Customer participation in loyalty programs is falling, with 47 per cent of members reporting they have actively used their card or number when making a purchase in the last 12 months.

For almost a 100 years, millions of Australians have relied on the NRMA for roadside assistance, advice on buying a car and road safety. But the motoring organisation has felt the force of digital disruption. In an era when cars are more reliable and mobile phones do the job of maps, travel guide and emergency help, its relevance has been challenged.

Qantas will offer more than 1 million extra rewards seats, a new lifetime qualification and tiered Points Club for non-flying spenders as part of a $25 million investment into its Frequent Flyer loyalty program.

Bankwest Stadium has launched a new customer incentives and rewards program, Bankwest Stadium Score, a platform it says will provide insights and improve the experience of sports fans at the stadium.

Telstra has officially taken the wrappers off its new tier-based loyalty program giving customers the opportunity to earn points and rewards based on spending.

​Australian marketers recognise the need to drive customer loyalty, but a disconnect between the goal of customer loyalty and the measuring of this loyalty is causing programmes to be ineffective.

Telstra is planning to introduce a new customer loyalty program in March 2019 as part of its wide-reaching T22 strategy.

​Every CMO should aim to be as commercial as the CFO and as technical as the CIO, Virgin Velocity’s Dean Chadwick believes.

​BIG W is in its second year of a turnaround strategy, which aims to make the retailer more relatable to Australian families. And while it's early days, its general manager of marketing, Kristen Linders, says the retailer is starting to see some green shoots.

Weight Watchers has rebranded to WW, introduced new communities and is transforming its apps platforms, partnerships and rewards programs in a bid to cement a global position in the health and wellbeing space.

​Consumers are looking for in store experience and convenience, rather than loyalty programs. This is the word from tcc global, which recently ran a global research study of 15,000 shoppers in 15 countries to map the behavioural triggers, identify preferences, and define what loyalty means in today’s retail world.

The Reject Shop is launching a new loyalty program and is actively looking to capture data on the shopping habits and category interests of customers as part of ongoing growth strategy efforts.

The launch of Panthers Group's new-look customer loyalty program isn’t just a reflection of the clubs owner's enhanced investment into communications and engagement; it’s also proven a catalyst in aligning internal teams.

Leading Australian loyalty membership program, flybuys, has no shortage of data on its millions of members. So when the team started looking for ways to create customer surprise and delight to kick off the 2018 year, it latched onto the idea of turning these vast stores into hyper-personalised content customers could not only engage in, but also learn something about themselves.

Applying machine learning to the Virgin Velocity Frequent Flyers program has already seen communication effectiveness increase by 10 per cent and given teams the ability to apply advanced analytics at 10 times the pace, its data analytics chief says.

Flybuy’s decision to reward loyalty program members with points for viewing advertising, surveys and videos on their phones is about getting better engagement with customers via a device sitting at the heart of their everyday lives.

Medibank will give $20 million back to customers as part of a one-off loyalty bonus coinciding with the launch of its new Priority program for long-standing members.

Unused loyalty points and air miles can now be converted into a cash donation for charity at a time when ​cryptocurrency ​and credit card regulations are shaking up traditional customer loyalty programs.

Cryptocurrency is the biggest game-changer to hit customer loyalty programs since the introduction of frequent flyer points more than 30 years ago.

The top four actions for marketers to generate loyalty are ensuring quality of product or service; making customers feel important when purchasing; fostering consumer belief in brand; and offering value for money.

The age of customer centricity is here, and as experience increasingly becomes the biggest driver of digital transformation and marketing strategy, 2018 will be about moving the customer relationship to an even deeper and more dynamic level of personalised engagement.