“The full-on shift from demography to identity (always privacy-minded) will get the final shoves from the on-going “digitization & platforming” of multiscreen TV end-to-end ad practices.”

Hi Sean, can you give us a background of your professional journey? Tell us about your current role at VAB.

I have been fortunate to have spent near “equal time” on both the advertiser side and the media side of the marketing industry. I have always been guided on both sides by a deep fascination with evolved consumer behavior, exponential changes in media, and how marketers build “loyalty beyond reason”. The best part of my industry role at the VAB is being atop the daily intersection of those three dynamics and mining for actionable, change-making insights that can cut through a sea of ad industry static and noise.

My starting point for digesting anything in our business still comes from the advertiser/marketer sensibilities of understanding product and category-specific sales & brand dynamics.  While modern multiscreen TV video ad media are worthy of dynamic dialogue, for me – all ad video conversations of real merit have to be rooted in how all that publishing/distributing/consuming ultimately leads to advertiser sales growth and/or brand growth. This approach grew though years of advertiser counsel via agency media and agency management. The next challenge was to transform the CAB (Cable Ad Bureau) into the much more impactful VAB; that being accomplished the marketplace needed still more from us. We had to evolve VAB past its well-earned identity as the “marketer’s go-to source for real Insights” by expanding VAB’s role as industry advocate by weighing in clearly and objectively (often loudly) as the unified voice of the multiscreen TV ad industry.

How does VAB lead the marketing industry in embracing modern video measurement?

On the marketer’s strategic balance sheet, we want to migrate ad video measurement/currency from a legacy of “mostly deficient, neutral at best” to “always-on-asset” for sales & brand growth.

While VAB is well known as the “whistle-blower” that (finally) and definitively called BS on defective TV trading currency in 2021, our overarching focus has been the call for real optionality and thorough re-invention in ad video measurement and currency. The dynamic that we felt was long overdue in the marketplace: for marketers to have a real choice of highly competitive and ever-advancing measurement/currency providers, is coming together with terrific speed. Our industry has gone from the perpetual compromise that was a by-product of a single (by default) provider to having most 2023 measurement/currency conversations include: iSpot, VideoAmp, Nielsen, Comscore, Samba, Innovid, 605, etc. – real choice.

Also Read: MarTech360 Interview with Jay Prasad, CEO, Relo Metrics

According to you, what are the current major marketing trends?

Three major trends that will accelerate in 2023 marketing:

• The wave of major advertisers driven by the lessons of DTC-style data/analytics will bring ever more cost/investment decisions “in-house”, particularly media planning and media buying (including programmatic buying), making sure their ability to activate their first-party data-driven decisions will “stay sealed” within their own end-to-end data/analytic rigor and fluid operations.
• The full-on shift from demography to identity (always privacy-minded) will get the final shoves from the ongoing “digitization & platforming” of multiscreen TV end-to-end ad practices. Punting the legacy practices of proxies and undistinguished masses with just age/gender qualifiers in favor of the routine engagement with distinctly identified sets of real & current brand customers, or high-value customers of competing brands (both with precision and scale capabilities) has to be our ever-more-norm in 2023
• Everything about “multicultural marketing” will take on one of two CMO priorities – either the primary or co-primary priority… that is for all brands that are actually planning on achieving their “stretch” or “most optimistic” growth goals.

One of the most critical issues in video marketing is video measurement. Why has measurement taken on such a heightened importance over the last few years?

The first and obvious answer is that there is so much more to measure. Just in the realm of what we used to call “TV”, the shortest list of matrix labels of what must be measured discretely includes, linear, streaming/CTV, OTT, Digital Video, Mobile, OOH, VOD & OTA with each of those detailed by an expanding number of devices & conduits.

The second answer has to do with maximizing the ability to use sophisticated data sets at a significant scale – census level or “big” data, identity resolution data, and first-party publisher data and have the interoperability to integrate the advertiser’s first-party data sets into the mix.

