Every year on my birthday, I have come to expect the usual birthday wishes from close friends and family. However, in recent years, brands have also wedged themselves into my yearly celebrations with irresistible freebies and special offers.

Just like my friends, these brands have made me feel special on my big day — the least I can do is see what the offer is right? It’s easy to fall for temptation and just like that, I have been sucked into a personalised customer loyalty program aimed at strengthening my relationship with the brand and keeping me coming back for more.

Brand involvement on special occasions is not new. For example, we all know how Coca Cola has commercialised (and popularised) a fat and jolly Santa for Christmas.

The data that we provide to brands should be used as a guide to create high quality engagements with customers. However, 90% of consumers still have an unfavourable view on loyalty programs on social media, 44% attributing this sentiment to a lack of reward relevance, flexibility and value. As such, with access to more intimate customer data, brands can better engage in commercialising special occasions.

So how do we get this sweet sweet data? Would you give personal data to an entity that you don’t trust? From a customer’s perspective, trust is established through consistent behaviour of goodwill. For brands, it is important to choose the right times to engage. Reaching out too frequently or at irrelevant times can be detrimental to a relationship.

The increasing frequency and severity of high profile cyber attacks has increased the public awareness of cybersecurity. As such, customers are more concerned for their data and are demanding for better information security. The blockchain — a decentralised, distributed ledger — is emerging as a robust solution to securing data. Blocks on the blockchain can only be modified through consensus, with data interception, modification and deletion being extremely difficult.

Simple Token (OST), is a blockchain project and cryptocurrency which enables businesses to design, launch, and manage their own branded tokens. By creating their own branded tokens, businesses can transform all brand interactions into economies and incentivise brand engagements.

OST also enable businesses to facilitate microtransactions, which provides new ways for customers to engage with brands.

Existing ways to incentivise brand engagement:

Loyalty Points

Coupons

Giftcards

New ways incentivise to engage with a brand:

View webpage and learn more about a product.

Leave a comment or a review on a product or experience.

Sharing content on your social network.

You can learn more about how the Pepo team was able to use the blockchain on OST to launch their own branded tokens to facilitate transactions based on engagements on their app here.

In 2015, businesses could easily setup a website via Wix and Squarespace. By 2019, businesses will be able to easily launch their own branded tokens via OST. Customer loyalty programs need to be redesigned to encourage (and gamify) engagements. The blockchain will become a tool for businesses to facilitate microtransactions and secure customer data.

Key takeaways for Marketing Managers and Customer Loyalty Program Managers: