#534: Leaders in Customer Loyalty: Brand Stories | How Scene+ Curates its Loyalty Ecosystem to Fit Member Needs

When Candice Troupe, the Senior Vice President of Marketing & Partnerships at Scene+, assesses the loyalty space in Canada, one word comes to mind: crowded. She notes that the average Canadian has about 15 loyalty cards in either their physical or digital wallet.  

While this growth in loyalty is a welcome development for Canadians, an increasingly crowded marketplace can also make things a little more complicated for consumers to find the rewards and benefits that fit their needs. This is where Scene+ comes in.  

Started almost 20 years ago as a partnership between Cineplex and Scotiabank, Scene+ has grown into a 15-million-member customer loyalty ecosystem spanning entertainment, grocery, fuel, home improvement, travel, and more.  

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Transcript

Welcome And Brand Snapshot

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Today on the Leaders of Customer Loyalty Podcast, we're joined by one of Canada's most iconic brands, CinePlus. What started more than 20 years ago as a partnership between Cineplex and Scotiabank has grown into a 15 million member customer loyalty ecosystem spanning entertainment, grocery, fuel, home improvement, travel, and more. Through strategic partnerships with brands like Sobies, Safeway, Home Hardware Shell, and Racutan, Scene Plus has built a program centered on simplicity, value, and everyday relevance. In this episode, we're going to be hearing from Candace True. She's a Senior Vice President of Marketing and Partnerships at Scene Plus, how that they've created meaningful value for their customers, they're driving partner success, and continue to innovate while staying true to a simple promise, making customer loyalty easy, rewarding, and rooted in moments of joy. Candace, thank you very much for taking the time to join us today. How are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:02

I'm great. How are you? Nice to see you.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Nice to see you as well. It's been a while, but uh our conversations are always interesting, so it should be uh very informative.

From Movie Points To National Program

SPEAKER_00 1:11

When you look at Scene, um, for those who may not know what Scene does, can you give us a brief introduction to Scene Plus, uh, you know, and what you guys do, how you do it?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Happy to do that. If uh if you're Canadian, you will know of the Scene Plus program because it's a beloved loyalty program here in Canada. Um, just in the way of background, Scene is almost 20 years old. Um, and it it started out 20 years ago, really as the loyalty program that Cineplex and Scotiabank had created. So Cineplex is an entertainment and movie company here in Canada, and Scotiabank is a banking uh organization. And so at the time, the program was, you know, about five million members and was really about earning and redeeming points at the movies and on uh credit cards, Scotia credit cards. The program really started to transform about five years ago. So about five years ago, Scotiabank decided to go really all in with Scene Plus Rewards. They wound down their other rewards program, which is excellent. And then we also welcomed Empire Company to the mix. And Empire Company here in Canada is a major leading grocer with a number of grocery banners, like Safeway, Foodland, Sobey's, Freshco. And so that was a game changer for the program. Uh, first of all, we went from about 10 million members to about 15 million members relatively quickly. And it really solidified scene's entry into the high frequency market, grocery being something that you know most of us are buying every week. So the programs continued to evolve from there. Um, after we launched Empire, we welcomed Home Hardware to the program, which is a home improvement retailer and another beloved brand in Canada. And then we have intentionally added other partners to the program, including uh an organization called Recipe, which is a restaurant brand, and there are a number of banners, five or six uh under recipe that you can earn scene plus points. Um, we have scene plus travel powered by Expedia. We have Racutin, uh is their e-com offering uh where you can earn cash back in the form of scene plus points. So we have this very intentionally curated ecosystem, which is, you know, that's what we call it actually. We don't call it a coalition loyalty program because we have been very intentional about which partners we want to have in the program. And really that's been driven by what our members want. So we have 15 million members now in the program today with an ecosystem that you know they can they can earn and redeem at quite actively.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

That's awesome. And you and I were uh talking a little bit before we uh you know started today. Uh a lot of great success you've seen at the program. Um, you know, what's led to that great success, especially with some of the transition that's going on in Canada regarding, you know, coalition? Obviously, you're not calling yourself a coalition, but just you know, the partnering uh where kind of some of the legacy providers may have some challenges, maybe rebranded, may have lost some momentum. And you guys are just gaining momentum all over, right? Especially with it, you know, being very intentional, as you mentioned, as you develop the program.

