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GLO Video Interview at ATM 2023 with Antonio Ricciardi, SVP, Consumer Intelligence & Engagements and Head of Etisalat Smiles Programme (Full Interview)

Antonio Ricciardi, SVP, Consumer Intelligence & Engagements and Head of Etisalat Smiles Programme, on: • Smiles Programme evolution • Future growth strategy: acquisitions and partnerships and building an ecosystem • Rewards Exchange: the points exchange powered by blockchain • Use of technologies & big data • Gamification • 3 personal questions.

GLO

GLO Video Interview at ATM 2023 with Antonio Ricciardi, SVP, Consumer Intelligence & Engagements and Head of Etisalat Smiles Programme

0:39 Smiles Programme evolution: Key milestones
4:44 On future growth strategy, acquisitions and partnerships 
05:58 On Rewards Exchange – the points exchange powered by blockchain
07:45 On the use of technologies & big data
10:30 On gamification
11:54 On what makes the Smiles stand out from other loyalty programmes in the Middle East
13:08 Where would you like to take your programme in 3-5 years?
13:47 If you had 1 million points, how would you spend them? 
14:11 If you had a magic wand and you could create any loyalty feature for your programme. What would it be?
15:00 If you had the opportunity to give one piece of advice to young Antonio starting up in the loyalty industry, what would it be?

Dilek Glenister, GLO: Today I’m joined by Antonio Ricciardi Senior VP, Consumer Intelligence and Engagements and in charge of the Etisalat Smiles programme. Antonio, could you share some background about the Smiles programme, when it was launched, your members, and how you have evolved over the last few years?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: Smiles was founded in 2017. And we had the purpose of putting a smile on the face of our customers. We had an existing loyalty programme that was well established that used to be called Etisalat Rewards. And on the other hand, we also had a marketplace with 200/250 cash vouchers or discount vouchers provided by our partners. We put those two together, and we gelled them very well with our Smiles currency, which we saw from the very beginning as our happiness as currency. Everything was done from the very start on the smartphone app, where you could either earn points or spend points. That was the first milestone.

Then in 2019, we reached our second key milestone which was to open the Smiles programme to everyone in the UAE. We wanted to go beyond our traditional base, which was our telecom base and we wanted the programme to be available to all people of the UAE – citizens, residents, and visitors – as long as they have a valid mobile number from any player or carrier in the world they can join the Smiles programme and enjoy the full benefits. That was in 2019.

And then following 2020/21, we went through a significant evolution because, from the very beginning we wanted to position ourselves more as a marketplace. Until 2021 our place was primarily the online to offline marketplace. We introduced food delivery in 2021. This was our first 100% online marketplace. And we chose that because food is a category that was resonating very much with existing Smiles customers at the time. And with what happened in the world by then, we were very lucky because there was an extremely high demand for this kind of service. That brought a lot of frequency and intensity of user activity which we care about from an engagement standpoint.

We decided to keep expanding the portfolio and we made a couple of acquisitions. We acquired two specialised marketplaces: one in 2022 in the grocery space, and one in the home services space, which was acquired just at the beginning of this year. We have integrated both into the Smiles programme. On one hand, we could combine the powerful expertise and the great experience these marketplaces have built over time and on the other hand, we could add the reach that we have on the Smiles platform as well as the currency which is very well established.

These are the main milestones of our journey and our purpose. You spoke about people. I don’t know exactly how many people we were at the beginning probably 10 or 15 when we started. Now we’re probably more like a hundred. And we refer to ourselves as the Smiles Tribe. What we do is very exciting, but the way we work is even more exciting. I think the Smiles Tribe has really been the engine of growth and success and the real power behind the Smiles platform. It’s a diverse set of people and individuals from different organisations, working across different regions, but they all have a very strong sense of ownership, which combined with their expertise, makes it magic.

Dilek Glenister, GLO: You were in a very fortunate position, as you were able to turn the pandemic into an opportunity to grow your network and your member base. Listening to how you’ve been growing over the past years, I wonder what’s in store going forward. You are building an ecosystem, and you are forming partnerships. What is your approach to partnerships? Are you looking to partner with independent organisations to bring them into the ecosystem, or are you looking for more acquisitions?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: We have pursued inorganic acquisitions, but, we have a very open approach to partnerships. We used to have 200/250 when we launched, and I think now it stands at more than 6400. We’ve been super open with our partners because we are very thankful for the fact that partners allow us to fulfill our mission, which is to be a marketplace for the everyday needs of customers, and we wouldn’t be able to do it all in-house or through inorganic moves. We’re very thankful to our partners, and we return the relevance that they bring to our customers by giving them access to a large base on one side, and on the other side, we also open up the currency, which is something that is very valuable and many consumers here in the UAE appreciate.

