Canada’s immensely successful entertainment and rewards loyalty program had record growth in 2014. More than 6.3 million people now have a SCENE rewards card and customer engagement numbers are still projected to increase. Shawn Bloom, SCENE’s Vice President of Operations & Partnerships, told Loyalty360 that he expects SCENE to have “north of 7 million” members by 2016.
SCENE is a partnership between Scotiabank and Cineplex Entertainment. Members are eligible for free movie tickets and price discounts at any one of Cineplex’s 161 theatres. Those with a Scotiabank account can also link their SCENE membership with their ScotiaCard or SCENE Visa and earn reward points even faster.
Due to its overwhelming success, SCENE also announced a new partnership with Sport Chek, the largest sporting goods retailer in the Canadian marketplace. “Members earn one point per dollar, and a thousand SCENE points will get you the equivalent of ten dollars off, which is an exciting enhancement to the program and more opportunity for our members to get closer to free movies or discounts at Sport Chek,” said Bloom.
It’s great fit from a strategic perspective and he expects that it will drive member engagement and more activity at theaters and retailers. “We want to work collaboratively with our partners to grow our respective businesses,” said Bloom. And SCENE is attractive due to a very engaged group of members in the highly sought after 18-34 millennial demographic who are very active in the entertainment industry.
Fierce competition for consumers’ entertainment dollars is what drives leaders at Cineplex to offer valued added incentives for moviegoers. “We’re competing with a whole bunch of different services for their entertainment dollars,” said Bloom. “I think seeing a movie at a theatre is still the best value around. Even Netflix is competing for that share of entertainment dollar.”
Canada’s mature market also reflects a long history with loyalty programs, which is partly responsible for the county’s openness and responsiveness to SCENE. From a loyalty program perspective, Bloom says consumers in Canada “are very sophisticated.”
“They understand when they’re getting good value and with a sophisticated customer you need to create a program that’s compelling, that creates fair a value exchange,” he said.
However, even in spite of SCENE’s enormous success, there are still difficulties that need to be overcome.
Being able to prove the return on investment and being able to demonstrate the impact to top line sales has always been a challenge.
“That’s something that requires a lot of diligence and effort in terms of being able to break through to quantify an impact of a loyalty program,” said Bloom.
Simply put, the success of a loyalty program cannot only be measured by looking at the bottom line.
According to Bloom, “loyalty is a long-term proposition. It relates to the relationship between the customer and the brand. A truly loyal customer will look beyond the occasional negative experience. It’s built over time.”
He measures customer loyalty through retention rates, share of wallet, and in the potential for customers to come back and make additional purchases, the penetration of the customers to spend overall, and growth over time.
Hard work and managing data is also at the core of SCENE’s success. Bloom said SCENE is in the data business.
“What we do is all about leveraging data to get insights to drive the business forward and we’re learning,” he explained. “We’re always looking for opportunities for improvements and leveraging data to drive insights. Overall, we feel there are probably two or three big strategic partners that would be a great fit for our brand. The intent isn’t to add hundreds of partners across multiple verticals, but rather to focus on the partnerships that can extend our reach in entertainment and lifestyle.”
Nine full-time employees are responsible for the success of SCENE. Understanding how their customers want to be engaged and understanding their preferences are a big part of managing SCENE’s program. The company may be small. but it’s nimble and Bloom likes it that way.
About the Author: Mark Johnson
Mark is CEO & CMO of Loyalty360. He has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/CRM programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs.