Sometimes when you meet someone, you are hit with a force of energy, passion, enthusiasm and wisdom. It makes you stop, take a moment and realise the world needs more of them.
And this ‘them’ is Jacqui Solly – Loyalty Manager at Australian Red Cross Lifeblood.
Jacqui is a 20-year self-confessed “marketing nerd” (marketing professional I would say).
She is fierce in her determination to stay true to her core belief in adding value to the life of a customer.
With her depth of experience and a love for customer loyalty and loyalty programs, Jacqui easily transitions from big picture thinking to the nitty-gritty of making it happen!
This Loyalty Leader interview #39 has lots to give, just like Jacqui!
Enjoy
1. So, who is Jacqui? (outside of work) + a little on your work biography
There’s only one Jacqui.
And she turns up to work and to life.
I don’t have a work persona. I show up being my most authentic self in every part of my life and that’s a key value of mine.
Most of the time it holds me in good stead and while there have been occasions where it hasn’t, I’ve learned from those. I bring my whole self to work.
Sometimes I find it’s a unique thing, especially in the corporate world. However, the feedback I get is overwhelmingly positive and that gives me little bit more confidence to maintain that authenticity.
(At this stage of the interview we dived into the humanity of Jacqui and while I would love to share it here, words would not do justice to the depth of how sincere and candid Jacqui is.)
I have been in the marketing industry for almost 20 years. Fifteen or so of those has been in financial services – ANZ and Suncorp. I worked across direct lifecycle, digital performance acquisition, customer strategy and loyalty.
The first four years working in these corporates my role could have been renamed the ‘too hard basket’. I just did all the things that other people didn’t want to do because I love problem solving. This also helped me understand the value of working in big organizations with amazing technology and very smart people and competent leadership.
But the one thing that I knew I wanted to achieve in my career was eventually getting into a for-purpose organisation. And for the past 15 months I have been at Lifeblood.
I have finally found a role that allows my professional discipline to align with me as a person and with immediate family members who have benefited from Lifeblood’s work. I’m privileged to be able to work in an organisation close to my heart.
2. Tell us about The Gifts Program at Lifeblood. Any stats you can share?
… and it’s now, our award winning[1], Lifeblood Gifts Program!
We are very proud of the program, not only because of its success, but also how it’s a beautiful representation of many teams in an organization coming together to make magic!
I think the Lifeblood Gifts program makes the complex simple and the simple compelling. A principle fundamental to its success.
It’s easy to understand, easy to access, easy to engage, interact with and participate in.
It’s simple in proposition as the donor at every third donation can redeem a gift, which is our branded merchandise gifts. It’s compelling because it’s relevant, functional, and dynamic in how we change up the gifts with limited edition items to maintain engagement and interest.
But, it’s complex in its intelligence in that it relies on a robust logistics process and communication cadence which is all automated from an experience point of view.
We didn’t want to add any more steps to the donation experience or get in the way of donors donating, because ultimately that’s what we need them to do.
We didn’t want to disrupt that fundamental process. So, we don’t ask them to scan anything, log in anywhere, tally their points, activate an offer or a redemption.
We just want them to come in, check in, and complete their donation
We have 47% of our active donor base who are opted in and half of them have redeemed a gift in 12 months. From that base we have achieved 17% incremental donations. What that means in real life, is saving up to 244,000 extra lives!
(SAY NO MORE!)
[1] Award winner at the 2025 Australian Loyalty Associations Asia Pacific Loyalty Awards
3. What is the most unique element of the program?
Simplicity.
It’s hard to think of a simpler program in market that has the same success…maybe the old school coffee card?!
Donors don’t have to scan anything. Our CRM automatically adds a count to their profile when they donate and then our frontline team are prompted by our POS system to offer a gift when a donor attends every third appointment.
The fact a donor doesn’t have to actively do anything to earn or redeem provides the halo benefit of a surprise and delight feeling, on top of knowing they are working towards something. Again – making the complex simple and the simple compelling shows itself as a clear principle of success here.
4. Why do Lifeblood invest in The Gifts Program
Two reasons. Equal importance.
There was a need to recognise, reward and validate a donor’s contribution, as well as close the gap between supply and demand.
And those two things hold equal value and the reason this program exists.
That’s why we do it.
5. If you had to choose the most important measures of success for your program, what would they be?
Ultimately, it’s how many additional lives we save.
Yes, I know that’s kind of the mic drop phrase. However, as the program is only 12 months old, our initial primary metric was around opt in volume, so that we knew it was an engaging proposition, it was meaningful enough and it was the right strategy.
We hit our full year opt in targets in the first half of the year. So, we increased our targets, but also pivoted to look at those more transactional or business-oriented metrics.
We look at frequency based on the reduction of days in between donations. And we also look at NPS which taps into the donor (customer) value side of things.
Then the incremental collections and therefore how many incremental lives we’ve impacted.
6. What are some of the challenges you face on an ongoing basis to keep the program relevant/fresh/thriving (internally and externally) and how do you overcome these?
In Australia we abide by the principles of voluntary, non remunerated blood donation so we are limited to what we can offer as a reward or incentive.
Any reward offered must be of a nature to enhance the experience of an altruistic donor – it shouldn’t be the primary reason a donor donates – it’s a value add as part of the overall experience that might encourage more frequent donations.
To overcome this, we listen to donors. While we have the core suite of gifts driving the lions share of results we’ve seen great success and spikes in engagement with limited edition or seasonal items.
We offered sunscreen over summer which flew out the doors, hand sanitiser coming into winter and we’re about to launch our first pet item which donors have been asking for since we started!