Simplicity Breadth And Member Value

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Yeah, it's funny. Um, loyalty in Canada has always been super sophisticated. And, you know, I would say kudos to the industry for continuing to innovate and find ways to add value to their membership base. Um, but it's a crowded market space for sure. So the average Canadian has 15 cards and wallet, 15 loyalty cards in either their fiscal wallet or their digital wallet, more likely to be digital. And so for us, part of our success has really been in finding the intersection between simplicity, breadth, and value. And so if you think about an ecosystem, that creates incredible value for members because everything you need, and we really want to make sure our members get what they need on an everyday basis, everything you need is in that ecosystem, but we have to deliver it in a way that obviously has enough value, whether that's, you know, points, the ability to redeem quickly, the ability to get cash back or to get surprise and delights. So it has to feel valuable, but it also has to be simple enough to navigate because if there's points of friction, members are just not going to, you know, they're not going to make the effort. So a lot of our success has been in intentionally curating the partners, most of which are long-term partners for us. We tend not to do shorter-term promotional partners. And then in really understanding what our members need and creating that value in a, you know, a simple way that that meets their everyday needs. So it's um it's a bit of our secret sauce in terms of how we're winning and differentiating.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Well, you've mentioned it a couple of times, intentionally curating your customers. Uh, a lot there can unpack that a little bit, but I think it's it's very powerful. Can you talk to us about kind of what that means to you uh from a kind of a definition, but more importantly, an approach, right? I would assume it's listening to your customers, making sure you mentioned, as you mentioned, as you added a grocer, how important that everyday spend. So you've got to uh you know different opportunities for them. So, you know, when you look at intentionally curating your customers in the program, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 7:01

So,

Intentional Partners And Shell Fuel Launch

SPEAKER_01 7:02

to your point, we knew we've always known that in order for us to be really, really successful, um, we have to deliver on categories that are relevant to members. Grocery, highly relevant. We are all buying groceries and it's an expensive part of our budget. Um, similarly, we heard from our members that fuel was really, really critical to them as well. And so up until May 26th of this year, we haven't had a fuel partner in the program. And um, Shell made the decision to join the C Plus program, which we are so privileged and happy about because Shell is, first of all, an amazing global brand. But more importantly, you know, Shell had options in terms of how they could deliver loyalty in Canada and they chose us, which is amazing. How we got to that was really by listening to our members, to your point, Mark. So our member said, fuel matters to me, it's an everyday category that I want to earn and redeem on. And so we were able to bring that to them. And we now have 1,400 shell locations across the country that members can earn and redeem at. So you can redeem in real time. They also can get an incredible amount of cents per liter value through our Scotiabank and Tangerine credit card products. So that's fantastic. When I say we're intentionally curated, we don't want to add partners to the program just for partner's sake. We want to make sure that a partner coming into the program is highly relevant to the member. They need it in their life. They feel like, you know, it's something that is essential to them in some way, shape, or form. We want to make sure it's a partner that can add value to the rest of the partners in the program as well. So we're trying to create this, you know, ecosystem effect in that we want value for our members by shopping the ecosystem, but every partner in the program also has to be able to get value out of the program. So that's how we think about it, which is, you know, if we're bringing somebody in, let's be intentional about it so we can actually create value for both the member and the partners who are part of the program.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

When you look at Shell, you mentioned that they had options. Uh, do the brands that you work with run their own loyalty program, or does Scene Plus become the de facto customer loyalty offering for them?

SPEAKER_01 9:24

We are their exclusive loyalty program. So, you know, we are collaborating with them to understand their business objectives and the outcomes that they want to drive. And then we're leveraging really the assets of our program, which is our 15 million membership base. We have an incredible data lake with obviously consent from our members. And we have an incredible um set of marketing assets and a marketing stack here internally that we can leverage to really create value for them. So we are their exclusive loyalty program, and um, you know, I all of them are seeing really great value through that.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Perfect. When you look at your role, uh big role, obviously, from expanse, you keep adding partners and and then people to the program. So you gotta keep innovating. Uh, you know, what are some of the biggest opportunities or maybe challenges that you face in your role?

