But there's an important question for loyalty professionals.

I guess I'm of two minds about gamification.

I think where gamification is synergistic and additive to the brand experience, if it's Strava as an example, you know, where the low-value rewards or the gamified rewards are completely consistent with what a Strava athletic experience would be, I can absolutely see how it would be beneficial and additive for their customers.

Where, however, I've seen it fail miserably is where it is not necessarily consistent with the brand and used perhaps as an example, and I, I, I can use an example of a, a past global loyalty program that used gamification as an engagement device, really as an acquisition device.

And they certainly were able to drive volume of players, call it, I wouldn't even say customers, because really they were inviting them to, on a platform, on a branded platform, to play these games with the view that they would be converted ultimately to customers.

Surprise, surprise, it never happened.

And that kind of brings me to my worry about gamification and loyalty, uh, designers or managers who use customer research to determine the impact of gamification, because gamers and customers are not necessarily the same breed.

And Caroline has one final warning for anyone who sees low-cost rewards simply as a way to make the loyalty budget smaller.