For many brands, the future of customer loyalty is increasingly unfolding on mobile phones. Mobile engagement platforms are quickly becoming central to how brands build relationships, deliver timely value, and personalize experiences at scale.
As loyalty programs evolve from transactional reward systems to continuous engagement ecosystems, mobile messaging is emerging as one of the most effective ways to maintain that connection. Alex Campbell, CIO and co-founder of Vibes, a mobile engagement platform, believes the shift reflects a broader change in how consumers interact with brands in a digital-first environment.
“People just aren't paying attention to email,” Campbell said. “I think we have a lot of players in our space who grew up in email and now they're starting to realize that email isn't connecting as much with consumers.”
Campbell’s company, Vibes, has spent more than two decades focused on mobile engagement, helping large enterprise brands communicate with customers through SMS, MMS, push notifications, mobile wallets, and emerging messaging technologies like RCS which allows high resolution media sharing. The goal is straightforward but powerful: deliver messages that are relevant, timely, and useful enough that customers welcome them.
“RCS now is becoming a really big opportunity,” Campbell said. “All of a sudden, we've seen a huge interest in mobile wallet and then push as well. So usually we work with QSR, travel, retailers, large brands, everybody that wants to communicate with their customers for repeat purchases, driving traffic, all using mobile devices.”
That approach is increasingly important for brands seeking to maintain consistent engagement with loyalty members outside traditional channels.
The Shift Toward Mobile-First Loyalty Engagement
For years, loyalty marketing was built primarily around email campaigns, website promotions, and periodic program communications. But consumer attention has shifted toward mobile interactions that are more immediate and conversational.
Campbell believes that shift requires a fundamentally different mindset.
“When you're on a mobile device, it's very personal. So you want to make sure that you respect that,” he said. “Whereas email, you can send someone… four emails a day and that's okay because people aren't really paying attention.”
Mobile messaging forces brands to be more thoughtful about the value of each interaction. Since text messaging carries both a higher visibility and a direct cost, brands must focus on relevance and timing.
“If I send a text message and you don't respond to it, that's a waste of money. So, we want to use AI to almost eliminate some of the messages that go out that aren't looked at or aren't actually clicked on,” Campbell said.
That philosophy has led Vibes to focus on what Campbell calls the “perfect send,” a vision of hyper-personalized messaging where every communication delivers clear value to the recipient.
“The perfect send. This is kind of our big, hairy, audacious goal, which is when a message goes out, 100% of the people who get it actually click. Nobody opts out,” Campbell said.
AI and Personalization at the Individual Level
Artificial intelligence is playing a growing role in helping brands deliver the level of personalization mobile messaging requires. Rather than relying solely on traditional segmentation, AI enables brands to tailor communications to individual behaviors and contexts.
Campbell talked about one client that was targeting new mothers with their product and trying to figure out the best time to send a promotional text message. Conventional wisdom suggested sending the text late morning. But AI analysis revealed surprising insights.
“Our AI started saying, send this later in the evening. We switched and started sending a message at 7 p.m. local time and got a huge increase in response, like 26%. And we realized that moms would put their kids to bed, and then they go shopping,” Campbell said.
Insights like these illustrate how data-driven timing and personalization can significantly improve engagement while reducing unnecessary messaging.
Mobile engagement platforms also provide a clearer view into how loyalty messaging drives real-world behavior. Unlike many traditional marketing channels, mobile interactions can often be tied directly to transactions.
Through features like mobile wallets, brands can allow customers to download an offer to their phone. When they scan at checkout, the brand knows that their offer program drove traffic and revenue. That level of attribution reveals a fuller picture of loyalty performance. In many cases, the majority of redemptions occur in physical stores rather than online. Campbell says where that tactic is used, in-store redemptions could be as high as 70 or 80 percent.
“If you're just tracking that e-com tag, you're missing out on 80% of the actual result,” he said.
This insight helps loyalty leaders better understand how digital engagement influences offline behavior, a critical metric for many retail and hospitality brands.
Loyalty Expectations Are Changing
The rise of mobile engagement is also reshaping customer expectations around loyalty communications, particularly among younger consumers. Vibes’ annual consumer surveys show that members increasingly expect brands to communicate frequently, as long as those messages are relevant.
About two years ago, Campbell said he first started seeing customers indicate they wanted more text messages, not less. In fact, unsubscribe rates increased as a result. The issue wasn’t volume, it was relevance.
“Especially younger [customers] said ‘hey I don't mind, you can send me any number of messages per week as long as they're personalized and as long as they're relevant to me and as long as they add value,’” Campbell said.
That expectation is pushing loyalty programs toward more continuous engagement models, where brands maintain an ongoing dialogue with customers rather than relying on periodic campaigns.
The Next Phase of Mobile Loyalty
Looking ahead, Campbell believes the evolution of mobile engagement will continue to expand the capabilities of loyalty programs. Mobile wallets, richer messaging formats like RCS, and AI-powered interactions will enable brands to deliver experiences that feel more conversational and interactive.
“Mobile wallet is going to replace a physical wallet,” Campbell said. “Both Apple and Google are putting your driver's license in there… you will not need a physical wallet in a year,” he said.
As that shift accelerates, loyalty credentials, offers, and rewards will increasingly live inside the digital wallets consumers already use daily. For loyalty leaders, the implication is clear: mobile engagement is becoming a foundational layer of modern loyalty strategy.