.

Here are 7 forward-looking predications of trends we said would influence the future of customer and loyalty marketing that have since materialized.

1. Shift Away from Transactional Loyalty

Prediction: Controversial at the time, we argued that “transaction = reward” models (points-for-spend) would be disrupted, with new engagement models emerging.

What happened: Customer engagement and emotional loyalty dominate current conversations. New models incorporate experiences, gamification, real-time offers, and subscription loyalty (e.g., Amazon Prime, Starbucks Rewards evolution). Read and listen to our Loyalty Unstuck series for more on new loyalty and engagement models.

2. Big Data as the Loyalty Engine

Prediction: Data-driven personalization, contextual targeting, predictive analytics, and behavioral insights were predicted as foundational concepts around which customer loyalty strategy would be created.

What happened: AI-driven personalization (dare we say “hyper personalization at scale”), recommendation engines, card-linked offers, and embedded loyalty and payments are reshaping how brands connect with customers and build loyalty.

3. Regulatory Pressure on Interchange (MIF, PSD2, GDPR)

Prediction: We forecast growing attention from regulators to capping interchange fees (EU’s MIF regulation) and pushing privacy rules (early GDPR discussions).

What happened: Interchange caps have reshaped rewards economics globally, and GDPR (2018) transformed data consent and privacy handling in loyalty programs.

4. Rise of Alternative Payment Methods

Prediction: In 2016, PayPal, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Android Pay, and even early blockchain/Bitcoin were noted as potential disruptors.

What happened: Digital wallets are now mainstream; Apple Pay and Google Pay are embedded globally. Stablecoins and CBDCs are advancing quickly today.

5. Card-Linked Offers (CLOs) & Open Currency Rewards

Prediction: The deck noted card-linked offers and real-time point redemption as “next big things.”

What happened: CLO networks are now widespread (Blue Ocean, Cardlytics, Dosh, FIS), and “Pay with Points” (Engage, PointsPay) at checkout is becoming a standard among big brands including Amazon, PayPal, Amex, and Mastercard Pay with Rewards. Read our recent research on Pay with Points for more on that topic.

6. GAFA & FinTech as Major Disruptors

Prediction: We predicted that Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon (GAFA) would dominate the digital landscape, leveraging tech, data, and massive user bases.

What happened: Apple Pay, Amazon Pay, Google Wallet, and now embedded finance/ “super apps” have become central in payments. FinTech challengers (Revolut, Monzo, Square/Block) are at scale. AI shopping assistants threaten to disintermediate brands from their customers.

7. Challenger Banks & Digital-first Finance

Predictions: We foresaw neobanks disrupting traditional banks with lower cost structures and agile tech.

What happened: While mainstream banks continue to thrive, Neobanks now serve hundreds of millions globally (Monzo, N26, Chime, Nubank) and are legitimate competition. Embedded payment providers offer new ways for consumers to manage their financial lives while earning rewards and paying at the POS.