The third answer is coming full circle to attribution and outcomes insights as an expected part of gauging the effectiveness of the modern measurement process, marketer’s desire to fully assess campaign performance among all the moving parts of a video ad plan will only expand and never lessen

What are some of the most important issues within video measurement that need to be addressed?

Transparency, transparency & transparency lead the list.

We are only a minute or so removed from the “normalcy” of a dominant measurement /currency provider consistently (but politely) refusing to answer perfectly reasonable requests from their largest clients for detailed disclosures within measurement calculations and methodologies. We have to be more than suspicious of any “black boxes or grey boxes”, we need to all agree to be truly intolerant of them.

Next in the cue is a foundational principle that all impressions are not created equally.

There is correctly a marketer hunger to be able to analyze ad campaign performance across the largest media levers (Google, Meta, TV) and calculate unduplicated reach & frequency at a campaign level as part of a “North Star” (WFA, ANA) ambition, as well as the key deliverable of Nielsen’s in-progress N1 product.

Where it gets tricky is the idea that across the big three media levers that “an impression is an impression” regardless of source. We believe that is exactly where the entire mission goes off the rails, and whatever “results” come out of equalizing impressions don’t serve the marketer’s brand and sales-building interests.

There is just too much pretending in the idea that the DNA (impressions) of a grainy and shaky UGC video that’s four seconds long with no audio and served in an unknown context can be calculated as having EQUAL value to the DNA (impressions) of a professionally-produced, long-form video program – always with the potential for high emotional engagement, and always served in an always-brand-safe environment. It’s a reminder of why “pretend” isn’t a strategic marketing term.

There is no shortage of findings about the superior consumer ad impact from professionally-produced long-form multiscreen TV content, we have learned this from 158 reports, studies, and white papers from 37 different resources on this topic. Why willfully ignore this large body of recent work that essentially “proves the obvious” about TV’s higher value impressions?  Those promoting equalizing all video ad impressions cite “better efficiencies” as the end benefit… which practically translates to the lowest common denominator standards enabling a race to the bottom, favoring the lowest quality inventory in the marketplace.

We’ve never seen a single CMO-delivered case history where brand and sales success came from the pivotal decision to devalue obvious quality in favor of relying on inferior surrogates – in any portion of any marketing plan.

What are the benefits of modern video measurement – for marketers? for sellers?

For marketers:

Far past the legacy function of “getting the count right”, the expected innovations in 2023-thru-2025 cross-platform video measurement & currency can:

• Provide a bold line to activate key customer groups that are resolved to identity.
• Assure a full and correct capture & analytics of all cross-platform ad impressions
• Prioritize the multicultural customer segments as co-primary for metrics & analytics
• Provide privacy-minded interoperability with the marketers’ first-party data sets
• Help enable attribution analytics that gauge the relative productivity of video media types and specific end vehicles

For sellers:

Having long-overdue and thoroughly modern measurement that finally gets the count right should most often translate into an increased supply of ad impressions for monetization.

Being able to onboard the TV publishers (ad sellers) first-party streaming data for use by multiple measurement companies will assure the best count and analytics of streaming audiences.

Having accurate, reliable, and predictable programming impressions data across all platforms and conduits also allows for the curation of maximum yield for each piece of content across the full Multiscreen TV value chain which in turn allows for increased investment in programming content.

The “platforming” of publisher’s ad assets for advertiser customization/activation will certainly accelerate as the enabling measurement data sets improve to the 2023-2025 levels we all seek.

Deeper partnerships with the full gamut of advertisers will be created through successive ad campaign cycles where the productivity (the advertiser’s sales & brand increases) of the ad investments improves with each successive ad campaign.

How is VAB leading the change?

So much of the VAB’s (often loud) success in advocating for the real-time re-invention of premium video measurement & currency is rooted in our Insights creation/issuance and subsequent heavy downloading by advertisers and agencies of that VAB Insights content.

