News Briefs

Seminole Hard Rock has appointed Elena Alvarez as the new Senior Vice President of Marketing and Brand Partnerships for Seminole Gaming and Hard Rock International. In this new role, the company veteran will be responsible for the development of brand activations and integrating assets across Hotels, Cafes, Retail, and Casinos including overseeing the development of new revenue-generating platforms. Alvarez will also continue to oversee the global marketing of the Cafe division of Hard Rock International. She reports to Jeff Hook, Executive Vice President of Marketing/CMO of Seminole Hard Rock Support Services and, with respect to brand partnerships, to Keith Sheldon, President of Entertainment.

“Elena is an essential senior marketer with a proven track record elevating the Hard Rock brand for our Cafe division that includes spearheading F&B innovation and initiating and evolving the company’s successful multi-faceted partnership with Lionel Messi,” said Hook. “With nearly 20 years of experience at Hard Rock alone, we have the utmost confidence that Elena will continue to elevate the Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming brands in new and exciting ways.”

Alvarez began her career with Hard Rock International as a Sales & Marketing Manager for Hard Rock Cafe Barcelona in 2005. Since then, Alvarez held key sales and marketing roles in the Europe, U.K. and U.S. Cafe divisions where she developed regional and global marketing strategies, brand programs, and corporate sponsorships across the company and franchise Cafe portfolio to drive top-line sales while heightening consumer awareness. In 2019 after her move to the U.S., Alvarez was promoted to Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing for the Cafe division where oversaw marketing in more than 150 Hard Rock locations (which will continue in her new role) and has proven to be an invaluable asset to the Hard Rock brand.

Domino's Pizza Inc. introduces its new and improved loyalty program. 

Domino's Rewards offers loyalty members even more opportunities to earn and redeem points across its corporate and franchise store locations. Domino's enhanced rewards program allows customers to:

• Earn points for less
  • Loyalty members will now earn 10 points on every order of $5 or more
• Redeem points for even more menu items – and earn free Domino's after just two orders
  • Members can redeem a variety of points for more menu items:
    • 20 points: A free dipping cup, a 16-piece order of Parmesan Bread Bites or a 20 oz. drink
    • 40 points: An order of Bread Twists or Stuffed Cheesy Bread
    • 60 points: A medium, two-topping pizza; pasta; Oven-Baked Sandwich; or a 3-piece order of Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes
• Earn more rewards
  • Loyalty perks are now even better, as members will have exclusive access to member-only deals, special discounts and opportunities to earn bonus points!

"We are thrilled to give the brand's loyal customers additional ways to earn free Domino's items more often," said Mark Messing, Domino's vice president of digital experience and loyalty. "At a time when most brands are scaling back their loyalty programs and making it more difficult to earn and redeem points, Domino's is doing the opposite. We want to make it easier to reward our customers and give them more options so they can get rewarded faster."

Marketing a LTO 

From now until Oct. 22, 2023, rewards members can take advantage of a limited time offer to redeem 20 points for a free order of Domino's new Pepperoni Stuffed Cheesy Bread, which is normally a 40-point redemption, in celebration of the product's recent launch. 

Chipotle Mexican Grill announced it is investing in Greenfield Robotics, a company founded with the vision of making regenerative farming more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable by leveraging the latest advances in AI, robotics, and sensing technologies, and Nitricity, a company seeking to tackle greenhouse gas emissions by creating fertilizer products that are better for fields, farmers, and the environment. These minority investments are being made through Chipotle's $50 million Cultivate Next venture fund.

Cultivate Next makes early-stage investments into strategically aligned companies that further Chipotle's mission to Cultivate a Better World and help accelerate the company's aggressive growth plans. As a people-first company, Chipotle is seeking opportunities that will elevate the human experience for its restaurant teams and suppliers as well as increase access and convenience for its guests.

Robots for Regenerative Agriculture 

Conventional farming destroys weeds with chemicals and soil tillage, resulting in escalating costs, soil erosion and degradation of soil, resistant weeds, and health risks for both wildlife and humans. Greenfield Robotics provides regenerative agriculture solutions without chemicals. Their fleets of autonomous robots are lightweight and cut weeds between rows of broadacre crops, day or night, reducing dependence on herbicides while supporting regenerative farming practices and reducing risk for farmers.

