Sarah Phelps Principal

Jim Sullivan Partner

Dear Colleague:

As we transition to the next economic cycle, one thing is certain. Consumers are king. They’re demanding more for their loyalty. And smart marketers, as always, will seize the moment by giving their customers what they want right now.

For today’s consumer, the recovery looks anything but certain. Persistent anxiety about jobs, investment, and housing values still dampens confidence and restricts spending. And so it turns out that card loyalty marketers and their customers find themselves with a lot in common these days. Uncertainty reigns across nearly every aspect of the current environment for program managers—with higher loss rates, increased regulatory pressure, and interchange legislation—leaving us seeking a foothold to move forward.

So how does the rewards program manager react to this environment and continue to deliver value to the organization?

The third annual Cards and Payments Loyalty conference, Harnessing the Power of Consumer Choice, focuses on customer behaviors and how to strategize around their shifting priorities. We’ve assembled an A-list group of presenters—real experts and practitioners from financial services, retail, and travel—to help you define new ideas, learn best practices to adopt right now, and chart your next steps to reduce uncertainty and thrive in this environment.

Our agenda will address choice as a driver of card use. In this age of debt de-leveraging and saving, not much is coming out of consumers’ wallets that hasn’t been deliberately thought through. Meanwhile, card loyalty marketers face cost and margin pressures and thinner budgets. You’ll hear how choice and control can promote card preference creatively without breaking the bank or calling in the regulators.

You’ll also hear about innovations in leveraging social media and mobile devices to interact with consumers.  With so much hype and so many media to manage, we’ll help you cut through the fog to learn what really works.

And to ensure you leave the conference with a game plan, we’re also including presentations focused on regulation, accounting, customer research and data analytics   The information learned in these sessions provides you with actionable steps you can implement the following Monday morning.

Please join us from afternoon of November 3rd to the 5th at the Buena Vista Palace Resort & Spa in Orlando, Florida for what is sure to be one of the timeliest and most informative conferences for rewards program managers this year.