We are typically a nation of consumers that ‘don’t like change’. From old cardigans to the special way one takes their tea to family traditions and rituals that become incredibly apparent at Christmas time.
But what if something comes along that forces you to change? Something you have no hand in that makes you readdress the old ways of working and the trusted route you are so used to?
Something like COVID perhaps.
Generation Z has always been the tough nut to crack in terms of loyalty programmes. Cynical of schemes and perhaps suspicious, this digitally native sub-section was always seen as difficult to engage with on a continuous level. However, COVID has changed the rules of the playing field, broken the mould as it were.
In this talk, featuring Mando Connect, we see how the VOXI mobile network is defining the next generation of loyalty with their VOXI Drop program. Isobel Finlayson, Partnerships Account Director at Mando-Connect, and a Gen Z guru talks about how important it is to break out of your traditional view of a loyalty program if you have any intention of gaining brand loyalty from Gen Z. She brings to light that the stereotypical labels placed upon Gen Z have been unfair and assumptions may have come too early. Gen Z is now entering the workforce and they are showing that their resilience to themselves and their desire for change in our environmental and social surroundings are deserving of acknowledgement. Millennials started the conversation about social and environmental change, and Gen Z is putting it into action.
Charlie Hills, Vice-Chair of the Incentive, Prize & Loyalty Community adds “Learning how to engage with the customers of the future has always been of the greatest importance to marketers, now more so than ever as we live in an ever more connected society. VOXI is a great example of a brand that has learned what Gen Z really want from brands and has adapted every part of its DNA accordingly, including adapting quickly to the challenges that Covid-19 has brought.”
What other rules has COVID broken then?
It is a question currently being addressed by the Incentive, Prize & Loyalty Community. They suggest the change in the landscape means that successful campaigns, because of lockdown, are now hyper-local. An old rule of thumb turned on its head.
Physical rewards used to outperform digital ones, not in a post COVID world.
Dining out rewards were deemed old fashioned and failed to gain cut-through. Not after the incredible success of the Eat Out to Help Out campaign.
Everywhere we look, old rules of promotional marketing are being reviewed, re-examined and in some cases, broken.
Could COVID have given our industry the enforced change it needed? This remains to be seen, but the fact remains, those brands and agencies who react to their circumstances are the ones who will succeed.
And everyone likes a rule breaker, don’t they?
