Workshop Sessions, Opening of Exhibit Hall Highlight Loyalty Expo Day 1

ORLANDO – The 6th annual Loyalty Expo kicked off on Wednesday with four interesting workshop sessions, the opening of the Exhibit Hall, and hundreds of conference tote bags packed with several pieces of compelling items – who could forget the Girl Scout cookies!

Barry Kirk, Senior Director, Digital Strategy, Bunchball, told attendees that flow is potentially the most important concept in all of gamification. Flow is the state of mind commonly referred to as being "in the zone", and it essentially describes the highest level of engagement where a person can be completely consumed by what he/she is doing. The ultimate goal of gamification is about helping people enter flow – achieved when a person is working on an activity that is in his/her perfect challenge level. Activities that are too easy are boring and activities too difficult are frustrating and demoralizing.

Kirk stressed to attendees that gamification is not “about slapping badges on everything or adding a game to your current experiences. It’s about changing the context of what you’re asking me to do.”

David Resnick, Vice President Technology Solutions, Vera Centra, said direct mail is more enticing than email and can lead to more profitable customer relationships. While it may be more expensive than email, Resnick queried: “Can you afford not to?”

Here are a few snippets from the workshop sessions:

Create transparency as a marketing program.

Track what’s changing in your ecosystem.

Evolve with more data.

The Billy Beane business model.

Social media is the perfect vehicle to drive more success to your loyalty programs

Humans have a deep need to belong and participate and feel good and interact

What are you loyal to? Your wife, Diet Mountain Dew, Nordstrom, and Starbucks.

What makes you loyal? Love the product, personal relationship, and consistency.

Reward the little things. Reward programs are only half the answer.

The two keys to loyalty: Trust and Credibility.

Bob Gold, CEO of Gold Mobile, told Loyalty 360 that the future of mobile resides in “in-the-moment engagement” whereby companies interact with customers throughout the day when they need or want something – accompanied by a reward. Gold said the trends in mobile are leaning toward the experience being about a person, not a device.

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