Loyalty Director

Job Description
Role overview:

The Loyalty Director will drive the strategic development of the Yas Annual Passholder program and be directly responsible for retention, acquisition, and engagement performance. 

 

Working closely with the Brand Marketing Director - Theme Parks & Attractions, the Loyalty Director will spearhead the development of various pivotal strategies, including:

The Passholder customer journey masterplan
The Loyalty Product strategy
The Passholder lifecycle engagement strategy
The Passholder retention/acquisition strategy
The Loyalty partner integration strategy
The Loyalty insights & action strategy
The Loyalty technology development transition strategy
Additionally, the Loyalty Director will take the lead in overseeing the annual pass cross-divisional committee.

The Loyalty Director will be the key contact for all senior internal and external stakeholders, ensuring alignment on Miral Group’s loyalty masterplan.  

Loyalty & Annual Pass:

Develop the Annual Pass & Loyalty Strategy for the theme park/attraction(s) and deliver on Annual Pass budgeted attendance numbers, sales revenue and yield targets. 
Develop the Annul Pass Passholder retention / acquisition strategy with the objective of long-term business growth (revenue, per-cap, attendance).
Develop Passholder engagement strategy that fosters repeat visitation and amplifies in-park spending. This strategy entails enhancing the entire Annual Pass Guest experience, from the online journey to the in-park experience. It includes the creation of exclusive events and enticing in-park discounts designed to reward and elevate loyalty toward the Yas Island Theme Park(s)/attraction(s) brand(s).
Work closely with the Revenue Management and Business Insights team to ensure accurate understanding of Annual Pass numbers and revenue per product type. Insights to focus on forecasting annual pass expirations and analyzing the data to identify future revenue opportunities. 
Develop the ability to monitor Annual Pass Member satisfaction, working with Guest Services, theme park/attraction(s) Operation teams, IT and Business Insights teams
Lead the Annual Pass Committee including all relevant parties across the business involved in Annual Pass initiatives to ensure cross-departmental ownership of the product. 
Oversee integration of loyalty schemes across the wider (Miral Group) business.
Identify key long term global strategic partners with the goal to increase product strength and acquire new and relevant customers in key markets. Develop the Loyalty partner integration strategy to on-board / enhance the benefit offering of each Annual Pass tier. 
Lead the development of a comprehensive digitization strategy aimed at modernizing the product. This strategy encompasses the seamless integration of reservation systems, streamlined onboarding processes, personalized one-on-one user engagement initiatives, and the implementation of a user-friendly payment facility.
Identify individual customer segments, buying patterns and preferences by analysing and understanding behaviours and trends and recommending specific initiatives to retain and grow the various customer segments. Ensure the effectiveness of data mining and analysis techniques in the forecasting of buying habits and preferences. 
Stakeholder Management:

Develop relationships with all relevant senior stakeholders (within Miral Group) to ensure all requested deliverables are in line with the group loyalty strategy. 
Develop strong relationships with all Miral Group Exec Team, GM’s, Head of Departments, Directors and support team(s) to ensure that the business is working together on all critical loyalty initiatives. 
Team Leadership:

Lead the Loyalty team in line with the leisure facility marketing organizational chart
Lead the team to plan and execute the annual engagement strategy with a key focus on achieving positive return on investment against initiative spend.
Support the team to execute all in-park exclusives to deliver on a positive guest journey and increase guest incremental spend. 
Constant focus on competitor movement, locally, regionally, and globally to equip the team with development / growth opportunities. 
Constant focus on learning and development for the team with the goal to maximize business efficiency and create strategic leaders of the future 
Create a team culture of positivity to drive successful outcomes for the business.
Key lead for Loyalty within Sales and Marketing; across Digital Marketing, CRM, social media, Public Relations, Call Centre and Sales teams to drive a singular brand goal for mutual business success. 
Act as the loyalty representative within the senior leadership team.
Ensure that internal policies and processes are followed and adhered to at all times
Project Management 

Owning Loyalty development projects, leading internal and external stakeholders in the critical transversal marketing development for new technology / assets. 
Overseeing the marketing development of the project and ensuring that team members are carrying out their tasks efficiently while upholding the company's standards. Coordinating workshops to obtain outcomes, summarizing project deliverables; planning project management, setting deadlines, prioritizing tasks, and workflow management. 
Reviewing financial data, including project budgets, risks, and resource allocation.
Presenting project status, outcomes, risks, and decisions to senior stakeholders.
Digital Customer Journey Optimization 

Oversee management of the Online Passholder consumer journey, for all digital channels (website, apps, and portals), working with the Brand Marketing team to ensure all content is kept up to date and compliant with IP rules/regulations and in-line with internal brand standards. Developing/maintaining guest/partner communication with the objective of incrementally increasing conversion and revenue generation. 
Commercial, Budget & Reporting:

Development of senior management strategic reports, board presentations and other documents required by the Senior Leadership team.
Understand key marketing performance metrics and tracking tools to provide market research, forecasts, competitive analyses, campaign results, and consumer trends in order to translate results into actionable insights for marketing team to optimize campaigns.
Support the Director of Marketing with management of departmental P&L budget, ensuring phased spending plan is aligned with approved forecast and cost efficiencies are implemented where possible. 
Identify short-term and long-term scheduling, budget, and resource needs, including the development and management of an annual marketing budget for all theme parks and attractions expenditure spending, and other financial considerations.
Ensure that the Passholder engagement / retention Calendar is executed to ensure campaign drivers are meeting expected business revenue and attendance targets.
Review Post Campaign Overview for all marketing initiatives to identify future opportunities / advice on any remedial actions for improved success for future initiatives. 
Create other reports and document as required.

Qualifications

Essential:

Hold a Bachelor's degree or an equivalent qualification in Marketing.

Years of Experience 

Essential:

Minimum 10 years of Marketing experience
Proven expertise in loyalty function roles.
Demonstrated experience working with leading regional or global brands.
Desirable:

Worked in theme parks, marine life theme parks, attractions or entertainment venues
Worked in the UAE or GCC countries in a marketing environment
Skills

Essential:

A natural team leader with a confident, assertive and approachable personality
Creative thinker and customer focused
Commercially astute, data-driven and results oriented
Resourceful, pro-active and innovative thinker
Strong project management skills and deadline driven
Ability to navigate a busy and challenging environment
Strong presentation skills in both public speaking and PowerPoint format
Solid attention to detail
Agency management
Analytical in thinking and able to manipulate data in Excel
Strong copywriting skills
 

Desirable: 

Fluent Arabic speaker and writer
Event management