One reason partnerships matter is that loyalty increasingly sits across organisational or technological boundaries.
For instance, data might sit with one team, customer communications with another, customer experience with yet another, and the technology responsible for activating an offer somewhere else, or even with multiple external vendors.
James Roth, General Manager of Operations at the Australian Loyalty Association, describes the breadth of the discipline.
He says, "What's unique about loyalty is it touches so many different disciplines. It touches data at the core of it, with data personalisation a big focus. But it also touches marketing, it touches emotional engagement with the brand, it touches branding. [Loyalty] touches so many different facets and skill sets within a business's ecosystem."
That breadth is precisely why collaboration matters. A loyalty proposition can be technically sophisticated but still fail to create relevance if the underlying customer understanding is poor. Equally, strong customer data is of limited value if a business cannot turn that understanding into an experience. Partnerships can provide a mechanism for connecting those different capabilities without requiring one organisation to become expert in everything.
Interoperability is becoming a greater necessity, and it creates room to evolve
Terry Mefsut, CEO & Co-Founder of Composed Digital, points to a movement away from large, closed technology environments and towards more interoperable solutions.
He says, "We're certainly seeing people moving away from the walled gardens of the big ecosystem monoliths. There is certainly a big shift towards best of breed technology vendors right across the space from cloud native data platforms through to loyalty technologies."
Mefsut continues, "No longer are we seeing the best option for businesses is going down the path of their CRM providers' platforms. We are really enjoying seeing customers reap the benefits of more interoperable technologies that serve a particular need and solve a particular problem, which has given the market a lot more flexibility to select one of those best of breed platforms."
Jonathan Reeve, Regional Sales Director ANZ at Eagle Eye, echoes this sentiment.
He says, "We've seen really great importance [on partnerships] the last couple of years. We've now built integrations to a lot of the other most popular platforms - Amperity, Braze, Bloomreach, and we're in the middle of doing one with MoEngage right now."
Reeve says, "It makes life simpler for the clients, because they don't have to have multiple integrations. But it also makes life simpler for us as well, because we can come together more easily. For example, Composed Digital has built an integration or a demonstration of Eagle Eye, Amperity and Braze together. That means we can show the value and the power of bringing all the platforms together to potential clients as well. So it helps in lots of ways."
The implication is broader than simply choosing between technology vendors
An interoperable ecosystem gives businesses greater scope to evolve as customer expectations change. It can allow a business to address a specific problem without having to replace an entire technology environment, while creating opportunities for different areas of expertise to work together.
Billy Loizou, AVP & General Manager APAC at Amperity, says partnerships, and this interoperability, is what excites him most about loyalty, and ultimately it's about bringing the best possible experience to customers.
He says, "Amperity is all about bringing the best composable architecture to customers and brands in the market. Companies are starting to come together to build a kind of Megatron or Optimus Prime solution for enterprises. [To achieve this] we work really closely with brands like Braze, we provide the best fuel and the best data for them to power their orchestration through cross channel engagement. And then with companies like Eagle Eye, we make sure those offers and personalisation that are sent to them are accurate and timely."
"To me, that's exciting. Gone are the days of one single vendor that can do everything. Now we're trying to build a composable best of breed architecture, where partners want to work together. It's by choice, it's not by chance."
Partnerships should be measured by what they enable, not by technical prowess alone
Reeve identified a growing focus on partnerships within the loyalty industry and the role technology can play in making them more integrated.
He says, "What I've seen a lot is a real focus on partnerships. I think that's really been interesting, we've seen the likes of Qantas and Adairs giving interesting input on the importance of partnerships. I think that's going to be a big trend going forward - the growth of partnerships particularly for some of the smaller programs has been talked about a lot. Now, with technology in particular, it's really going to enable partnerships to become more integrated."
That is potentially the most important shift. Partnerships are becoming less about extending the boundaries of individual businesses and more about creating an ecosystem of complementary capabilities.
For loyalty leaders, the opportunity is to think beyond a programme itself
Start with the customer outcome, identify the capabilities needed to deliver it, and then consider where collaboration can provide expertise, flexibility or functionality that would be difficult to create alone.
Dana Teahan, Founder & CEO of Divide By Zero, challenges the assumption that a loyalty programme itself creates loyalty.
Teahan says, "I think the biggest myth is that a programme creates loyalty when that's not the case. The whole experience of a brand creates loyalty and a programme is a nice icing on the cake."
All of this suggests the future of loyalty measurement is less about how many people are enrolled, and more about what those customers actually do, how their behaviour changes, and the value created by the relationship.
"Loyalty programmes need to understand whether they are actually changing customer behaviour and where investment is being wasted," Teahan adds.
The strongest loyalty ecosystems will not necessarily be those with the most technology, they will be the ones where different capabilities work together with a clear understanding of the customer they are trying to serve.