SPEAKER_01 10:25

I love my role, first of all. So so I have the privilege of heading up both the marketing and partnerships teams at here at Scene. Um, and when I originally started in 2023, I came in as the VP of marketing, but it made sense to to move those two roles, the marketing piece and the partnerships piece together. And the reason for that is because, you know, we want to deliver relevant value to our members, but we have to create value for our owners and partners as well. So it's not an either-or, it's about both. How do we create value for members? And in doing so, we're going to create value for our owners and partners. Um, so it's it's truly a privilege to um be here at Scene and to be able to lead the team of marketing and partnerships folks on this team. I,

Reducing Friction Across Many Brands

SPEAKER_01 11:13

you know, I think one of the greatest challenges in any ecosystem or coalition loyalty type of program is the fact that you are trying to create the network effect of the ecosystem. And every brand has, you know, its digital properties, they have its value proposition, they have its experience, they have their people. And we are trying to connect those dots as much as possible to create value for our members. There's naturally points of friction in that. And so what's really critical is collaborating with our partners to understand those points of friction, to align to those points of friction, and then to reduce those points of friction. So, to give you an example, you know, many of our partners want to be able to showcase their points-based offers on their digital properties. We want that too, because we want our members and their customers to be able to get access to those. However, from a member perspective, that might mean I have no idea where I'm supposed to get all my scene offers. So we would work together to say, first of all, how do we help the member be able to access your offers more easily? That could be through deep linking or better showcasing. How do we act as potentially the aggregator to bring all of those offers together to amplify what you're already doing in your channels? So that's an example where you know we don't control this, it's not a closed ecosystem. We're not going to be able to control the experience end-to-end. So it's really important to be able to collaborate with partners to be able to reduce those points of friction.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Okay. And

Candace’s Path Into Loyalty

SPEAKER_00 12:51

how did you get into customer loyalty? You talked about you're running marketing and operations. Uh, I've known you for a while. You've been involved in kind of driving this program to the you know the heights that it is. How did you get involved in customer loyalty? It was a job that you had or something you kind of decided you'd try? How'd that happen?

SPEAKER_01 13:10

I'm gonna totally date myself here. So um in university, I studied marketing and had a passion for it out of the gate. My dad was a small business owner and um he was sort of the inspiration for me studying business. My first job in university and then after university was at uh a Canadian company called Consumers Gas, which was an energy company, natural gas company. And I was the summer student in the marketing department along with many others, had great leaders and mentors there who gave me amazing opportunities. And one of the opportunities was to work on direct marketing. So they had, you know, at the time they had this small customer database of customers who bought their natural gas from this organization. And one of the first programs I worked on was a direct marketing program to promote low-flow shower heads for energy efficiency. But it was like traditional hardcore direct marketing. It was, you know, you had a you had a member list, you had to create a direct marketing piece. There were small elements of personalization to that. It had to be printed and sent out by, you know, by snail mail, so on. And it was in that time, like I started to develop a passion specifically for direct marketing. And at about the same time, the Air Miles Reward program was growing in Canada. And I was keeping an eye on uh Craig Underwood, was the the founder of the program in Canada. He was at conferences, um, speaking at conferences. And I sort of had my eye on the ball that, you know, this was obviously a leader in more so direct marketing, not so much loyalty. Direct marketing was what attracted me. And so my next move after four or five years at Consumers Gas was over to the Air Mouse Reward program. And that that was really where I was able to hone my skills and continue to, you know, develop my um expertise in loyalty, but also just, you know, I had a ton of passion for loyalty, and it became very clear there that that was the industry that I wanted to build my career in.

SPEAKER_00 15:19

That's awesome. You uh big push right now, as you know, on uh customer experience, right? We have a conference in the fall that focuses on customer experience. It's it's more and more important and integral to successful customer loyalty programs. And when you look at customers' expectations, members' expectations for the program, definitely evolving. Yeah, it can be hard to keep up. Uh they want this, they want that, they want you to know them like that, their family, and maybe they don't. You know, when you look at these expectations that are evolving rapidly, you know, how do you keep up? Uh, how are you responding to them so effectively to keep driving those memberships to the heights that they are?

