Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Jill Moser, SVP of Global Offers at Mastercard, about what will impact loyalty in 2024, how brands should approach building relationships, and why offering customers choice is imperative to remain competitive in the loyalty space.
Mark Johnson, CEO of Loyalty360, spoke with Jill Moser, SVP of Global Offers at Mastercard, about what will impact loyalty in 2024, how brands should approach building relationships, and why offering customers choice is imperative to remain competitive in the loyalty space.
Good afternoon, good morning. This is Mark Johnson from Loyalty 360. Hope everyone's happy, safe and well. I want to welcome you to another edition of Loyalty Live, a new series. We speak with agencies, technology partners and consultants in customer channel and brand loyalty by the technology, trends and best practices and impact a brand's ability to drive unique experiences, enhance engagement but, most importantly, impact customer loyalty. Today's focus is on the trends that will likely shape the customer loyalty industry in 2024 and beyond. We have the pleasure of speaking with Jill Moser. She's the Senior Vice President of Global Offers at MasterCard. She's going to talk about some of the challenges and opportunities in the year ahead. So, jill, thank you very much for taking the time to join us.
Jill Moser:Thanks for having me, Mark.
Mark Johnson:Absolutely. First off, can you tell us a little bit more about your role with MasterCard and provide an overview of how MasterCard works with brands to enhance their customer loyalty and experiences?
Jill Moser:Yeah, I'd love to. So I joined MasterCard a year ago to lead the MasterCard offers products globally, but I spent the past almost 25 years in the loyalty space. I worked for a major top five US issuing bank and before that led a co-brand portfolio of rewards cards for card linking at a major US retailer. Earlier in my career I worked in paper coupons and rebates and all of that experience really led me to MasterCard and the common thread there is that the end customers want a way to save money and they want to be able to save money to offset their living expenses and their everyday expenses, and the merchants want to find new customers. And so how do you sit in the middle to be able to help? You know, provide that in a better way. The companies we support are able to do that through MasterCard because we really have that unique position of already sitting between merchants, banks and card holders.
Jill Moser:But in the MasterCard world once I joined, it was, you know, kind of a best kept secret that MasterCard is really a global leader in loyalty. That loyalty business goes far beyond the traditional transaction processing that you know MasterCard for and you know, just from a scale perspective, we manage over 1.3 trillion points. We have 800 loyalty programs under management, 600 million customer profiles, 42 million merchant offers redeemed annually, 150 million issuer of reward accounts that we manage, and so it's a rather large business globally. And we do that across many verticals, from financial institutions to retailers to quick service, restaurants, to airlines and you know far beyond, and so that diverse and global perspective allows us to bring learnings across those sectors and the regions to help that entire loyalty ecosystem grow overall.
Mark Johnson:Okay, there's a great deal of buzz interest around AI, a generative AI, and its potential in marketing and customer loyalty programs. You know, what do you see as opportunities for AI? You know as a benefits for brands who have customer loyalty strategies? And also, even, how do you defining or kind of you know talking about AI as well? Would be great to know.
Jill Moser:Sure, so at MasterCard, data is at our core right.
Jill Moser:That's what we do every day, you know, and handling it and how we protect that data makes us the continued trusted choice for brands around the globe.
Jill Moser:And it's no secret that that artificial intelligence, and using it wisely, can unlock predictive engagement right where you can dynamically curate relevant offers for customers based on what you're seeing, you know, ensure that you're delivering the right products, that you're delivering content at scale.
Jill Moser:And customers, really, you know, as time goes on, they expect a personalized experience. So I think you know latest research is over 70% of customers expect more now from a personalized experience than they ever have in the past, and the more you can deliver on that expectation, the stronger that your relationship comes with customer and the longer term loyalty that you'll see. So loyalty really is an after fact, it's a halo that you see from that success and it makes loyalty the outcome that you desire after making many right moves along the way. But of course, like anything else from you know, ai, people are worried, a little worried about it, and so, ensuring that you have the right internal governance in place, that the design is there to protect customer privacy and to ensure that data is being used in responsible ways. You know, protecting our clients data is the utmost importance for MasterCard, and you know so we want to make sure anything that we're doing in AI is. You know, while it should help give customers the expected personalized experience that they desire, and that they're really, you know, demanding
Jill Moser:now it is super important that we do it the right way.
Mark Johnson:Excellent when you look at analytics and creative marketing. They've a little bit been different right. We've seen kind of convergence of that in the CMO role now in the CMO and COO suite. As you know, both are very integral into loyalty program design and management. Being able to have the right analytics you talked about the. You know the analytic capacity you have in MasterCard. But being able to drive the right creative strategy content offers is very important as well. You know how do brands better align data science with strategy and execution?
