This post is part 2 of a two-part series on human loyalty. If you haven’t read part 1 yet, make sure to start there to get the full picture. Click here to go to part 1.
In 2025, loyalty is no longer earned at the checkout; it’s built through every brand interaction. 79% of CMOs agree that brands today are built through experience (Dentsu Creative, 2024 CMO Report). Transactional discounts, points and tiers have a role to play but are not going to deliver transformational loyalty or growth alone. Instead, brands should make their loyalty offering an intrinsic part of the product or service itself, via experience. They should leverage insights gathered from known customers to understand what a great product or experience means to them and deliver on that – making loyalty offerings the gateway to the best experience with the brand.
Building loyalty at the heart of total brand experience
The integrated work of Dentsu Creative and Merkle with Burger King is a great example of a successful loyalty programme. Royal Perks, a programme offering exclusive benefits and offers, free menu items, and play to win experiences, was designed to excite Burger King’s more than 11 million daily diners. With Braze, we built personalised customer journeys to improve engagement, and the result in under eight months was a 500% app download increase and a 900% boost in loyalty programme sign-ups. In addition, the partnership brought in a wealth of data for Burger King, opening the door for further personalisation to drive even deeper customer loyalty in the future.
Real-World wins: The success of brand-connected loyalty programmes
This shift to brand-connected loyalty campaigns have since been successfully based on the resultant customer insight. For example, our 2024 campaign, BK Footy Royale, saw us leverage the summer of sport – and the insight that football was a passion point for BK lovers – to create a gamified campaign that tripled target sign-ups and drove the best CRM-engagement that BK had ever seen.
Another excellent example is Merkle's work with Albert Heijn, a prominent Dutch retailer, which aimed to showcase their commitment to social responsibility and create a magical Christmas experience for their key customers – families and children. The campaign included interactive elements like Soundbox and quizzes, designed to inspire and engage customers while promoting education and awareness about nature conservation. This approach resulted in a 73% positivity ratio and significantly higher click rates, demonstrating the power of experience-driven loyalty.
The key takeaway here is that embedding an insight-led loyalty strategy as part of an overarching, distinctive brand experience delivers best-in-class results.
Designing loyalty for 2025 and beyond
Loyalty should be at the heart of modern brand experience. As customer journeys get more complex and expectations heighten, a successful experience-led loyalty strategy should tell the brand story at every touchpoint. To drive growth, we recommend that you:
Merkle’s tested and proven loyalty blueprint supports customers in designing, executing and maintaining their new loyalty programme. Through this offering, brands that want to introducee new loyalty programmes can benefit from Merkle’s longstanding experience and loyalty vision.
For brands that already have a loyalty programme in place but are struggling to make it truly effective, profitable, and future-proof, support is available in several targeted ways. Merkle offers a range of solutions designed to address specific challenges — from strategic loyalty roadmaps and data-driven optimisation to ROI-focused initiatives. Each approach is tailored to meet the brand’s unique needs and unlock greater long-term value from their loyalty investment. Going further: Human loyalty as the new standard
In a world where customer expectations are rising and brand interactions are increasingly complex, transactional loyalty is no longer enough. To truly stand out, brands must evolve toward human loyalty: a strategy that prioritises emotional connection, personalised experiences, and meaningful engagement.
At its core, human loyalty is about making customers feel seen, valued, and understood. It’s not just about what they get, but how they feel. This approach is built on four essential principles:
When loyalty is treated not as a programme, but as a core brand asset, it becomes a powerful driver of trust, advocacy, and growth. Human loyalty is how brands turn everyday interactions into lasting relationships.
Building trust is hard – and loyalty requires trust. This is where we can help. We currently have over 250 million active loyalty members from Merkle-driven programmes. With over 2,500 loyalty, promotions, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and creative experts on our team, we can help your brand deploy innovative loyalty programmes that grow brand love.
If you want to learn more about our loyalty offering, take a look at our Merkle Engagement & Loyalty solution page. Or, to get in touch, click here.
Still unsure where to start? Let Merkle be your trusted partner to build your future proof loyalty programme.
Fouad el Maouchi
Head of Strategy, Merkle Netherlands
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