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Yeah, there's

Member Expectations Personalisation And Joy

SPEAKER_01 15:57

a couple of ways for us. Again, we listen to members a lot. So um we're trying to create more and more forums for members to tell us, you know, what they think and how they feel. We have a number of bodies of research that we do that on the regular. And we're, you know, in particular tracking MSAT and NPS. Um, we are looking a lot more at our call center and sentiment data to be able to understand, again, how members are feeling. And the team here is doing a lot of work from an AI perspective to be able to leverage AI more fulsomely to understand how members are feeling. And then, you know, we're really focused on, as I said earlier, understanding the points of friction that need to be overhauled and addressed in order to make the experience simpler and more seamless. And then we're just trying to create a lot of value. Um, and that comes through various forms. That's the ability to earn points and redeem. I mean, the you know, the ultimate goal of a loyalty program is to get something that is of value to you. And for some, that is saving for the big trip to take your family to Disney. And you can do that with us through Scene Puss Travel by Expedia, or like, you know, redeeming for $20 of groceries to be able to reduce your grocery bill that week. So making sure that we're creating really relevant value for members in ways that matter to them. We spend a lot of time on personalization. We have the technology to deliver a very personalized experience, and we're getting better and better and stronger and stronger at that. Our focus in the next couple of years is really on how we continue to create a deep emotional connection. Because the program, like what's so great about seeing is we are rooted in joy. If you think about, you know, the OG story that I told you, movies and banking, you think about the moments that you've had going to the movies with, you know, a friend, your partner, your kids, those moments are generally full of joy. And so that that's part of our origin story. And so we really want to make sure that we continue to build that emotional connection and that feeling of special as the ecosystem grows and expands.

SPEAKER_00 18:18

That makes perfect sense. Yeah, obviously you're doing a great job of that. You know, with the success you've had as you continue to add partners to make the program more relevant and impactful for your customers. You know, how do you balance maybe the goals of uh a home hardware or some of the brands that you're bringing on with the program, right? Because you originally started out as, you know, at two entities, Scottish Bank and Simplex, right? Now you've added all these other brands. How do you balance that? Because that can be kind of a tricky proposition, correct? You're bringing on a new uh brand, they're getting rid of their loyalty program, you become the de facto program. How do you do that?

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Well, we, you know, if we take Shell as an example, um, we launched, as I said, on May 26th. We spent about 18 months with Shell really working closely together on appropriate window for their customers and then appropriately, you know, launching with our program in a seamless way. I mean, at the end of the day, to answer your question, the way we do this is we spend a lot of time with our partners and owners really understanding their business goals and then going back into our program and thinking about our assets. So our brand in and of itself is an asset, our 15 million members are an asset, they're an acquisition opportunity and an engagement opportunity for most of our owners and partners, our data is an asset and our channels are an asset. So we really work hard to understand their business objectives. We set KPIs with them. So, you know, we are obligated to deliver on those. And then we go back into the program and say, okay, what you know, what tricks do we have in our toolkit in order for us to be able to deliver those objectives? Where we start member first. Like we want to make sure that when we are creating value for the owners, we're doing that in a way that is also valuable and meaningful and relevant to our members. So it's always about thinking about two of those two constituents together in order to find that sweet spot.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

Okay. When you look at uh the program today, can you walk us through how the program works from a member perspective, the benefits they get? Uh, you know, how do they understand everything that uh comes with the with the program, especially as dynamic that as it is?

SPEAKER_01 20:39

Yeah, yeah, no, it's a good

Program Comprehension And Easy Redemption

SPEAKER_01 20:41

question. We, you know, one of our challenges that we continue to work on and break through is building program comprehension. Because if you go back to how much we've grown and how quickly we've grown, and how noisy and crowded the Canadian marketplace is around loyalty, we realized we had a comprehension problem in that there are many members in that in our database who might still think about us as just a movie program or a movie and banking program. And that, like again, there is so much joy in that. We want to continue to build on that. But it's important for the rest of our partners and Empire as our other owner that we also make sure our members know that there's so much more to the program than just movies and banking. So we have been working very, very hard at program comprehension. Um, we've done that, you know, actively through above the line media, through mid and lower funnel activities. We've also done that in really, really fun ways. Like we've created an online game that lets you interact with us. And as you're interacting, you're learning about the programs. So we've tried to do that in in super, super exciting ways. But you know, ultimately, we're just trying to get More and more deeply engaged with our members so that they're getting more and more value out of the program. We've tried to keep it simple too, as I said. So what's really great about the program is a thousand points equals $10 of redemption. So you don't have to do the math when you go to different partner locations. You know, if you've got a thousand points at Shell and you want to redeem for fuel, you've got $10 off fuel. If you've got a thousand points at Empire and you want to redeem for groceries, it's $10 worth of groceries. So we have promotional offers from time to time, but that simplicity of redemption has been really, really powerful for our members because it's, you know, it's less overwhelm and less mental math that they need to do as they engage in the program.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Absolutely. You

