#27. Building a Loyalty Rewards Coalition with 200+ Brands - Wei Tak “Tuck” Nyou (Loyalty Marketing, Inc)

In this episode, Tommy interviews Wei Tak “Tuck” Nyou, the Senior Manager of Loyalty Marketing at Ponta, a loyalty rewards coalition in Japan with over 200 brands and 120M Japanese members – more than 90 percent of Japan’s population. You’ll learn some of the reservations brands commonly express about joining such coalitions, as well as the value proposition for brands. You’ll also learn Ponta’s perspective on what makes a brand attractive to acquire. Finally, you’ll hear about the challenges and opportunities of expanding their loyalty rewards coalition overseas to Taiwan, Vietnam, and Hawaii, the potential for new verticals, and integrating mobile games with their reward program.

Questions Tuck answered in this episode:

• Can you tell us a little about your background?
• Why did you want to shift your career from B2B to B2C?
• Can you tell us about Ponta and Loyalty Marketing?
• Why would a brand not want to join a loyalty coalition? What are the challenges of getting brands to join Ponta, for example?
• Is there an element of customer acquisition built into these programs?
• How do you determine which new brands would be most valuable for you to add to your coalition?
• Is there anything unique about the loyalty market in Japan? Does that make it difficult to expand into new regions overseas or are there opportunities to expand?
• Were there any challenges you encountered when you expanded to either Taiwan, Vietnam, or Hawaii?
• Are there new verticals you’re considering expanding into?
• Has your team considered integrating mobile games into your rewards program?

Timestamp:

• 2:20 Tuck’s professional background
• 7:18 What does Ponta do?
• 11:11 Common fears with loyalty coalitions
• 15:20 Determining what brands to acquire
• 17:24 Ponta research members
• 18:50 Expanding our point system overseas
• 20:23 Challenges to expansion
• 23:01 New verticals
• 26:17 Integrating mobile games

Mentioned in this Episode:

• Wei Tak “Tuck” Nyou’s LinkedIn
• Ponta’s Loyalty Marketing, Inc.
• Ponta’s Loyalty Marketing, Inc. (in Japanese)