Former Optus partnerships manager and customer engagement specialist joins the Aussie SaaS company
Gamification and engagement platform, Komo Technologies, has brought on former Optus senior partnership manager and CX specialist, Aussie Merciadez, as its first global chief of customer engagement and partnerships.
The appointment is about helping Komo’s push into the wider customer loyalty and rewards program space. Historically, the homegrown business has provided engagement solutions such as gamification and quizzes brands can use to connect with customers, connecting into existing loyalty program platforms. It’s now extending into other loyalty and rewards programs.
Merciadez is tasked with spearheading Komo’s move into the category. She comes with 20 years’ experience in this field including more than eight years at Optus as senior partnership manager, customer engagement specialist and senior manager of loyalty partnerships and rewards.
During her stint with Optus, Merciadez led initiatives for consumer to drive retention, acquisition and brand engagement by harnessing data analytics, building business cases and overseeing implementation. The ‘Optus Perks’ program, which launched in 2015, has been ranked as one of Australia’s top 10 loyalty programs by Swoosh and reportedly achieved this result in its first year with no above-the-line support.
While at Optus, she also built relationships with Hoyts, Disney, Universal, Sony, Live Nation, Frontier, Mushroom Group, Ticketmaster and Ticketek and supported broader Singtel global loyalty initiatives plus Optus Enterprise and SMB.
Komo CEO and co-founder, Joel Steel, saw Merciadez’s extensive knowledge, network and expertise ensuring Komo’s entry into the loyalty space is seamless.
“Adding loyalty and rewards to our already world-leading engagement technology creates substantial opportunities to increase revenue and customer retention,” he commented. “According to the 2022 Australian Loyalty Association Report, 90 per cent of Australians belong to at least one loyalty program, and the average Australian is a member of five. We are simply going to make it easy, fast, and effective to amplify existing programs and create new ones from scratch.
“We don’t see anyone else building a compelling end-to-end SaaS solution that uses engagement, gamification and first party data to power loyalty. That’s exactly what Komo is doing.”
Merciadez said she found the team at Komo innovative, agile and “extremely smart”. “Solving complex marketing challenges with simple solutions is what excites me most. The energy and culture at Komo will make this an incredible journey to be a part of,” she said.
“Loyalty is ripe for disruption, and I am excited to lead the charge with Komo given their progressive capabilities are perfectly aligned to the environmental trends of a broader marketing landscape.”
Recent new business wins and users of the Komo platform include Heineken, Foxtel Group, McDonald’s, M&C Saatchi, Goodman Fielder, Williams F1, San Churro, Football Australia, Commonwealth Games and JLL.
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