We are also working on a more philanthropic option so that donors can do ‘even more good’ with their donation!
Another challenge is maintaining engagement and interaction, especially in a low value reward scenario. We are not in a low value product or industry that this phrase would normally be used in, but with a low value reward we’ve got to maintain interest and excitement.
So, we have those limited edition items. We send a lot of tailored communications. We work very closely with our centres so that the team are championing this for us as well.
The other wonderful aspect about this program is that our items have branding on them as we also know that donors love to be advocates.
And we’re seeing this beautiful thing happen in the community where people are seeing other Lifeblood gift items in the wild, and they’re connecting.
They’re like, “Oh, I’m a donor, too!”. And so that’s also a motivator for people to maintain engagement.
We’ve got this beautiful scenario of people being rewarded with merchandise but they’re also being rewarded with reactions in their community as well, which reinforces social visibility and the value of their efforts in their wider community.
7. If you could start again with a blank strategy canvas, what would you do differently?
As we are right now. Nothing.
We always knew that this was a stepping stone to something bigger.
Perhaps the only thing I would have done differently is at the start: making it clearer that the success of this program in its current form will see diminishing returns.
There is only a certain cohort of the population who are going to be motivated by that lower value reward. And if you really need that step change in volume of blood donations, we need to be able to up our game and reward more for that next tranche of people who are incentivized by that slightly higher level of reward – which is where the magic of a dynamic program comes into its own.
8. What advice would you give to brands thinking about a loyalty program?
Do it!
But be considered.
What is the problem to solve? And are you truly willing to put the customer first?
In my experience brands want to be seen to have a loyalty program so they can talk about the rewards they have to offer and the additional value a customer receives, but they are not willing to invest in that customer value.
Loyalty programs traditionally take time to generate a positive ROI and with most organisations budgeting and being measured in 12-month fin years this becomes hard to sell in.
Unless you are willing to commit resource and funding to a program on a five-year plan, then don’t do it.
If you’re being asked to deliver a positive ROI in the first year, then be very conscious in how you design and scale.
I think that’s my message – if you’re an exec tasked with supporting a loyalty program, give it time and investment to mature (within reason, of course!)
9. What’s the biggest frustration you have with loyalty programs?
They’re just everywhere. They’re not thought through.
And can everybody please just have single sign on? Do not ask me to download another app.
Do not ask me to have a secondary set of credentials for a different portal.
Find a way to integrate it into my experience with you, please.
10. What do you think is creeping up on programs that could disrupt them for better or worse?
I think it’s the next generation of very savvy customers.
The next generation of consumers understand algorithms. They understand data targeting.
They’re savvier with what brands are doing. You can’t just put a loyalty program in front of them without being transparent about the data collection and use – they know.
I really think there’s going to be a time where brands are going to have to be a lot better at being able to build a truly meaningful relationship with their customers.
I have this weird sense of almost going back in time in terms of ‘How to build a relationship with your customer’. But within the digital ecosystem.
We’ve hit a digital age where face to face interactions with brands has somewhat disappeared.
But people want that relationship, that whole concept of know who I am and present what I need. But that has to be authentic and real for the consumer based on their interactions with you, not from audiences that you’ve bought from Facebook or audiences that you’ve bought from Google, because they know how it all works!
So, I think the opportunity creeping up on brands is being able to create that meaningful, authentic relationship with customers through a digital channel. And then, if it makes sense to – introduce a Loyalty program.
11. What’s the most underestimated force behind a program’s performance?
It’s the people.
You can feel a brand’s passion and purpose in your experience with their people.
And I really think that’s underestimated in terms of the power that has in driving the success of a program.
12. What are three important skills a loyalty program marketer needs?
1. Tenacity. It’s not an easy role to do! Most commercial organisations are aligned to acquisition so it’s often a fight to justify investing in retention and loyalty. A good loyalty marketer needs to be able to create a clear vision with tangible benefits and convince their leaders that it’s the right thing to do.
2. Creativity. Due to saturation in market loyalty marketers need to be creative. They need to be able to build something engaging, meaningful and differentiated all while maintaining alignment with a parent brand and integrating with the customer experience. A loyalty program needs to feel part of the experience and enhance it, not be an add on at the end.
3. Patience. Good things take time and so does change in a customer’s behaviour. If digital performance marketing is the immediate gratification of marketing, loyalty is the polar opposite!
And one more – because I think it’s a good over arching skill for all three – Story telling. A loyalty manager needs to be able to tell the story, sell the vision and turn sceptics to believers!
13. If we are chatting again in (say) 2-3 years’ time, what do you predict would be the hot topic related to loyalty programs?
I think the population participating in our economy (ie: those in the age range with a wage and spending money) are becoming smarter and more aware of marketing approaches that businesses take.
We all know our digital worlds are controlled by a couple of very powerful algorithms, so people are becoming more and more sceptical about what ads, offers and brands they are shown or served.
So, I think the principles of authenticity and meaning when designing a loyalty program will become even more important – the program will actually need to deliver value rather than just lock a consumer into a brand because they have a stack of points with them.
I think the conversation will lean even harder into tech – how the digital experience of a loyalty program integrates with a brand online as well as in any physical environment to be able to attract and keep a customer
14. Leave us with a lasting loyalty thought
Summary
It is very difficult to summarise this interview with so many Joyalty* Moments of Magic for me.
And so, I will go with one that has made an impact on me:
“Make the complex simple. And the simple compelling”
Thank you Jacqui!
Have a happy loyalty day!