Among 2022 VAB Insights issuances: 43 reports (860 pages/540 charts), 68 case histories, 27 webinars, 15 podcasts, etc. “Measurement Advances” was our most frequent and popular subject consumed by our senior marketer customers.

The leadership exposure VAB advocacy garnered in 2022 – over 135 stories (pieces of press coverage) in over 35 national media outlets was always rooted in the Insights-first, written-for-marketers approach that causes us to look at issues in a way that’s demonstrably different and deeper than other ad market voices.

Which initiatives is VAB partnering on to achieve more complete, accurate, and transparent measurement?

The VAB’s most active and visible sector-wide collaboration is our Measurement Innovation Task Force – comprised of the 35 most-senior research & audience data Heads across 18 different Multiscreen TV companies. This group has been highly effective at bringing unified sell-side POVs and urgent calls for very specific improvement from measurement companies, typically providing a full view to the leaders of the ten largest media agencies.

This group (MITF) was integral to the VAB’s late 2022 creation of a set of Unified Principles & Foundational Requirements for Successor Measurement and Currency Instruments which were presented to all the major measurement companies as well as the major agencies.

We are also working diligently with top ANA executives and marketer members of the ANA Board on their Cross Media Measurement initiative. Recently we collaborated on the establishment of “must-have” metadata within their in-progress VID (virtual ID) technology within the CMM solution that allows marketers to differentiate impressions by platform type, device type, ad duration, content duration, date/time specifics as well of delineate between professional content and UGC.

The VAB is also a partner in the JIC (Joint Industry Committee) has several TV publishers and streaming companies working closely with top execs from ten media agency companies and developed Measurement Certification Reuirements that will determine the “readiness” of the half-dozen or so largest and most active measurement companies.

Thanks, Sean!

“With the potential to tap into diehard fan communities that stay with their teams for a lifetime, sports sponsorship has always come with its own, very unique type of marketing value.”

Hi, Jay, can you tell us about your professional background?

Happy to – it’s hard for me to believe, but I’ve been working in the tech and software industries for over 20 years now. Obviously, a lot has changed during that time and it’s been fascinating to see new trends emerge from my position at the forefront of the ad tech/metrics wave.

Before joining Relo Metrics, I spent three years as chief strategy officer for LiveRamp – where I took on the challenge of crafting a holistic GTM strategy for its TV activation and Data Plus Math measurement products. I also drew on my background in data-driven software to build strategic partnerships with world-leading brands across broadcast, cable, satellite, and CTV platforms.

Prior to that, I worked at VideoAmp, heading up global business development and market strategy as part of the company’s founding leadership team. This meant I helped to raise over $100M in venture capital, around a series of new products at the cross-section of TV and video. I also have the privilege of being a co-inventor on VideoAmp’s patents.

Since inventive strategies are very much my thing, I serve on the video board of the IAB, too. Meanwhile, my education has taken me around the world from London Business School to MIT, where I studied BlockChain innovation.

Tell us about your role at Relo Metrics.

Sports sponsorship is in a very exciting stage of transition right now; fans are just as likely to tune in from TikTok or YouTube TV to watch live sports as they are cable, or any other platform. It’s a dynamic that speaks to the heart of what Relo Metrics does, and my role is really to enhance and expand the limits of that offering – in line with emerging tech and a wealth of viewing opportunities.

Working with a global roster of clients – including major sports leagues such as the NBA and the English Premier League – I want to build on our reputation for delivering best-in-class sponsorship measurement value, using powerful real-time intelligence and multichannel reach. When individual players and teams can leverage changing consumer behavior to attract huge sponsorship brands like Polaris or Quidel, that’s where the magic happens. And AI tools like Computer Vision are the driving force behind this shift; even as legacy metrics lag. In complex times, they provide direct ROI with the capacity for in-built optimization.

