Wendy Bergh of Rakuten Rewards on Loyalty, Creativity, and AI

Jeanniey Walden: I’m Jeanniey Walden and this is another episode of Liftoff. I’m here with one of my favorite people in the entire world. We’ve got Wendy Bergh from Rakuten, and she’s going to tell us all about what she’s seeing at Cannes. Wendy, thank you so much for being on the show.

Wendy Bergh: Of course, thank you for having me.

Jeanniey Walden: I haven’t seen you in so many months, and now we’re here in this really crazy heat. Outside of the heat, as I’ve been going to different panels and venues, I’ve been hearing a lot about AI, retail and commerce, and loyalty. What have you been hearing about?

Wendy Bergh: I’ve been hearing about all of those things too, but what has really come out is creativity. Talking to people about the fact that we need creativity. AI will be there, and it will allow us all to be more intelligent and raise the bar, but ultimately it’s going to be creativity and uniqueness that cut through the noise.

Jeanniey Walden: As a CMO, why do you feel like that’s such an important message to take back home to your team?

Wendy Bergh: It’s so important because yes, you need everybody using AI, you need everyone getting smarter and faster, getting rid of those repeatable, draining tasks. AI can really help there. But ultimately that should free people up to spend more time on strategy and driving innovation.

Jeanniey Walden: I’ve heard so many great ideas and tips about how to take AI back to your teams. But as I’ve been walking around, it seems like every single company is now running a retail media network. You’ve got United Airlines with ads all over the place, you’ve got Marriott with their media network, every retail media network under the sun. (A moment of live-taping chaos as a friendly local dog wanders into frame.) Okay, back to the line. As I’ve been walking around seeing all these installations and ads, it seems like every company is creating their own retail media network and trying to build loyal fans and a loyalty program. You’ve done such a great job with that at Rakuten Rewards, building a loyal base of shoppers across many different merchants. Why do you think loyalty matters so much?

Wendy Bergh: Loyalty matters so much because, actually, with AI, anyone can build a platform, a shopping app, whatever it is. It’s going to be who has loyalty at the end of the day. And every transaction is a re-qualification moment. So if you’re not thinking about how you treat the customer well, how you add value, it’s easy to switch, and it will only get easier in today’s world.

Jeanniey Walden: You said something so important. Every transaction is an opportunity to re-qualify somebody’s interest in your brand. I didn’t think about it that way until right this moment, and it makes so much sense. So when you think about the organization of the future, do you think loyalty teams will be more integrated across the board, or stay siloed, with loyalty on one side and demand and new customers on the other? Or will it become one thing?

Wendy Bergh: I think the smart companies will make it one thing, and really think about loyalty all the way from when they acquire the customer through the entire member journey and all of those repeat cycles. Loyalty ultimately starts with that first transaction, or even before you’re acquired, thinking about it in discovery mode, all the way through to your nth transaction.

Jeanniey Walden: That’s awesome. So what’s one thing you’re taking away from Cannes back to your team?

Wendy Bergh: This is my first Cannes, and I would say that we need to be here. There are incredible brands, incredible opportunities, and that creativity still matters.

Jeanniey Walden: Amazing. Thank you so much for being on with us today. Everybody, stay tuned. We’ll be right back.

Wendy Bergh: Thank you for having me.