We Studied The highest performing loyalty brands - Here's What We Learned

Loyalty has surged up the agenda - and rightly so. In tough economic conditions, it’s seen as a way to drive recurring revenue from existing customers. But a recent DMA survey of over 250 marketers shows that the renewed focus is often tactical: proving ROI and justifying martech spend are top priorities. As a result, loyalty is increasingly judged through a short-term performance lens.

This short-term view risks missing the greater, strategic opportunity for loyalty. When loyalty is integrated within a brand growth strategy, it can be a brand building asset, a strategy for creating a feeling of belonging and strengthening customer connections, motivating behaviour change and delivering long term commercial growth.

Most brands are missing an entire dimension of loyalty value attribution

A recent study from VCCP and the DMA found loyalty, when integrated with brand, drives powerful results:

• 80 per cent more likely to drive customer acquisition

• 50 per cent more likely to deliver revenue growth

• 8 times more likely to report long-term retention

• Top-quartile campaigns drive two times the number of mid- and lower-funnel effects

Practically, how do you achieve these effects?

To unlock this multiplier effect:

• Use loyalty insights to shape brand propositions and customer experience

• Connect first- and third-party data to improve segmentation and evaluation

• Treat loyalty as a distinctive brand asset, not just a mechanic, for compound creativity

• Integrate loyalty into paid media (and vice versa) to amplify impact

Which brands are getting it right? 

We analysed the top 20 highest performing loyalty brands, who proved to be delivering significant mid and lower funnel effects (source: DMA Effectiveness Databank 2017-24). 

Those were: Pets At Home, Lakeland, Priority, Hackett London, Halfords, Ikea, Costa Coffee, McDonald's, Dobbies, Very, Simply Be, Renault, Ralph Lauren, Tesco, Sky, Vodafone, Avanti West Coast, Boots, Volkswagen and Currys.

Brands like Virgin Media O2 Priority drive significant brand and retention effects, while retail loyalty programmes like Pets at Home, IKEA Family and Boots Advantage Card perform strongly on short and long term customer and advocacy effects.

These brands also achieved the highest creativity scores - suggesting that creativity itself can be a performance multiplier. And when you examine the customer experience of these top performing brands, it’s evident that loyalty has been deliberately and foundationally embedded into the brand world, built as a distinctive brand asset in itself, with the expectation that the investment will drive both long term brand performance, as well as short term sales activation effects.

Integration is the answer

The best loyalty strategies aren’t just efficient - they’re brand-defining. Integrated, emotionally resonant, and creatively led, they deliver double the value across both short-term performance and long-term growth.

Ellie Gauci is the head of strategy, Loyalty & CRM at VCCP