I also work alongside the executive team at our parent company, GumGum, to explore new projects at the crossover of sports measurement and sports media activation.

Also Read: MarTech360 Interview With Vikas Sethi, Practice Director Digital Software & Solutions, TCS

What sets Relo Metrics apart from the competition? 

It all comes down to our ability to chart real-time, actionable data in line with live sponsorships. There is nothing static about present-day sports sponsorship deals; performance ebbs and flows across a minutia of factors – whether that’s a player’s Instagram Story that goes viral or an ad banner that’s accidentally obscured mid-game.

The beauty of what we do is therefore two-fold. It provides the in-depth data sports teams and brands need to demonstrate the value of their assets and sponsorship investments in a multiplatform environment. And teams and brands alike can also access this data on the go; rather than six months down the line, when the deadline for meaningful action and optimisation has long since passed.

Using our platform, campaign leaders can course-correct; by ironing out low-performing sponsorships in a portfolio, for example, or crafting a more detailed, mobile snapshot of performance to drive YoY sponsorship revenue. We’ve set a new standard of sponsorship value innovation and agility. In a fast-moving sphere, legacy metrics simply can’t compete.

Since you have spent a decade working on the convergence of digital video, traditional TV, and streaming TV, how much has it evolved over the years and what can we expect in the future? 

Oh wow, where to start? If you picture linear broadcast giants going up against new-gen viewing platforms – social media platforms or time-shifted streaming, for example – the former has a struggle on its hands. By and large, audiences just aren’t loyal to a particular broadcaster anymore; they tend to jump about across multiple channels and devices. This shift is increasing all the time, and it’s directly mirrored within the sports space, too; with big-name streamers picking up pace. You only have to look at the deals between YouTube and the NFL, Apple and the MLS, or Amazon and the NFL to understand where the industry is headed.

With Big Tech circling, the likes of Fox, CBS, and NBC can no longer assume the sizable chunk of ad revenue that, historically, has resided with live and regional sports coverage. The upshot is that rights holders and brands now have more choices than ever before; and traditional TV outlets must adapt to a new video-on-demand reality, digital subscriptions, and real-time metrics – or fall away.

The other big transition we’re seeing is individual athletes taking advantage of a new, more fragmented media landscape to cut their own sponsorship deals. It makes sense that an Olympic superstar like Simone Biles would establish her own endorsements and social media collaborations independent of USA Gymnastics or Team USA; in deals worth around $5 million annually. But this type of agreement is also taking place across the sports world, from pro players to college athletes like Armando Bacot of the North Carolina Tar Heels, who have negotiated a sponsor portfolio worth well over $500,000. Again, this is diversifying the ad budget that once went directly to traditional TV. It means broadcasters have to work even harder to secure their slice of the pie.

How is measurement in the sports marketing space evolving? What are the benefits for brands?

When you have an industry stalwart like Nielsen losing its MRC accreditation over-reporting errors, you know the metrics industry is navigating something of a storm up ahead. The problem, of course, is innovating a universal and transparent solution that keeps pace with multi-currency metrics across linear TV, CTV, desktop, and mobile platforms. Linear TV is no longer dominant and so the tools we used to measure engagement are also becoming redundant.

In a fast-changing economy where brands have both reduced budgets and supersized choices, the call for more sophisticated currencies is only going to get louder. Sponsors want the option to track campaign performance in real time, using razor-sharp insights to get the best possible return on investment. One or two reports per season no longer cut it when you have the possibility of actionable, AI-fuelled data that can be used to scale up performance in merely a matter of days.

With the potential to tap into diehard fan communities that stay with their teams for a lifetime, sports sponsorship has always come with its own, very unique type of marketing value. The difference now is this value extends across multiple channels at once, including viral moments that can prompt huge spikes in engagement. Armed with the right kind of metric, sports teams all around the world can make the most of this major step-change – monetizing all elements of their exposure potential.

