If you asked local loyalty experts what they think the current trajectory of the loyalty industry in Asia Pacific (and the world) was, you would hear terms like delivering ‘the magic of joyalty’, avoiding ‘a sea of sameness’, making promotions fun through gamification and leveraging the power of AI and real-time data.
These statements and themes all speak to the current state and future of loyalty in the region. They were of particular prevalence during the recently held 2025 Asia Pacific Loyalty Conference, run by the Australian Loyalty Association. At the event, loyalty companies, brands, retailers, customers and more met for learnings, discussions and networking around the current state of and future of the loyalty industry.
Joyalty Moments of Magic
Creating emotional connections and making memories was a frequently mentioned theme across the event. Adam Posner, CEO of loyalty consulting firm The Point of Loyalty, refers to such connections as creating ‘joyalty moments of magic’.
“It’s all about getting that connection with your customer or your member, more than just the transaction,” he said.
“Getting customers to move from ‘belongings’ to belonging; from collecting stuff to belonging to a community and feeling emotionally connected to a brand or business. I’m hearing that come through a lot”.
Kim Walsh, managing director, Australia with customer engagement, loyalty, and reward solutions provider TLC Worldwide, agreed, pointing out that she had noticed a trend where the more typical loyalty conventions and offerings were perhaps getting a little stale, and that customers were after more exciting engagements.
“I think the people that are doing it really well are focusing on experiences and making memories and not just transactional rational loyalty. I think there’s a real shift and people are a bit tired from discounting and a bit fatigued from things like gift cards,” she said.
Personalisation and AI
No conversation about building better connections with customers would be complete without discussing personalisation, a subject that is core to the modern loyalty offering. Personalisation has evolved considerably, often now being referred to as ‘hyperpersonalisation’ in the context of true, one-to-one offers and tailored loyalty programs, potentially powered by AI.
The future of personalisation is exciting but comes with obvious challenges, understanding customers at a 1-to-1 level is no small feat. However, experts are confident that this space will only get better as technology advances.
For Chris Johnston, Sydney-based Director for Regional Partnerships for customer engagement platform Braze, data is the fundamental piece of the puzzle that can prove challenging to wrangle and utilise.
“The challenge is making sure you’ve got all the data in real-time available to understand customers and what their needs might be,” he said.
“Then it’s the ability to connect that customer no matter what channel they’re on, or where they are in their journey in engaging with your brand, to deliver moments of relevance to them. It’s also about going beyond messages for segments to true one-to-one, so every individual gets their own unique experience”.
Jonathan Reeve, ANZ regional sales director for AI-powered loyalty platform provider Eagle Eye, echoes the sentiment about hyperpersonalisation and AI, specifically noting how AI can take on the “heavy lifting” of data analysis to make this level of personalisation affordable for most businesses.
“What AI can enable you to do is to do the heavy lifting of all the analysis to come up with truly hyperpersonalised offers, where the product is personalised to you, the reward is personalised to you and also what you need to do to get the reward is personalised to you,” he said.
Nik Laming, founder and CEO of outsourcing and consulting firm Loyalty ConnectOS, said he could see the influence of AI “all over” the industry, from the ability to deliver hyperpersonalisation to speeding up campaign execution . He notes that while AI could potentially be a “double-edged sword” for his resourcing business, he is generally optimistic about its impact.
“I think generally it’s not really a concern, it’s exciting,” he said.
Karl Deitz, head of customer strategy for SMS and MMS messaging platform Tall Bob, confirms that hyperpersonalisation is a major trend in mobile messaging, with brands now going deeper into smaller, more targeted segments. This approach of sending “less but better” messages leads to higher conversion rates because the communication is more relevant and personal.
“It’s going deeper and deeper into the history of buying patterns,” he said, explaining that hyperpersonalisation goes well beyond just a first name, factoring in things like recent product purchases or behaviour from the last year.
Omnichannel and Gamification
Gamification and omnichannel experiences are two additional discussion points that loyalty experts are regularly excited about. Omnichannel has long been an ambition of loyalty pros and retailers alike, seeking to establish and maintain a consistent connection with a customer whether they engage the business through web, app or in-store visits.
For Jonathan Reeve, the biggest challenge for many omnichannel businesses is finding a way to digitally connect with customers in physical stores.
“Creating a digital connection online is relatively simple but finding a way to connect digitally with customers in your stores, that for us is the secret to a great omnichannel experience,” he said.
“Where we’re really seeing the world going now is businesses that are able to engage in real time as customers are shopping in your physical store. That’s what sets great omnichannel experiences apart”.