Frontline Advocacy And What Loyalty Means

SPEAKER_00 22:50

talked a little bit about customer experience. Um, when you have so many different brands, uh, from uh, you know, you obviously want to have customer experience, feedback. Is there training you do around the program or knowing that the experience may be a little bit different going into a shell store than they may be going into a safe way? Uh, you know, uh, how do you how do you kind of manage that? Because great program, very successful, 15 million programs, but customer experience is important. And is there a little bit of differences? Do customers understand that, or do you strive to have kind of a unified experience through the different brands?

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Yeah, so we really try to use our uh partners' frontline staff as advocates because they're a critical asset to the program. But to your point, they're all going to speak about the program and deliver the program in ways that make sense in their environment. So, to give you an example, you know, the shell staff are amazing. They're so incredible. For the most part, if you're fueling up, you are fueling up a pump and you're not actually going in store. So, first of all, we have to make sure that the experience on what they call the four chord at Shell is really strong, that you understand that scene is now at Shell, you understand what the value proposition is, so on and so forth. That's you know, the pump that itself needs to do a lot of the work in educating and conveying the value proposition. And Shell's done an amazing job of that. If you do go into the C store, for the most part, in a gas environment, that's a very, very quick transaction. And the C store has so much product in there, right? So it's it's kind of crowded and noisy, and you're not there for a long time. So the shell dealers and staff have they have quick nuggets about Scene that they want to make sure that they talk about and they do a beautiful job of that. We have collectively, um, Scotiabank Shell and Scene have supported them with some POS materials to make it easier. So if they don't have time to talk to a customer, they can hand the customer something. And then we've spent a lot of time getting feedback from them to say what's working and what's not working, and what do we need to tweak in order for you to feel supported and feel comfortable being an advocate of the program, but for members to also understand the value that they're getting. So that's the shell environment. But we recognize that that's a little bit different in a quick service restaurant environment or in a grocery environment. So what we try to do is work really closely with all of our partners and owners to align on the fundamental things that they should all know about the scene program and that they should talk about in the same or similar way. And then the rest is, you know, leaving them the room to deliver the program in ways that make sense in their environment. Um, but it's not, you know, it's that's something we always have to work at and something that we need to, you know, often we'll have conversations about retraining to make sure that people have the latest and greatest about the program as their staff turns over and as our program evolves. But the end of the day, the human experience is a critical, critical part of the loyalty experience ultimately. So we want to lean into that as an asset.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Well, what does customer loyalty mean to you? I mean, we we talk to uh uh our members, uh brands every day. We always love to get a perspective on different terms or ideas or technologies, but at the at the at the root is customer loyalty. So what does customer loyalty mean to you and to CE Plus?

SPEAKER_01 26:29

You know, in the simplest terms, I would say that ultimately customer loyalty is lifetime value to our owners and partners. Like we don't exist just to be a loyalty program. We exist to create value for Canadians, to create joyful rewards and special moments, and to create commercial value for our owners of partners. So, you know, loyalty is ultimately a member saying, I am going to choose Shell over another fuel part uh fuel provider because I love the Shell brand and I love the value I get from scene, and those two things together are incredibly powerful. The opportunity in an ecosystem loyalty program is for our member to say, I love shopping at SOBs, I love shopping at Shell, I love you know shopping at home hardware, and I get this sort of exponential value as a result of shopping all three through the C program. So our job is to really facilitate that connectivity between members and owner and partner goals. And at the end of the day, loyalty is long-term, meaning, you know, they love those brands, shop those brands more often, and want to stay with those brands instead of choosing others.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

That makes perfect sense. And when you look at value, big topic right now in our peer groups at Wilty360 in the member uh conversations we have, value, very important to have a case-shaped recovery potentially uh for many

Value For Different Segments And Stacking

SPEAKER_00 27:59

brands, right? Fuel something uh that people want, right? Uh they need, they don't necessarily want it. Uh but you know, when you look at value, listening to your customers, you know, making the program more flexible are very important, right? Maybe being able to use uh that $10 towards different products is very important. You know, how are you looking at value? How are you trying to provide value to you know the disparate groups uh that you have within those 15 million customers?

