Komo Technologies appoints Aussie Merciadez as global chief of customer engagement + loyalty partnerships

One of Australia’s leading customer engagement platforms and WA-founded, Komo Technologies is set to expand its existing extensive offering to disrupt the loyalty rewards market with the appointment of highly experienced loyalty innovator Aussie Merciadez to the new role of global chief of customer engagement and loyalty partnerships.

A trailblazer in loyalty and rewards programs, Merciadez will spearhead Komo’s move into the category as it seeks to fill a gap in the market with a SaaS solution that makes it quick and easy for brands to create a cost effective, fun, and compelling loyalty program. Her 20-plus year career in the field includes more than eight years at Optus as senior partnership manager, customer engagement specialist and senior manager of loyalty partnerships and rewards. During her tenure at Optus Merciadez was responsible for leading the initiatives for Consumer to drive retention, acquisition, and brand engagement. Leveraging data analytics, Merciadez led the process of the business case, tender process, and implementation to create a hybrid loyalty, all of business initiative ranked as one of Australia’s top 10 loyalty programs with no ATL support.

Merciadez is brave and fearless in looking for innovation and activated the first global promotional chat bot gaining marketing nominations in areas outside her team’s scope. The Optus Perks program was successful in achieving and surpassing all of their business objectives, engagement metrics and measurements of success, driving desired YOY retention rates and increased product holding across their 10M customer base. While at Optus, Merciadez also built long standing relationships with Hoyts, Disney, Universal, Sony, Live Nation, Frontier, Mushroom Group, Ticketmaster and Ticketek. Recognised as the customer engagement specialist, Merciadez supported broader Singtel global loyalty initiatives, Optus Enterprise, and SMB.

Komo CEO and co-founder Joel Steel said Merciadez’s extensive knowledge, network and expertise will ensure 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. According to the 2022 Australian Loyalty Association Report, 90% 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.

“Our customers want to deliver beyond basic gift card rewards and simple competition mechanics – they want to harness and leverage loyalty but are hamstrung by existing programs that fall short on personalisation, fun, excitement, and engagement. Existing solutions are static and suffer content fatigue – and most mid-market brands don’t have the resources to invest in a full loyalty solution.

“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. Our solution integrates with existing enterprise loyalty programs by making them more personalised and engaging which leverages our already substantial tech stack, plus helps enterprise and mid-market brands get their first loyalty solution off the ground or replaces the prehistoric solutions that have stopped innovating and will lose customers’ loyalty if they are not continuously adding personalised value.

“Aussie’s wealth of experience, industry knowledge and network around consumer engagement, loyalty and rewards will be instrumental in our disruption of this huge untapped market. Plus, Aussie is just the perfect cultural fit and I have been a huge fan of hers for many years. It’s a real privilege to work alongside and learn from Aussie each day.”

Merciadez welcomed the opportunity to join like-minded forward thinkers to drive the new offering: “The Komo team are 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.

“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. Speed to market, self-managed or Komo supported implementation and the ability to retarget customers in real time, highly personalised, is a real game changer.”

Merciadez’s appointment and launch of the loyalty offering follows a year of significant growth for Komo, expanding its team from 10 to 19 in 2022 with four new hires in 2023 already. This followed significant new business wins and users of the Komo platform from brands and agencies including, Heineken, Foxtel Group, McDonald’s, M&C Saatchi, Goodman Fielder, Williams F1, San Churro, Football Australia, Commonwealth Games and JLL as marketers increasingly seek to engage and retain audiences through branded, interactive content and gamified experiences.