The sports marketing space, then, is becoming more like the wider digital ad space; with a focus on live analytics and data-led innovation. The benefits for brands are unparalleled because they can use this forensic-level insight to target and hone their sports partnerships more effectively – and with greater real-time agility – than ever before. They can also cut their losses more quickly if things go wrong.

As you have recently joined Relo Metrics. What are your long-term ambitions for the company?

Since its 2018 launch, Relo Metrics has had huge success in developing a new, and entirely unique, analytics platform by which to chart the true value of sports sponsorship in a multiplatform age. My ambition is to develop the fast, single-stop solution we’ve created to retain and grow revenue for rights holders and brands (including our own!) on a global stage.

We already work closely with top-level leagues in America, Canada and the UK, in sports as diverse as cycling, rugby, and hockey. Combine this with our world-class repertoire of sponsor brands, and an ability to track exposure across live broadcasts, social media, streaming platforms, and more – and suddenly, the potential for growth is huge.

As I lead the company into its next stage of development, I’ll be coordinating a fresh wave of recruitment, too; we’re currently looking for engineers, marketers, analysts, and customer service experts. Our competitive benefits, including paid parental leave and flexible working hours, are designed to attract the industry’s lead talent.

As a forward-thinking software and tech leader, what would be your expert advice for 2023 to other tech leaders?

Always listen. It’s imperative to have a steady flow of inputs from your clients and partners on market changes, competitive insights, and financial impact in order to stay ahead in innovation and deliver world-class software.

Thanks, Jay!

“Customer data is the most valuable asset for businesses in this era where customers expect extreme personalization.”

Hi, Vikas, can you tell us about your professional journey with Tata Consultancy Services? How has it been so far?

TCS is a global IT services and solutions company that provides consulting, IT services, and digital and business solutions.

I have been with TCS for over 23 years now. My professional journey with TCS started as a campus recruit into TCS as a software engineer. In the initial years, I worked on various projects and gained experience in different technologies and domains.

As I gained experience and expertise, I took on more challenging roles such as project management and Program Manager – leading to cross-functional roles and evolving to manage customer relationships and into the Product domain.

Over the years, I got a deeper understanding of different business processes and challenges, which laid the foundation for my current role within Digital Software & Solutions.

Overall, my professional journey with TCS has provided a wide range of opportunities for learning, growth, and personal development, allowing me to build a successful and rewarding career in the IT industry.

Tell us about your current role at TCS.

I am currently the Global Presales Head and Practice Director for TCS Digital Software & Solutions, responsible for driving key strategic customer-facing engagements. Domain-centric retail professional with a focus on Loyalty and CDP and customer focused. My current role is helping customers and prospects solve their most complex problems.

TCS was recently honored to be included in Fortune Magazine’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies, how does it feel to be a part of this journey for more than two decades?

We are truly honored to be included in Fortune Magazine’s list of the World’s Most Admired Companies, especially since we share this accolade with many of our clients. This recognition is an outcome of the longer-term, purpose-driven partnerships we have built with our clients, communities, and all other stakeholders.

TCS partners with some of the world’s largest corporations in their innovation, growth, and transformation initiatives. Its industry-leading growth over the last decade has come from continually looking for new opportunities to add value to clients, proactively investing in newer capabilities, reskilling its workforce, and launching newer services, solutions, products, and platforms.

TCS’ employee-friendly workplace practices and continued investments in building up talent across the organization through professional development initiatives and digital skills programs, have made us a top employer globally and an industry benchmark for talent retention.

Also Read: MarTech360 Interview With Jennifer Flanagan, VP Marketing, Adtaxi

What are some of the biggest and most common challenges faced by brands today and how do those challenges impact brands?

Today’s connected consumers require brands to do more to earn their loyalty. They choose to do business with brands that align with their individual needs, values, and preferences. Lastly, emotional loyalty is earned through trust, customer experience, and personalized offers and actions.