SPEAKER_01 28:26

Yeah, no, I I think your comment about the K-shaped economy is you know super valid. So what we think about, uh first of all, is we are you know Canada's loyalty program, 15 million members, we will continue to grow. We've had a great, a great um trajectory of growth over the last few years, and we'll continue to do that. We need to remain accessible to Canadians while also to your point, Mark, you know, recognizing that we've got this incredible database of customers, and not all customers are exactly the same. So we're thinking a lot about, you know, how do we create differentiated value that is relevant to our various segments? That's part of our strategy going forward. The other thing that we think about and are doing a lot of is creating stacked value. So the shell launch is a perfect example of that. You can earn scene plus points and you can earn cents per liter discounts. You can stack those things together by having a Scotiabank or Tangerine credit card product and by linking your scene account, your Scotia or Tangerine product into the ShellGo app. And if you do that, you're getting the ultimate value of up to 10 cents per liter off. You're also getting all the beautiful benefits that come with the credit card, like grocery accelerators and so on. And then in the Shell Go app, there's extra perks and bonuses, whether that's you know, contest entry, so on and so forth. So we we all recognize, I think, here at Scene that members define value differently and they're looking for ultimate value. They're willing, you know, if that if that experience is relatively easy to do the linking and the stacking, they're willing to do so in order to be able to get that value. So we're totally open to stacking, and that's um, you know, that's been an important part of our value proposition and we'll continue to be.

SPEAKER_00 30:22

So, what have you learned about running this program, right? You continue to add different brands to the program, add value. I would think there's a great deal you've learned around customer behavior, that the value in that database and just the insights and being able to leverage that is probably uh quite strong.

What Data Teaches And Team Pride

SPEAKER_01 30:39

Yeah, I think, you know, I think we're we're continuing to learn on a daily basis. We have a lot of test and learn that we put into place in order to learn both tactically and strategically. I mean, what we know from our data is that having a credit card is critical to accelerating your earn in the program and to being able to get to redemptions both more often, but larger redemptions as well. If you want to travel, you really need to have a credit card because that's where you're getting the product accelerator. So that's that's really critical. We understand that getting you to be active in the program when you've onboarded in the first 90 days is really critical. You know, your first earn matters and your first redemption matters. I mean, redeeming in the program cements your loyalty to scene and then starts to build that long-term loyalty, as you said, um, or as you were asking about for owners of partners. So, you know, I don't know that those things have changed in terms of learnings and loyalty. Those have been sort of fundamental to the success of loyalty for many years. What we're really learning is how do we do that in a way that is super special, super relevant to our members, and ultimately has some, you know, coming back for more.

SPEAKER_00 32:00

When you look at the program, stepping back, uh, you know, you know, there's the idea of kind of working in the business, but working on the business, right? But when you step back after kind of working on and in the business, you know, what are you most proud of? Uh, you know, what is that?

SPEAKER_01 32:15

I am first of all, like I feel so privileged to work here. Um and you know, I had left loyalty for maybe three or four years and just took a break into other marketing disciplines. And it's pretty humbling to come back after three or four years away. The fundamentals of loyalty had remained the same, but how we actually executed loyalty was fundamentally different. And uh what was amazing about seeing actually is as part of our transformation, we had brought all of our data in-house. We had brought our marketing stack in-house to be able to meet the needs of all of these new owners and partners so we're we could be more responsive, we could deliver higher value and higher volume. For me, I really had to relearn how to execute loyalty with a whole bunch of different technology, more data. You know, A at the time, four years ago, AI sort of being talked about, but you know, um not really heavily used. So tons of learnings for me personally. What I'm most proud of is how incredibly innovative the team has been. We are super small and scrappy, like we're just over a hundred people. So we have a 15 million member database, and we've got, you know, about 10 partners in the program and just over 100 people who are delivering this program and having obviously great success. So I am super proud of the team that um I have the privilege of leading, and to the degree that I've helped them be successful, I'm proud of that too. But I'm just, you know, it's great to watch a bunch of people have wins and successes in their career. Um, and most recently, I'm super proud of the Shell launch because Shell was really tricky in that, you know, Shell had a launch program. We were thinking about how to launch, Scotiabank and Tangerine were thinking about how to best launch. And then we have these other amazing partners and owners in the ecosystem who wanted to help. And we were able to orchestrate a really complex and comprehensive launch together that literally went out, went off without a hitch. Um, which is, you know, that is tough to do. And that really came down to the amazing people and commitment and rigor we put around the launch program for us to be able to deliver successfully.

