The winners of the 2011 COLLOQUY Loyalty Awards were recently announced with American Express Membership Rewards, Best Western Rewards and Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) being honored, among others. American Express Membership Rewards won the Loyalty Innovation in Financial Services (North America) award by adding more attainable rewards to its portfolio and simplifying redemption for cardmembers. Specifically, two new redemption offers were introduced: Everyday Charges, which enables customers to use points to offset charges on their statement, like gas and groceries and a new partnership with Amazon.com wherein members can use Membership Rewards points to pay for part or all of their purchase on Amazon.

Best Western Rewards was singled out for the Loyalty Innovation in Travel/Hospitality (North America) award for their Status Match…No Catch offer. COLLOQUY called the initiative “groundbreaking” as it “allowed new Best Western Rewards members to automatically attain the elite status they worked so hard to earn with a competing hotel brand, thereby eliminating the entry barrier inherent in most frequency based rewards system.” The offer generated close to 5,000 new Best Western Rewards members and led to 37,000 room nights and $3.4 million in revenue.

IHG won the Loyalty Innovation in Travel/Hospitality (International) award for its Elite Diamond Club Marketing Relationship Program. According to COLLOQUY, “When InterContinental Hotels Group decided to polish and perfect their Elite Diamond Club Loyalty Program in Latin America, they did it with one person in mind. The Executive Assistant (EA)–gatekeeper to more profitable B2B executives.” IHG improved the online presence for ease of use and arranged one-on-one time with EAs and hotel sales coordinators to help boost engagement for the program.

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