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Tobias Borris
How deep consumer understanding and bold imagination helped one of the biggest sports brands build a deeper relationship with customers, that is worth an extra hundreds of million Euros per year
Summary
A major sportswear brand faced the challenge of transforming its loyalty program to support a shift to D2C and attract hundreds of millions of new members within three years. The existing program was insufficient for driving the engagement and growth required. Over a 10-week period, an interdisciplinary team conducted extensive research across markets and business units, exploring consumer motivations and identifying opportunities for enhanced flexibility, personalization, and engagement. This led to the development of an immersive loyalty program concept centered around tradable badges, inspired by gaming principles. The solution featured a dynamic, evolving portfolio of badges linked to specific activities and rewards, creating personalized member journeys. Supported by an implementation plan and investment case, the concept projected substantial profit growth and increased net sales. The project was successfully presented to senior management and advanced for further development, marking a key milestone in the brand’s transformation to boost member acquisition, engagement, and sales.
Challenge
As one of the world's largest sportswear manufacturers sought to accelerate its shift to a D2C model, its loyalty program became a crucial foundation for customer engagement. However, with the ambitious goal of reaching hundreds of millions of new members within three years, the traditional loyalty playbook was insufficient to generate the needed engagement and growth. The task was to rethink the program and create a future-proof concept capable of addressing the brand's complex business needs while evolving throughout the customer lifecycle to provide sustained value —boosting acquisition, engagement, and sales.
Approach
Immersion
At the project's outset, we aligned with the client on goals, KPIs, scope, terminology, and assumptions to accelerate progress. Together, we identified hypotheses and defined key research areas to guide our efforts.
Research
As part of an interdisciplinary team, I led consumer research across multiple markets and business units, using a mixed-method approach. Focus groups examined how consumers engage in community-based activities, revealing their shared frustrations and preferences. Building on this, in-depth interviews delved into long-term consumer relationships, identifying personalized barriers to loyalty and motivations for brand engagement. Together, these approaches uncovered deeper psychological drivers and broader trends, enhancing our understanding of consumer behavior.
Focus Groups
Exemplary Questions:
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What made you join your favorite loyalty program, and what keeps you engaged? What has held you back from joining or staying in programs like ours?
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Have you ever felt a strong emotional connection to a club or community? If so, why?
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What excites you about group sports over solo activities? (e.g., better deals, learning from others, sense of community?)
In-depth interviews
Exemplary Questions:
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What are your personal and professional goals for the next few years, and how do you define success?
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What are the biggest challenges in achieving your fitness goals? (e.g., time, motivation, or equipment)
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What drives your purchase decisions, and how have your shopping habits changed over time?
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What activities and rewards most appeal to you?
The result was a set of actionable insights that directly informed the redesign of the client’s loyalty program, tailored to diverse customer segments. Simultaneously, we examined the broader market landscape, conducted expert and stakeholder interviews, reviewed 60+ documents, analyzed millions of data points, and worked with the client to assess current rewards and potential assets. By continuously examining key commercial and consumer challenges, and constructively challenging each other’s findings, we refined our thinking and translated it into actionable insights, identifying where the greatest opportunities lay.
Various Customer Segments
Actionable Insights
The Best Loyalty Programs Aren't Loyalty Programs
Our research revealed that loyalty programs should not be seen as transactional marketing tools where points are exchanged for discounts. Instead, the platform should serve as a springboard to create value for the brand’s most loyal consumers, with increased loyalty and its commercial benefits being an outcome of deeper engagement.
Personalizing for Passionate Audiences
We uncovered that consumers have highly distinct, specialized passions — whether it's sneaker collecting or marathon running. While they're deeply engaged in their own interests, they show little enthusiasm for other areas, underscoring the need for a personalized approach without alienating any group or creating a diluted, one-size-fits-all proposition. By designing around these interests, we ensure flexibility for different user groups and catering to stakeholders eager to support the program.
Celebrating Unique Moments
We discovered that personal stories shape how individuals engage with sports, fashion, and performance. To resonate with users, the program must acknowledge these unique journeys. Rather than treating all members the same, we need to celebrate personal achievements in a more tailored way — like acknowledging the journey of someone recovering from injury, not just rewarding their final results. This more nuanced rewards system will drive higher engagement by connecting to users' life milestones.
Fostering Community Connections
We uncovered that beyond individual accomplishments, consumers highly value collective experiences. However, the idea of community isn’t the same for everyone. While some enjoy group workouts in person, others prefer exercising alone but sharing their experiences online, inspiring and being inspired by others. Rather than enforcing a one-size-fits-all approach, our design needs to embrace varying levels of social interaction.
