The Loyalty NewswireDecember 23, 2024

This week’s Customer Loyalty and Digital Marketing News

From the Editor

This is a big holiday week and we wish you all the most peaceful and rewarding holiday time with family and friends. Most everyone in our circles “work just a bit too hard,” so we hope you will take some time away from the grind to relax and reflect on the holiday season.

Even at this time of the year, Customer Loyalty news continues to attract our attention. Particularly interesting is a slate of announcements from Payback Germany. The coalition program is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year and there is a mixed bag of news about new partner signs ups, renewals with long time partners and a few defections. This has us thinking about what it takes to make a multi-partner loyalty program work in 2025 and we will be covering that topic in depth this year.

Don’t forget our big news, that on 20-22 January 2025 – the date of the first CLMP™ Workshop in Riyadh. The event comes as the joint effort of host QBF Consulting, primary sponsor resal and The Loyalty Academy™

Global News Roundup

Alaska and Hawaiian Airlines Announce Status Match

In September 2024, Alaska Air Group (Alaska Airlines) completed its acquisition of Hawaiian Holdings (Hawaiian Airlines) after the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) completed their regulatory investigation and allowed the transaction to close. Now, the merged companies (one of the most interesting blends of geographies we can think of) have announced changes to their frequent flyer programs.

The changes are summarized here. Highlights include members being able to link their Mileage Plan and HawaiianMiles accounts to unlock new benefits. By linking accounts, members can have their elite status matched and achieve the highest possible tier based on combined elite-qualifying miles (EQMs).

Synopsis of Germany’s Payback Program

PAYBACK was launched in March 2000 as the first multi-partner bonus program in Germany with nine founding partners. It is free to join and reported to be the most popular loyalty program in the country. Just one month after launch, membership grew to over 1 million consumers and today there are 31 million active consumers who are rewarded with points when they shop at over 700 partner companies. These include Aral, Amazon, Alnatura, dm-drogerie markt, Decathlon, C&A, Otto and Thalia. Payback reports that over 13 million members are using the highly awarded PAYBACK app.

PAYBACK has been part of the American Express Group since 2010 and is now available in Austria, Italy, Poland as well as Croatia and Slovenia. In 2025, Germany’s largest loyalty system is not only celebrating its 25th birthday, but also the year of major changes – with new partners where points can be collected and new services. PAYBACK generates its income through marketing services provided to partner companies.

Payback Faces Headwinds with Partner Turnover

Payback is reported to be facing partner defections and that its future may be in jeopardy, but current news may indicate otherwise.

REWE Group, one of Europe’s leading retail and tourism groups operates the supermarkets REWE and nahkauf, the discounter PENNY, and the convenience store REWE To Go. It has been a partner in Payback since 2014 but ended its participation at the end of 2024 to create its own program with the stated goal to gain more direct access to customer data and greater options for customizing offers.

Renewals and new partners:

From the end of 2025, customers will once again be able to collect PAYBACK points in all GALERIA department stores and online at GALERIA.de. GALERIA was one of the founding members of Germany’s largest and most popular bonus program back in 2000.
DIE GETRÄNKEKÖNNER has been part of PAYBACK’s multi-partner programme since 2020 and recently announced it was extending partnership with PAYBACK.
Similar news came from the German subsidiary of the Fressnapf Group, Europe’s market leader in pet supplies.
Payback is also signing new partners. In October, Payback announced that GEERS, Germany’s number 1 hearing aid specialist and Germany’s leading car sharing provider MILES, joined as new partner.

Mark Your Calendars – The First CLMP™ Workshop in Riyadh is Here!

Join The Loyalty Academy and Quick Brown Fox Consulting for the inaugural Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional™ (CLMP) workshop in Riyadh. This is the first workshop in KSA and is made possible by valued partner resal and The Loyalty Academy. This workshop goes beyond certification – it’s your gateway to the region’s largest and fastest-growing loyalty community.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or new to the loyalty landscape, this event offers you the chance to:

Obtain the prestigious CLMP™ certification.
Engage with top-tier loyalty education led by industry leaders.
Connect with peers driving loyalty innovation.
Contribute to shaping the future of loyalty in the region.

Secure your spot now

Stran Announces Acquisition of Gander Group™, Strengthening Foothold in the Gaming and Entertainment Industries

Stran & Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: SWAG), a leading outsourced marketing solutions provider that leverages its promotional products and loyalty incentive expertise, announced the acquisition of Gander Group in Q2 2024. Since its founding in 2009, Gander Group has been a recognized leader in casino continuity and loyalty programs, generating over $34 million in revenue in 2023.

More recently, Stran & Company reported preliminary unaudited results for the nine months ended September 30, 2024. The company projects a 7.8% revenue increase to $57 million compared to the same period in 2023.

Customer Loyalty and Financial Products are Closely Tied. Learn more from McKinsey

In a recent podcast with McKinsey’s Roshan Varadarajan, payments sector leader, Alviere CEO Pedro Silva describes how companies across industries benefit by offering financial products to their customers.

“Starbucks didn’t start by wanting to provide a financial product. They wanted to guarantee future sales, and they saw there was a financial product that could help them with that.” Listen or read here.

New Whitepaper from Stackless: ROAS is Dead – How to Maximize Your Marketing Dollar

Stackless Data, a leader in innovative marketing solutions, released its latest white paper, “ROAS is Dead – How to Maximize Your Marketing Dollar.” The guide challenges the over-reliance on Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) as a primary metric for marketing success and introduces cutting-edge alternatives to maximize profitability and scalability in the evolving digital landscape.

Stackless exposes critical flaws of ROAS, arguing that it oversimplifies complex customer journeys and ignores key business factors like lifetime customer value, acquisition costs, and true profitability. It advocates for a paradigm shift toward the Lifetime Value to Customer Acquisition Cost ratio (LTV:CAC) and introduces the Profitable Scaling Margin (PSM) as more reliable metrics for assessing marketing performance. Download the paper here.

Gear up for Loyalty Summit CXM February 5-6 in Los Angeles

Phil Rubin says that Loyalty is stuck and the agenda organized for Loyalty Summit CXM will go a long way to get it “unstuck” and ready for the future. In this interview with David Feldman, you’ll quickly understand why the excitement is building about this event next February.

A significant set of customer-focused leaders will join in the same room for two days – Presidents, CMOs and other C-level executives and more from leading global brands. As you plan your early 2025 agenda, be sure to put Loyalty Summit CXM on your calendar. All the information you need to register is here. Wise Marketer is a media partner for the event. See you there!

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