MediaLift

  There’s a reason marketers keep coming back to price promotions. They work. If you need to shift product, offering 20% back or running a multi-buy is familiar territory. Everyone understands the mechanic and you have a pretty good idea of what it’s going to do. But I think we need to be much more honest about what it can also do. It eats your margin. It can mortgage future sales. And over time, it can teach shoppers that the price worth paying for your brand isn't the one on the shelf. It's the one they should wait for. That last point bothers me. The sales uplift on a promotion can look great, but how many of those are genuinely new sales, and how many have simply been brought forward from next week or next month? Then your competitor promotes. You promote again. Everyone gets dragged into competing on price and it becomes harder and harder for the shopper to see a meaningful difference between you. Which raises a fairly fundamental question? If we've spent...

Bigger networks don't automatically create bigger customer loyalty. As Mavis integrates Pep Boys, the brands that win will be those that move beyond transactions and create emotional connections with customers. My latest post explores how experiential rewards can help turn scale into retention, advocacy, and growth. - Ray Chelstowski With the addition of nearly 800 Pep Boys locations, Mavis now operates more than 4,400 service centers across North America, creating one of the largest automotive service networks on the continent. But scale alone doesn't create value. The real question is what happens after the merger closes. Can the combined business increase customer frequency? Can it strengthen loyalty? Can it improve retention in a market where consumers have more choices than ever for tires, maintenance, and repair services? That’s where many mergers succeed or fail. Most automotive service providers compete on price, convenience, and location. Those are importa...

QSRs are discovering that the next growth opportunity isn’t another discount or free meal. It’s giving customers a reason to engage beyond the transaction. See how brands like El Pollo Loco and Pizza Hut are using experiential rewards to drive engagement and visits, and how TLC has been leading this shift with programs like McDonald’s Fun Adventures with Happy Meal. The result: more meaningful customer connections, more reasons to come back, and a bigger opportunity to grow CLV. - Ray Chelstowski For years, QSR loyalty was built around a familiar formula: buy more, earn points, get free food. It worked. But the rules are changing. Consumers have more choices, more loyalty programs and less patience for promotions that feel interchangeable. In response, some of the smartest QSR brands are moving beyond discounts and points to something far more powerful:  experiences . El Pollo Loco is a strong example of where the category is heading. In 2026, the brand significantly expanded Loco ...

  Subway didn't just launch another promotion. It changed the value exchange. By linking purchases to experiences rather than discounts, the brand is tapping into emotional loyalty and creating more memorable customer relationships. The real opportunity extends far beyond movies, and it's exactly where TLC helps brands win. - Ray Chelstowski For years, loyalty in QSR has followed a familiar formula: buy more, earn points, get discounts. But the latest move from Subway suggests the industry may be starting to shift. Through its recent partnership offering customers access to a movie experience through Fandango, Subway is doing something many brands talk about but few actually execute: moving beyond transactional rewards and giving customers something memorable. The movie ticket itself isn't the story. The story is that Subway chose an experience over another discount. Consumers Don't Remember Discounts. They Remember Moments. Every major restaurant brand c...

Consumers don't remember the discount—they remember how your brand made them feel.  As marketers increasingly recognize that time is the new luxury, the brands creating lasting loyalty are rewarding customers with memorable experiences instead of deeper discounts. Here's why experiential rewards are becoming one of the smartest ways to build emotional connection while protecting margin. - Ray Chelstowski For years, marketers have chased consumers' wallets. Today, the smarter brands are chasing something far more valuable:  their time. A recent article in  Event Marketer  argued that  time has become the ultimate luxury.  Consumers are overwhelmed with choices, endless promotions, and constant notifications. Their attention is scarce. Their calendars are full. Every purchase becomes a decision about where they'll invest their limited time. This month,   Stella Artois  is helping New Yorker's   maximize  their time, by ensuring they can b...

Restaurant brands have spent decades competing on food, price, and convenience. Increasingly, however, the industry's most innovative marketers are investing in something else: family experiences. From play spaces and events to games, collectibles, and interactive programming, brands are discovering that emotional connections often drive stronger loyalty than discounts ever could. The next opportunity may be extending those experiences beyond the restaurant and into the moments families value most. - Ray Chelstowski For years, restaurant marketers have been told that loyalty is a math problem. Offer enough points. Create enough rewards. Deliver enough discounts. Customers will come back. But if that were entirely true, every loyalty program would look the same, and every restaurant chain would enjoy the same results. Instead, something interesting is happening across the industry. Restaurant brands are increasingly investing in experiences. Not experiential marketing. Not limited-t...