Persona Creation
As our understanding of customers deepened, we shifted from the company’s traditional reliance on rigid, occasion-led segmentation (e.g., "sneakerhead") to creating needs-based and actionable personas. These personas allowed us to uncover and define the core motivations and desires of our members, such as a sense of community or the desire for elevated social status. This shift guided the development of activities and rewards that aligned more closely with individual needs. By moving beyond viewing consumers solely through the lens of product category and spending habits, we placed their diverse needs and motivations at the center of our approach.
Discovery Workshop
In an interactive session, we shared the insights with the client, supported by data points, program implications, and relevant analogs. We gathered input and feedback, discussing areas of agreement and disagreement. We co-created and explored various themes and 'How Might We' (HMW) questions, laying the groundwork for defining the strategy.
Strategy
This led to a set of principles that would guide the creation of the future solution.
PERSONAL
From generic rewards to personal experiences
We will go beyond generic rewards, crafting personalized experiences bespoke to each member's passions and life journey.
By focusing on individual needs and personal milestones, we will celebrate achievements with bespoke rewards.
EVOLVING
From closed system to open ecosystem
The program will be designed as an open, dynamic ecosystem, constantly adapting to members' changing preferences.
Through collaboration with partners and opinion leaders, we will ensure a continuous stream of new, relevant experiences that evolve alongside members' life goals.
ENGAGING
From passive transactions to active empowerment
Our design will shift the focus foster more frequent and meaningful engagement.
Members will be encouraged to deepen their passions, explore new ones, and achieve higher goals, with the brand providing ongoing support and rewards to guide them on their journey.
Concept
Validation
We tested four badges closely aligned with the motivations of key consumer segments and validated the feasibility, viability, and desirability of the rewards and activities through stakeholder interviews, commercial analysis, and quantitative testing with hundreds of customers across different markets to gauge consumers’ interest in different earning activities and rewards across a range of categories.
Let’s take a look at the user journey.
Investment Case
The final concept was supported by a high-level implementation plan and investment case that speaks for itself:
Outcome
The concept gained strong support from the client's senior leadership, securing approval for MVP development to bring the idea to market.
Key Services
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Consumer & Commercial Research, including stakeholder and expert interviews, qualitative consumer research across countries and segments, identification of hidden assets and capabilities within the current rewards offer
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Idea Development, including value proposition development, concept development and refinement
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Solution Design & Validation, including qualitative and quantitative consumer testing
Duration
10 weeks
A World of Adventure: The Next-Level Interactive Loyalty Experience
We’ve crafted a next-gen loyalty program that combines the best of the brand with the excitement of gaming. Forget traditional promo codes or tier systems — this program offers interactive experiences that feel like microgames, empowering customers to follow their passions, explore new interests, and achieve personal goals.
From the "Nothing but Shopping" badge to the "London City Special" or "Future Runner" badge, members can choose their own path from an endless variety of badges. Whether they pursue multiple journeys at once or focus on just one, new badges appear as they progress, encouraging deeper engagement and new adventures. This makes every experience unique and personal, while still open to everyone. Each completed journey rewards members with a tradable badge—a lasting symbol of their achievement that unlocks personally relevant rewards.
Blazing Strider Badge
Eco Warrior Badge
Style Icon Badge
Peak Master Badge
Concept Visualization
First, members sign up.
The proposition landing page invites users to join the program by clearly communicating the rewards proposition using bold and dynamic graphic elements, that convey immersing oneself in the whole ecosystem of the brand.
Then, it’s time to get active - and earn the first points.
Users can choose a badge journey and select from various activities to collect points and progress in the badge journey. This creates a range of goal-based journeys that can evolve to remain continually relevant for members as they engage with the program, contrasting with the current tier system that offers a uniform, linear path for all users.
Time to unlock the first badge.
Users are able to view and track progress of each badge journey. The experience should motivate users to complete more activities and unlock more badges.
Congratulations – you can now access your rewards!
Users can view rewards associated with each badge. This increases engagement by providing a gamified experience and nudge to complete activities across various badge journeys. After unlocking a badge, the users are offered a reward and encouraged to redeem it through using their points.
Next, easily redeem your rewards before they expire.
Users can use points to redeem rewards unlocked by badges. When redeemed, points are removed from the user’s balance. All rewards have an expiry date. This drives continuous engagement and ensures rewards remain continuously relevant to members as they engage with the brand.
Strong Profit Growth
Expected double-digit global profit growth by the end of year 3, per annum (figures are confidential)
Net Sales Boost
Expected increase in global net sales in the triple-digit millions by the end of year 3, per annum (figures are confidential)
New Revenue Stream
Expected global annual net sales growth in the double-digit millions by the end of year 3 through new reward category around Masterclasses (figures are confidential)
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