Mark Sage
Mark Sage
Loyalty Director at Aimia (incorporating Carlson Marketing). Marketer, technologist, burnt out developer, planner, innovator, newbie cyclist
5 Lessons to learn from Woolworths loyalty meltdown
What a difference a month makes in the world of loyalty. Back in October, Australian grocery retailer Woolworths announced the relaunch of their loyalty program...
Enhancing digital coupon recall and usage
If asked, could you draw the Apple logo unaided? Can you remember all it’s simple features? Is there a leaf or not? Is there...
Periscope and Meerkat lead the way on creating a new kind of shared experience
"What if you could see through the eyes of a protester in Ukraine? Or watch the sunrise from a hot-air balloon in Cappadocia? It...
Loyalty – Building a better mousetrap
Ask someone how many loyalty programs they are a member of and they can probably name 3 or 4 big programs they use regularly....
Digital – A Coming of Age
Within any generation there is always someone who is a link between the old order of things and the new. We’ve just commemorated 100 years...
The rise of the alternative (loyalty) currency
You can’t have failed in recent months to see the rise of alternative currencies like Bitcoin. With SIBOS, one of the worlds premier financial services...
Challenge for CPG: Focus on the basket, not the trolley
I have to admit I love Shreddies. Little woven parcels of wholegrain goodness which, if you listen to the marketing blurb from Nestle, are lovingly...
Changing the choice context can change the game
I saw a number of presentations from various UK startups in the last few weeks and one really caught my attention. Playmob is a startup...
Tesco Bag-For-Life outlasts customer life time
What’s interesting about modern grocery shopping in the UK today is that the disposable plastic bag, so vilified by many, has been replaced with...
Airlines show how tablets create loyalty ESP
There’s a lot of talk within loyalty about the increasing volume of customer interactions and how these are being enabled through mobile devices, wearables...
Amazon – A dash for loyalty
Dash, the latest technical innovation from Amazon threatens to totally change the whole shopping experience… and retail loyalty. Using a combination of voice recognition...
Sales Promotion Comes of Age
I was speaking at the Retail Business Technology Expo last week and what was interesting is how payments, coupons and loyalty have all merged...
5 Key Trends for 2014 – The Year of “Now”
The pace of change bounds on and 2014 will be no different. Picking up on key trends that have been maturing during 2013,...
Will Shell’s re-introduction of service revitalise loyalty
There seems to be a never ending trend to automate and self-serve. Retailers are introducing self-scanning solutions. Train stations are introducing 24hr ticket machines. Health…
Remarketing – Loyalty’s “Groundhog Day”
On February 2nd 2013, famous groundhog Punxsutawney Phil didn't see his shadow in Pennsylvania. This apparently meant that spring would come early this year -...
Is opt-in simply a cop-out?
When marketers talk about wider customer interactions they tend to focus on language about consumers "opting in" – letting consumers choose to tell you...
Loyalty vs Lock-in (Current Account Switch)
In September there will be a big shakeup in the UK personal banking market. The launch of the Current Account Switch Service will...
Customer engagement reinvented through the crowd?
There is a real trend at the moment about empowering the crowd. Back in 2012, UK Deputy Prime Minister set out his vision for a...
Loyalty has to keeping up with ever increasing customer expectations
Back in 2010, pioneering restaurant inamo launched a whole new user experience for diners. Using a combination of computers, projectors and software, inamo provides an...