Jill Moser:Yeah, great question. Customer demands they're shifting and people are really wanting more companies to show that they care about them. So it's going beyond just what do you provide from a product. But you know what is your carbon footprint and what are you doing to better the world. And how are you? You know customers are starting to expect a lot more on you know, on what you're doing.
Jill Moser:But going back to the data and how you are collecting that data and activating that, the data really helps us better understand customers.
Jill Moser:You know what's driving the spend, what's driving customers to do the things that they do, that they do from a behavioral standpoint and to be able to respond to those needs. So it really starts with having that 360 degree view of a customer where you have the zero party data as well as first party data to enable that engagement and that loyalty data that you're getting from. You know the output from everything that you're doing. It's not just good for loyalty metrics and ensuring that you're keeping the CMO happy, ensuring that the return on the ad spend is high and that everything that you're doing is driving that customer engagement and the spend. But it becomes a you know, once you have the loyalty set of customers. It becomes a really great group of people that you can start to do even more testing with to better understand you know what types of tailoring of product services offers would you need to do to continue to have that spend lift that everyone is desiring?
Mark Johnson:Okay, when you talked about the data zero-party data, first-party data big interest in optimizing that. How does data build better relationships for brands? They know it's something they should do, but some brands if they have too much data, some brands if they have not enough data and some brands aren't sure that they have the right amount, it can be quite a challenge for brands. How should they be looking at data to build better relationships?
Jill Moser:Yeah, I think from a relationship standpoint, all data is valuable in some way, but there's a cost to having data, especially if you're not sure that you can protect it. So protecting this number one in terms of how do you take care of that, but I think, making sure you understand that you have the data and being able to mine that and to better understand how do you use it to your benefit to better present various different content to customers that's where you get the customer surprise and delight experience to let them get in, get what they're looking for and get out. And so I think data becomes a really crucial key point from a collection standpoint and making sure that you are set up well for success.
Mark Johnson:Okay, as you know, the interest in rewards incentives is changing. There's a movement towards more personalized rewards again, which has been a leveraged data, and brands are focusing on rewards and special experiences, not only discounts and freebies. What trends do you see from the surface of clients that you have? What are they looking for and how are they engaging their customers, members, with new reward opportunities?
Jill Moser:Sure, I think, at the end of the day, customers want choice. They want to make sure that they can redeem their points, for example, in a variety of different ways. They want it to be seamless, they want it to be frictionless and, most importantly, they want value. They're going to compare one reward redemption option versus another and they want to make sure that they're getting the value out of that as well. As I think experiences are continuing to play in with customers in terms of what they're really looking for. Customers are trading down, for example, in some brands and grocery stores, but they're spending restaurants up. That tells us that the customers really desire to be out, they want to be with their friends, they want to have that experience and that's still important to them, even though they're not trading down. But as it relates to what are we doing and what are we seeing that customers and our clients anyway are trying to do from a loyalty perspective, a great example of that is earlier this year we launched with Expedia, which allows customers to redeem their loyalty points for travel bookings and a white-labeled platform, and so our loyalty clients get the benefit of being able to provide the travel offering as a redemption standpoint in that white-labeled environment so it's easy to redeem. It's diverse. It clearly demonstrates value that customers are looking for because it gives them a lot of choice in where they could redeem those points as well.
Jill Moser:Flipping the side of offers, of how do we shift our offer strategy as we move into 2024. The best thing that we do is we provide a network, an ecosystem that's stitched together from three key players the publishers that are issuing and showcasing these offers to customers. We have the banks, the merchants that are providing the offers and then, of course, the consumers that are utilizing the offers. With that network and with a really broad set of offer content, we're able to tailor and personalize it, so what Jill sees is very different than what Mark sees and that we can again try to surprise and delight you along the way, so that you can get in, get what you're looking for, get out, have a really wonderful experience. I want to come back for more tell a friend, tell two friends you know, get that continuous life cycle going.
Mark Johnson:Okay, what new trends have you seen that are top of mind for the brands that you're working with in 2023? You know what innovations are the clients that you work with looking to implement in the coming year?
Jill Moser:So there is does seem to be kind of an increased focus on gamification and, you know, getting the customer to continuously come back for more and what that looks like. We are deepening investments in that regard and technology and personalization and artificial intelligence to help build more choice for customers, to help use that network that I spoke of earlier and bring that to the forefront so that customers can be wild by the experience. It's loyalty in general, as talking earlier, that loyalty is an outcome. It's made by many, many touch points. It's not a set it and forget it type mindset and I think sometimes you know client or you know people in the industry think that they can set a loyalty program and kind of set it and forget it and you know customers will just continue to really love that transactional type behavior that is driving.
Jill Moser:You know so many points per dollar or so many, you know so many, you know various if I transact five times, then I get you know something for that where I think that you know people have to start thinking outside of the box of how do they have that surprise component and how do they have the elements that are really driving customers to want to be able to say, wait. What's available now? Right, how do you, how do you keep that surprise element for customers to be wild by experiences beyond what they've learned? You know? Come to know and expect.
