GLO FEATURED

GLO Interview: Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager, Corporate Loyalty, Emarat (Full Interview)

Interview with Ali Bin Zayed at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai, May 2024. Topics discussed: Update on the past 12 months; Most notable campaigns to date; On emotional loyalty and experiences; Partnerships; The Landmark Project and Advice on launching a successful loyalty program.

GLO

00:00 – Intro

00:45 – Update on the past 12 months

02:08 – Most notable campaigns to date.

03:28 – On emotional loyalty and experiences

05:40 – On partnerships

06:45 – Building a SuperApp

07:18 – On growing the EmCan ecosystem

08:25 – The Landmark Project

10: 50 – Advice on launching a successful loyalty program

00:00

GLO: Dear Ali, it’s a pleasure to meet you again at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. And to catch up with you.

Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty, Emarat: The pleasure is mine. I think we had an interesting conversation in the previous discussion. And more than happy to speak more about loyalty.

00:45

GLO: First of all, congratulations. EmCan just turned one year old, and you had a very, very exciting journey. Can you give our members an update on how the year has been for you?

Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty, Emarat:  Thank you. EmCan says hi back. We’re one. We are very proud of the team that put great effort into putting the customers first, as always. We take great pride in giving back to the customers. They are part of our community, and we always want to add more value for them before thinking about business. After we turned one a couple of days ago, we have exceeded 400,000 members. And we also want to show appreciation to the ambassadors at the station because, without them, we wouldn’t be able to reach communities today. Part of the milestones that we also like to celebrate is our focus on sustainability. So EmCan not only caters to the customers and the daily visitors that come to Emarat but also adds value to the environment as we are trying to reduce the carbon footprint of the station. We digitise our raffle; we are adding more promotional and community aspect campaigns that give back to the community.

02:08

GLO: You’ve run quite a few campaigns in your first year. What was the most successful campaign to date?

Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty, Emarat: Personally, I would choose the first one – the One Million campaign, which changed lives. We gave 1 million Dirham in cash to one lucky winner. And when that happened, it changed that person’s life. You can’t fully estimate what kind of impact any organisation might have with these campaigns or promotions, but it is our duty to explore how to achieve that. The winner had a life-changing experience, which we’re extremely proud of. The second campaign was the back-to-school campaign in which we paid tuition fees for our lucky winners and customers. So, these two give us more incentive to give back to the community and choose campaigns that add value and change lives to support families and communities. So, I would say these two campaigns were the most notable for us.

03:28

GLO: This year’s topic at the Arabian Travel Market loyalty panel is experiences, lifestyle loyalty and emotional loyalty. All the campaigns you mentioned are more than just collecting points. You give back you to the community. What is your approach to emotional loyalty and experiences?

Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty, Emarat: As you know, there are different types of loyalty. You have emotional loyalty and transactional loyalty. And then, you have the different types of segments of loyalty that you focus on. For us at Emarat and EmCan, we want to focus on the 360 aspects. Any experience we offer our customers should be memorable – whether it’s a culinary experience, whether it’s a hospitality experience, travel…  You should feel that you will never forget. We always try to envision ourselves as part of the customer. As a customer, I would always think, “Okay, what kind of value or aspect can I identify with? What does that brand stand for? What’s their “why”?” So that’s what we want to tell people. The “why?” at EmCan is to be there for you. What offerings will we give you? We want to increase our value offering through partnerships and experiences. It could be travel, education, or actually giving cash incentives to our members. So, it’s, as you mentioned, not only that commercial aspect, it’s not just the transaction, is not the reward – it’s the value-add. We always want to keep the customer as part of our family. And so, the main question would be: How would you treat your family? What would you give your family? That’s our mission statement at EmCan.

05:40

GLO: That’s a very ambitious goal. What is your approach to partnerships, and what is your vision for EmCan? You already mentioned about the family and being part of the family and being more than just a loyalty program?

Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty, Emarat: We set different strategies based on the business landscape. As I mentioned in the previous discussions, this year is focused towards partnerships. It’s because, without partnerships, there will be fewer value offerings. We want to focus on different segments in the market. For example, we want to focus on airline partnerships, retail partnerships, and transportation partnerships that will add value to our customers. The more you add to your loyalty ecosystem, the more likely the customer will remain with you for a lifetime. We want to focus on customer lifetime value.

06:45

GLO: And you mentioned wanting to build the Super App in our previous conversations. What is your vision? When do you want to reach it? What targets have you set for yourself?

Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty, Emarat: We set with the team, also with the blessings of the management, the target for EmCan to be a super app by 2026. It is a bold target, but I believe in my team and that we will achieve that. Especially with the competitive landscape we’re in. 2026 – Watch out for EmCan, we’re going to have a nice surprise

07:18

GLO: Is there any news relating to partnerships you can share with us?

Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty, Emarat: I will say that at the end of May or the end of June, we will be onboarding one retail partner. That’s all I can disclose. However, we have a new partnership coming in. They are an SME. As I mentioned before, we want to focus also on uplifting the community. It’s a startup – towing service – in the UAE that we are working with to add value to our customers.  So you can earn points, towing your car, whether you want to renew it or take it to a garage, or move it actually from country to country. This partnership we can disclose: Towr. EmCan is actively supporting the startups and to add more value for us and the country.

08:25

GLO: Another very innovative project you launched recently is your Project Landmark, which I believe is the first of its kind.

Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty, Emarat: Ali: Project landmark is the first naming rights project in the world. We don’t want to purely describe it as naming rights because it’s much more. Project Landmark is giving land naming rights within Emarat stations. We have recently signed with Al Maryah Bank, and one of the Emarat stations will be called Emarat MBank station. So, from a marketing perspective, Emarat MBank station, would have a huge footfall to that station through millions of customers that go there. This means our partner is going to have immense exposure to their brand and create brand awareness and brand value, which will, in turn, drive client acquisition for them. On top of that the business part, the business itself will utilise the market station as their showroom. So, of course, every business has different products that they want to offer. Al Maryah Bank will have a smart kiosk where you can do your daily business. There will also be special offers and special activities that will create more acquisition opportunities for the bank. Now, from the customers’ perspective, they will have an extra offering. So, when you go to an Emarat station, not only are you going to use their services, but also, you’re going to have different brands in different locations offering you something special. The business value for that brand will increase tremendously, as well as for Emarat and the customer. I wanted to create a win-win for all. So that’s the essence of Project Landmark. We say it’s naming rights and more. We are also onboarding a couple more down the line. We take great pride that the first naming rights use case in the world is within the United Arab Emirates.

10:50

GLO: With this project, you’re building an ecosystem. By being a member of the EmCan Loyalty Program, I can have a bank account, I might find a travel company to book my next trip etc. This is a very exciting and very ambitious project. We very much look forward to hearing about it in the future. There is one last question which would like to ask you. You’ve just turned one year old, and you had a very fast journey. Can you share your experiences with our members or any company which wants to launch a loyalty program and give them one piece of advice?

Ali Bin Zayed, Senior Manager Corporate Loyalty, Emarat: I would say that for any product to be launched, or even any business, always put yourself in the customer’s seat. Be the customer, experience the journey and then build the product. These are the three steps that you always must consider. In the loyalty business, commercials are important whether you’re investing in infrastructure, the architecture of the application or program design. But most importantly, never lose sight of the customer because, for the loyalty game, it is a customer’s lifetime value which is important. It’s not for quick wins or quick impacts. These are the things that everyone should focus on to have a successful program.