Many brands, however, lack the unified customer 360° view needed to deliver personalized experiences that resonated with customers. The loyalty programs most brands still have a focus on transactional benefits only – points, coupons, and discounts – which lack the breadth of engagement and emotional resonance needed to build lasting loyalty. In addition, many existing loyalty management systems are often de-coupled from the rest of a brand’s Mar-tech stack, making it difficult to scale and deliver a frictionless, personalized experience across all channels in real-time.

The above challenges impact the brand in the following ways:

• Siloed data is hiding valuable customer insights.
• Customers signup but many do not engage or opt out of loyalty programs after a few months.
• Brands are not realizing the expected value from their technology investments and are challenged to gain attention, attract new members, and retain existing members.

TCS recently announced a customer analytics, real-time CDP, and loyalty management software solution that helps brands hyper-personalize customer experiences and enhance loyalty. Can you share some details and highlight the issues it intends to address?

TCS Customer Intelligence & Insights (CI&I) is an intelligent loyalty management solution that focuses on delivering loyalty as an outcome. With its AI-driven customer analytics, real-time CDP software, and comprehensive loyalty management capability, it helps brands gain a deep understanding of their customers and build differentiated loyalty programs that lead to emotional loyalty and increased customer lifetime value (CLV). CI&I integrates seamlessly with other third-party platforms, transforming them into intelligent loyalty solutions that deliver omnichannel, personalized experiences in real-time.

What makes TCS CI&I unique? What are some key differentiators?

TCS Customer Intelligence & Insights (CI&I) is an AI-driven customer analytics, real-time CDP, and intelligent loyalty management all-in-one software solution. It is a highly modular, configurable, and flexible platform to create complex and innovative loyalty programs. The in-built CDP & analytics to improve loyalty engagement and offer non-transactional loyalty rewards.

Some of the unique features include:

• Faster time to value with out-of-the-box, industry-specific solutions for retail, banking, and insurance
• Real-time CDP that focuses on a holistic approach to customer journeys from data to action for real-time customer unification and journey tracking
• Dynamic customer persona discovery
• Real-time ML/AI-based audience generation to target the right customers via the right channels
• Customer sentiment analysis and real-time active journey orchestration and tracking
• Whitebox approach with complete visibility compared to black box solutions from Salesforce, Treasure data etc.
• Can be deployed on-premises, on- the cloud as well as in a hybrid model

How have your clients’ loyalty programs evolved since the pandemic in regard to emotional loyalty offerings? Has there been an increase, or decrease, and why?

The pandemic provided an impetus for many people to re-examine their lives- their goals, values, where they work, and how they do business with. It became increasingly important to align themselves with brands whose vision, goals, and beliefs align with their own. As a result, we are seeing an increase in the demand for loyalty solutions that drive emotional loyalty based on a deep understanding of customer needs and shared values.

Our clients are seeing the limitations of transactional loyalty alone and the need to augment those programs with hyper-personalized, differentiated loyalty programs that drive emotional loyalty. They are looking for experiential loyalty that elevates the member experiences and creates sustainable emotional connections with their members.

In many industries such as travel, many customers are already in the highest tier. So, the question is “What’s next”? How can we create more differentiation and more engagement? How can we drive loyalty as an emotion? This is where a deeper understanding of customer needs has become imperative to provide hyper-personalized and differentiated experiences that are not limited to benefits tied to tiers as in traditional loyalty. Each interaction for the customer has to be a rewarding, engaging, and personalized experience.

What do you believe are the pros and cons of brands embracing emotional rewards versus transactional ones?

Emotional loyalty pros:

Emotional loyalty is the strongest, most enduring form of customer loyalty. It is earned when brands deliver hyper-personalized experiences, products, and services that align with their member’s needs, preferences, and values. Emotionally loyalty built on trust and shared values result in members who:

• Spend more (5-20%) than non-members.
• Buy more frequently than non-members.
• Support and promote the brand by recommending the company to friends and family.
• Provide genuine feedback that can be used to further deepen customer relationships.
• Stay with a brand through challenging times.
• Forgive mistakes more easily.