Mark Johnson:When you look at gamifica tion, that is definitely an area of interest from our brand membership. We have 130, some brands and growing. We meet with them weekly and we actually had a call on trends for 23/24 on Tuesday, and getting gamification to work is some what of a challenge for a lot of brands, right. So making it seamless, making it on point from a messaging perspective, from a, you know, a look and feel perspective, not at that spinning wheel on every page, right, that it seems to be kind of firm brands. Have you know how do you get these new technologies to work within an existing loyalty program, or are they any keys that you have in that regard?
Jill Moser:At first I'd say you know, do business with the right partner that can make it seamless, and is not going to recommend that you put it on every single page or every. You know different interaction there. There's certainly an art and a science to you know. Back to the data science, we talked about an artificial intelligence of learning from what you put out there. If you put it on every page and you're not seeing the engagement that you're looking for, something's probably wrong. So how do you learn for that in real time and make adjustments to what you're showcasing to customers?
Jill Moser:I think that's that's super important. But there's also an art to you know what, what those customers look like, and that comes through endless user research. And you know understanding your customer base to make sure that you are, you know, putting something in front of them that is exciting. It is something that they want to do that you're seeing high engagement from, and you know be willing to fail fast if something you thought was going to work as is not working. Fail fast and move on, and you know then when you find the winners, you know accelerate.
Mark Johnson:Excellent when you look at the challenges that you see from a customer loyalty perspective. Is it strategy, technology, organizational buy in lack of metrics, resource allocation? What are one or two challenges you see that are confronting brands most frequently?
Jill Moser:So I think, a lot of the largest organizations that have loyalty programs. They're pretty mature but they remain fragmented because they're mature and it's not for lack of effort or necessarily lack of resources, but instead, you know, I think those programs have traditionally been hyper focused on one thing, and that was, you know, back to some of my earlier comments of you know, wanting to continue to change things up a bit for customers so that they can continue to want to come back for more. And so, as programs evolve and technology evolves, it is allowing us to move faster, to do things in new ways. You know businesses can take a look at their priorities and how they have changed. And then you know understanding better how do you have the right partners in place, how do you have the right loyalty vendors in place, for example, to help you accelerate that mindset and understand, to be able to tackle the customer experience in a new way and deliver, you know, really great products and services to your clients?
Jill Moser:And so utilizing, you know, different technology stacks I think you know that's a common thread that a lot of companies see where you have, you know, various different technology programs across your organization and they all have to talk to each other to be able to execute on something that you're trying to do, and so that's very, it's really difficult, even for big organizations like you know, like a MasterCard. But, you know, having the right team in place, getting together and, you know, merging the data in a way that helps you. You know, execute on that flawlessly becomes super important. So, you know, probably always been a challenge, but I think that that's continuing. But I think as technology improves, we're going to see that improve as well.
Mark Johnson:Excellent. Now we have our wonderful quickfire questions. We prefer a one word response or short phrase. Are I getting in trouble with the content team. And I'm always in trouble with the content team. So if you can help me out, that'd be great.
Jill Moser:Okay, all right, I'll do my best.
Mark Johnson:Perfect Jill needs to be great. What is your favorite word? Passion, passion, good, I like that word as well. What is your least favorite word Lazy. What excites, inspires you?
Jill Moser:Loyalty.
Mark Johnson:There you go. What do you find tiresome?
Jill Moser:Winter
Mark Johnson:Interesting What profession, other than the one that you currently in, would you like to attend?
Jill Moser:Pilot.
Mark Johnson:Oh yeah, okay, that's on my list of things to do as well, but I've wrecked every other thing. I've had both for motorcycle, so my wife is not a big fan of that idea. What book do you recommend to colleagues?
Jill Moser:I like Lean In by Cheryl Sandberg.
Mark Johnson:Okay, good book. What do you typically think about at the end of the day? My kids Excellent. How many kids do you have?
Jill Moser:Four, four girls. Yeah, four girls.
Mark Johnson:I only have three. I got the boy in the last one, so. What's out for loyalty in 2024?
Jill Moser:Hmm, transaction only based programs.
Mark Johnson:Got it and what's in for loyalty in 2024?
Jill Moser:Adding behavior.
Mark Johnson:Perfect. Well, jill, thank you very much for taking the time to talk with the state. It was great giving to know a little bit more about MasterCard, some things you guys are doing, but also, you know, it was great to hear that the trends that you're seeing because you have such a wide swath of clients in different verticals and how you're helping them. So thank you very much for taking the time to talk with us today.
Jill Moser:Yeah, thank you. Happy holidays, happy new year.
Mark Johnson:Same to you and everyone else. Thank you for joining today. Make sure you join us back in 2024. And until then, have a wonderful holiday season and see everyone in 24. Thank you very much.