Dilek Glenister, GLO: At the moment, you have your own currency, and you’re bringing partners into your ecosystem. Would you also consider maybe partnering up with other existing loyalty programmes and bringing them in as partners?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: You’re very right. We all know that on average, an individual carries about 8/10/12, loyalty programme cards. We know that not all of them are relevant at the same time. In fact, back in 2020, we introduced one feature that we are very proud of. It is called the Rewards Exchange. It is basically a points exchange feature powered by blockchain. And what it allows customers to do is go to one place and look at the balances of all of their loyalty programmes. It’s kind of a one-stop shop. They can check the balances for all their programmes without having to go to multiple sites or apps, as well as instantly exchange from one currency to another. Our approach was very open. We were not defensive at all. We said we needed to make sure that these exchanges were happening bilaterally so that the customer was fully empowered. And to date, we’ve been joined by 5/6 top-tier organisations in their key verticals. We have the largest school network in the UAE, we have the largest shopping mall group, retail group, and one bank, as well as the largest retail gas station in the UAE etc. The exchange gives customers the opportunity to do whatever they want with their points.

Dilek Glenister, GLO: You mentioned blockchain, and that brings me to the question about your approach to technology. This year has seen the rise of artificial intelligence, chat GPT, and digital experiences. You mentioned your exchange and the wallet. What is your approach to technology?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: In order to bring smiles to the face of the customer, we need to provide relevant and loved experiences. Our customers are all diverse, but we all have something that we really crave at a particular point in time. Being able to understand what that is, is something that is humanly impossible right now. If you leave it to the single individual, no matter how clever they are, they won’t be able to crack it. I think technology, as I see it, brings a great opportunity, and I am very excited about all this. The advance and progress in the conversational experience can be brought to the customer. Conversational commerce, as well as personalisation, is, I think, the clear path to winning the hearts and minds of customers.

Dilek Glenister, GLO: How are you using the consumer data you have on your database for your initiatives?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: We’re very fortunate, we have so much data, much more than we could dream of. Our responsibility is to make good use of the data. The quest to be the relevant companion to our customers is a never-ending one. There is always incremental room for doing a better job there. Getting 1% better is one of the principles we adopted within the Smiles Tribe. We have models, for example, that try to identify what is the right next restaurant to visit for you, or if you are about to choose a meal, what could be the best meal option, based on previous experiences. So that’s, I think the power of data and the onus is on us to make good use of it.

Dilek Glenister, GLO: I would imagine that you have a very diverse member base and a lot of members from the younger generation because everybody’s on their smartphones and mobile apps. How do you address the younger generation? If you look at your apps, for example? Are you considering things like gamification?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: Currently, we have 4m+ registered users and a very large number of daily and monthly active users. What we really care about is the engagement of this customer, so we don’t want them to come just once in a blue moon and check something on the app. We want them to come every day and get something meaningful. And one of the things that we realised that our customers love to do is to interact in a more fun way through the kinds of games that we have introduced on the app. For example, at this point in time, we have a lucky game called “Spin the Wheel” where every Smiles member can go and play every day and get something that is personalised – a prize that will hopefully make them feel happy and motivated to do something extra. That’s been an extremely strong tool to drive engagement, and I think that it’s popular not only with the youth segment but also with the older generation.

Dilek Glenister, GLO: Congratulations on building one of the largest loyalty programmes in the Middle East. If you look at your programme and compare it to other existing programmes in the Middle East, how would you say you stand out?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: One obvious difference to me is that we are not like a loyalty programme, we are more like a marketplace. The loyalty part of it is very important as it creates the common gel that pulls together all the pieces, but we are more like a marketplace. The dynamics of engagement we have on our platform are different from the ones that you have on a traditional loyalty programme. That’s one aspect.

The second aspect is openness. As I referred to earlier when I talked about the Rewards Exchange, we have been very open from the beginning to opening the flow of points in a very democratised way. We know that sometimes there will be more spending of our points than earning points. That may not be fantastic from a purely financial standpoint, but it brings in much more value in terms of engagement, which is what we think will give us the sustainability of our venture in the future.

Dilek Glenister, GLO: You mentioned your vision for the future. If you look a bit further, where would you like to take your programme in 3-5 years?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: We will still be trying to fulfill our purpose to bring a smile through love and relevant experiences to our customers in their everyday lives. And if we are able to continue on that path, I believe Smiles will be one of those key digital companions that will be there for empowering and fulfilling the people of the region.

Dilek Glenister, GLO: This concludes the main part of the interview. There are three questions that we ask of our interviewees that are more personal and fun. The first question is, if you had 1 million points, how would you spend them?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: I would use it to book a flight through our partner, Cleartrip, and travel somewhere nice.

Dilek Glenister, GLO: Imagine you had a magic wand, and you could create any loyalty feature for your programme. What would it be?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: The magic feature would be to bring a magic smile to customers’ faces every day. What we spoke about earlier—being relevant and being able to engage with our customers in a conversation—makes the real magic.

Dilek Glenister, GLO: If you had the opportunity to give one piece of advice to young Antonio starting up in the loyalty industry, what would it be?

Antonio Ricciardi, Etisalat: I would probably say to be exposed to a larger variety of experiences. So maybe more changes in the career and being very obsessed with data from day one. I think those will probably be some of the suggestions I pass on to the younger version of myself.