With its Cultivate Next investment, Greenfield Robotics will continue its efforts to build out its fleet of autonomous agricultural robots and develop additional capabilities for forthcoming iterations of its robots, including micro-spraying, cover crop planting, and soil testing.

"The work of Greenfield Robotics to build out a tech forward alternative to herbicides plays an important role in ensuring a more sustainable future for the agricultural industry," said Curt Garner, Chief Customer and Technology Officer, Chipotle. "We will help Greenfield Robotics scale their robotic offerings and explore how their robots can be deployed on farms within our supply chain."

"Like Chipotle's commitment to Food with Integrity, we believe in the future of real, responsibly and sustainably raised food," said Clint Brauer, founder of Greenfield Robotics. "In partnership with Chipotle, we can continue to explore creative solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing farmers across the United States."

New Age Fertilizer 

Inspired by the natural occurrence of lightning breaking down nitrogen in the air and rainwater bringing it to the soil as nitrate to create natural fertilizer, Nitricity has pioneered a practice of creating artificial lightning. The company leverages air, water, and renewable energy from the artificial lightning to produce a cleaner, more sustainable, and cost-efficient fertilizer. The current process of producing, distributing, and using nitrogen fertilizer by way of the Haber-Bosch method requires a large amount of fossil fuels and emits significant amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to 5-7% of total global GHG (greenhouse gases). Nitricity's nitrogen fertilizer has 5 to 10 times less GHG emissions due to its electrified production and field application process. Nitricity is building its production model of fertilizer on or near its end customers to limit the emissions from fertilizer distribution and application. Currently, up to 20% of fertilizer in the U.S. is imported through an expensive and complex supply chain.

Nitricity has started field trials for their fertilizer product with Salinas Valley farmers, including Chipotle suppliers in the region. Funding from Cultivate Next will be used to scale up Nitricity's production of nitrogen, build out the company's infrastructure, and support the launch of its first commercial product within the next two years.

"We're proud to support Nitricity's pursuit of a product innovation whose environmental benefits are complimentary to Chipotle's approach to Food With Integrity," said Jack Hartung, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, Chipotle. He added, "Fertilizers have experienced steep price increases in recent years due to supply chain issues, fossil fuel price volatility, and rising distribution costs. Nitricity's fertilizer offering not only has the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of the fertilizer industry, but it can be a cost-effective solution for growers in our supply chain."

"Nitricity is committed to producing fertilizer that is optimized for farmers, not factory production or freight distribution," said Nico Pinkowski, co-founder and CEO of Nitricity. "Partnering with Chipotle will unquestionably accelerate our path toward disrupting the industry with climate-smart technology."

Tim McAfee, a Cultivate Next Venture Collaborator and current Chipotle produce supplier noted: "I have visited the facilities of both Nitricity and Greenfield Robotics and am optimistic and enthusiastic about the impact these innovations could have on the growing community."

What's Next for Cultivate Next? 
Chipotle will continue to provide more updates on the Cultivate Next venture fund in 2024 and beyond. Companies interested in collaborating with Chipotle through the Cultivate Next venture fund can apply by emailing [email protected].  

WebBeds, a global marketplace providing accommodation ground product distribution services to the travel industry, has partnered with BeCause to provide WebBeds users with certified sustainability data on its hotel partners.
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As a multinational organization, WebBeds recognises the importance of global corporate responsibility and is dedicated to reducing its environmental footprint by promoting environmentally responsible sustainable travel.

WebBeds has partnered with BeCause – a sustainability technology start-up transforming how companies in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industries manage their sustainability data – to scale up the number of properties tagged as ‘eco-certified’ on WebBeds booking platforms.

BeCause will enable WebBeds to automatically match hotels in its database to those with Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GTSC) credentials (currently 49 recognised standards). Individual properties that meet GTSC criteria will receive an eco-friendly identifier on WebBeds' booking platforms, which travel trade partners can use to book hotel stays for the end traveller aligned with their values on sustainability.

Daryl Lee, WebBeds CEO said, “Partnering with BeCause is a key step in our ongoing journey to become a more environmentally responsible business. Our travel trade customers are becoming more conscious about the eco-credentials of the properties they recommend to the end traveller. Working with BeCause helps us to rapidly scale the number of eco-certified properties we provide on our platforms with the assurance that these properties have all been through a rigorous certification process administered by recognised standards authorities."