In addition, loyalty programs help brands retain the most profitable customers and minimize focus and payout to less profitable customers.

Emotional loyalty cons:

• Knowing about a customer’s beliefs, values, behavior, etc. can feel creepy to a customer if not handled properly.
• It can be difficult to tell the difference between a customer who buys frequently from a brand and one that is emotionally loyal and will advocate for a brand.
• Investing in emotional loyalty can be costly in terms of price and time without the right tools and support.
• Measuring the ROI effect of emotional loyalty programs can be challenging.
• New customers may be overlooked if the brand is primarily focused on satisfying the needs of existing customers.
• It’s important to optimize both transactional and emotional loyalty aspects of a brand’s loyalty programs and it can be difficult to find the right balance.

On other hand, transactional loyalty is where a customer weighs up the value of a product or service, decides whether to make a purchase, and then sticks around for the future. Based entirely on individual transactions rather than any emotional attachment this is simply a form of customer retention.

Some of the advantages of Transactional loyalty include:

• Attract new customers
• Transactional loyalty is easy to measure using purchase information
• Easy to implement
• Off-the-shelf programs available

Below are some of the cons of Transactional loyalty:

• Purchase behavior alone is not a good indicator of loyalty. There could be a lack of other choices, or it may take too much effort to change to another brand
• Customers are attracted to qualitative metrics such as points and incentives and will switch brands based on the best offers and incentives
• Low engagement rates
• Can be difficult to break an event
• Lack of differentiation in a saturated market

How would you describe the evolution of AI, ML, and Analytics and their importance in today’s time?

The Evolution of AI, ML, and Analytics has been remarkable over the past few years. It has transformed the way we live, works, and interact with technology. These technologies are now an integral part of our lives, and their importance in today’s world cannot be overstated.

AI, ML, and Analytics are technologies that allow machines to learn from data and make decisions without human intervention. They enable machines to perform tasks that were previously done only by humans, such as recognizing images, understanding natural language, and even driving cars.

The importance of these technologies lies in their ability to help businesses and organizations make better decisions, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. They can be used in a variety of industries, such as healthcare, finance, retail, and manufacturing, to name a few.

For example, in healthcare, AI can be used to analyze medical data and identify patterns that can help doctors diagnose and treat diseases more effectively. In finance, ML algorithms can be used to analyze financial data and detect fraud or predict stock prices.

In retail, analytics can be used to track customer behavior and preferences, which can help businesses tailor their marketing strategies and improve customer engagement. In manufacturing, AI and ML can be used to optimize production processes and improve product quality.

In conclusion, the Evolution of AI, ML, and Analytics has transformed the way we live and work. These technologies are essential in today’s world and will continue to play a vital role in shaping the future.

What is one piece of advice you would give to a brand looking to build support/buy-in for loyalty efforts from their finance team/CFO?

Customer data is the most valuable asset for businesses in this era where customers expect extreme personalization.  Without access to data-driven insights in real-time, brands cannot deliver hyper-personalized experiences, rewards, and recommendations. And, with growing privacy concerns, capturing zero- and first-party data can be a challenge.

Loyalty programs have become a primary tool for capturing the zero- and first-party data needed to gain insights into customer behavior, interests, and preferences and deliver hyper-personalized experiences. Therefore, to build a competitive advantage and grow, brands without loyalty programs need to start one today- one based on trust and shared values.

Brands with an existing loyalty program need to continue to evolve their programs using incremental transformation instead of taking a big-bang approach. This approach will enable organizations to measure incremental ROI and quickly identify where course corrections are needed for aspects of the program that are not working. Brands need to look for loyalty platforms that augment their existing investments and can plug and play in their existing ecosystem.

Thanks, Vikas!