AI Experiments Industry Community And Wrap

SPEAKER_00 34:41

Okay. Uh touched, last question, uh, I think, but you brought up a great question. AI, it's on uh everyone's mind, right? Uh it's gonna be uh the savior of humankind, it's gonna be the destroyer of humankind. Uh, you know, how are you looking at AI? You know, how can AI enhance the customer experience at Scene?

SPEAKER_01 35:00

Yeah, I think, you know, we we tried our hat at AI a couple of years ago. We were testing um content and creative and it it did not go well. Like it what AI was producing was not um appropriate for our brand and would not have made our owners or partners proud to be part of the same program. So we kind of put it put it on pause, to be honest. Now, what we're thinking about from an AI perspective is how do we leverage it to be able to become more productive internally as team, as a team. So again, super small and scrappy, you know, for things like meeting minutes and being able to accelerate our brief writing, so on and so forth. We're also looking at it to learn about the member more quickly. So um to add to our models to be able to get access to sentiment data in, you know, more um uh in a speedier fashion. So we're, I would say that we are dabbling in it because we want to make sure that we test and learn as we go, but we all recognize that it's got a huge role to play. And the way we think about it here is if we can leverage it to reduce some of the lower order tasks, then it frees up this small, amazing team to be able to do the higher order thinking um around, you know, around the work we need to do for both members and our partners and owners.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Yeah, that's awesome. That's that's a great way to look at it. I think that's the way others are starting to look at it as well. So well amazing interview, always great talking with you. Last final question, I think, you know, what can Loyalty 360 do to help you and your team with your customer experience and customer loyalty efforts?

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Yeah, I think you know, keep doing what you're doing, which is to really facilitate great conversations in the industry, whether that's at a brand level or a loyalty level. Um, you know, we don't often have the opportunity to sit with our peers or with other brands in other categories to be able to share our thinking, share our learnings, and facilitating that is that's an incredible help to all of us in the industry. We get so caught in our own worlds that it's it's great to be able to look up from time to time and learn from each other.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

Well, Candace, thank you very much for taking the time to join us today. It was a pleasure again speaking with you, learning more about Scene Plus. Uh, thanks for the you know, the uh telling us about the Shell launch. It was great to hear that it went so well uh and the value that it's adding as well. So, you know, looking forward to hearing more from you going forward about the program. But uh one of the things that I would like to commend you on is that the passion you have for the program, the passion you have for the brand, the passion you have for your customers and employees. It's definitely uh it resonates in in your tone and your approach. And oftentimes that doesn't come through, but I think with you, just the sincerity you have and that that that that joy you have and how you lit up many times since you talked about the program, that was great to hear uh great to see. And I wish uh everyone in Customer Loyalty Customer Experience did that. But uh you uh have a unique flair, and that was great to see.

SPEAKER_01 38:04

Ah, thank you so much. Yeah, no, I I as I said, I feel very privileged to do this job. It's so much fun on a on a daily basis. So thank you for that.

SPEAKER_00 38:14

Absolutely, yeah. It's it's great getting to talk to smart people every day and uh well, nice to see you and uh appreciate the time.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

We'll keep in touch.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Want to thank everyone else for taking the time to join us today. Make sure you join us every Thursday for a new edition of our Leaders and Customer Loyalty Podcast, the Brand Stories Edition. Make sure to subscribe and follow us on YouTube and across our social media channels. They're all listed below in the comment section. Until next Thursday, have a wonderful day.