Frederik Steensgaard, CEO and co-founder of BeCause said, “Without BeCause, marketplaces like WebBeds have to manually perform sustainability checks. This process is expensive, outdated, and error-prone. BeCause eliminates these issues. Not only does automation help speed up and reduce costs, but with our centralised data hub, marketplaces and their users have access to real-time, trustworthy hotel information from recognised sustainability organizations like the GSTC. With more and more travellers putting a premium on eco-friendly travel, enabling this transparency is vital to a marketplace’s business.”

Knowland, a provider of data-as-a-service insights on meetings and events for hospitality, showcased its dedication to helping customers increase revenue, expand market share, and adapt to shifting dynamics through innovative enhancements in services and data optimization in 2023. 

As the company heads into its 20^th year, Knowland’s holistic account-based selling platform helps customers go beyond meetings and events sales. Using data intelligence to sell across account segments, hotel sales teams drive higher revenue from group, corporate, meeting space, and catering operations. Innovations include more than 80 platform features and enhancements since the launch of its enhanced platform to make it even easier to identify and capture hotel revenue:

• Providing fast access to actionable sales data through innovation – Knowland’s agile development process delivered new innovative functionality in 2023. Features such as Account Alerts, Market Snapshot, Portfolio Capture, and Market Segmentation, provide easy access to actionable sales intelligence.
• Broadening data access through partnerships – Knowland forged partnerships with Amadeus and Oracle to deliver world-class integrations and enablement solutions. The company has increased data volume and quality, with over 50 percent of data captured through electronic processing.
• Informing the industry through award-winning meeting and event data – Beginning in 2020, the company became one of the first data sources to establish a growth metric for the meeting and event industry. Today, it is the pre-eminent expert for insights into meetings and events trends. In 2023, Knowland won the Skift IDEAS award in the data provider category for its contributions to industry recovery.
• Expanding markets into the Middle East and Asia – Knowland expanded service and support in the industry’s highest growth regions with new operations in Doha, Sentosa, and Ras Al Khaimah and additional highly competitive international markets.
• Building industry proficiency through education and certification – The company launched its Knowland Certification Program as part of the Knowland Academy to validate user skills, demonstrate value to management, and showcase strategic workflows that drive revenue and ensure positive ROI for its customers.
• Enhancing data through AI – Knowland enhanced its data scalability, reliability, and speed-to-use with AI and automation technologies. It is currently developing upcoming disruptive functionalities such as automated lead discovery.

Jeff Bzdawka, CEO, Knowland, said: “The foundation of Knowland is based on three important product pillars: deliver increasingly robust data and ongoing improvement through enhanced collection methods, technology, and partnerships; provide a simple interface with an intuitive user experience; and most importantly and foundationally, deliver improved sales outcomes for hospitality businesses. By using the Knowland Platform, hospitality organizations can fill need periods faster, increase market share, and deliver a more productive sales experience at scale across their commercial operations into 2024 and beyond.” 

For a preview of what is to come in 2024, view Knowland’s State of the Business here: https://get.knowland.com/2023-state-of-business-report

American consumers intend to travel more in 2024, but that doesn't mean rising travel prices and the increased cost of living aren't affecting how they view trip planning and travel reward programs, according to The Pathway to Program Profits, a preview of an upcoming survey report from arrivia, a travel technology company that provides travel loyalty, booking and marketing solutions to consumer-facing companies.

Arrivia's comprehensive 2024 Travel Loyalty Outlook report will be available in early 2024 and will explore trends among brands that offer travel rewards programs and the consumers and members that use them. The report's findings reveal challenges facing those loyalty programs and identify opportunities to attract, retain, and engage with members based on changing attitudes toward loyalty, value and travel.

The report analyzes a September 2023 survey conducted by arrivia of more than 2,200 U.S. consumers about their 2024 travel plans and the role of travel rewards and loyalty programs, alongside a concurrent study of over 100 loyalty decision-makers about their program strategies and priorities for the upcoming year. It compares consumer and business perspectives on program effectiveness and goals and examines changes in brand and traveler priorities since arrivia's 2021 study of loyalty professionals and American consumers.

Over two-thirds of surveyed consumers (67%) find value-oriented issues most frustrating when booking a trip, with 42% saying they prioritized value more in recent months. In contrast, only 20% of the surveyed program managers view demonstrating the value of their travel rewards as a major challenge.

"Our report findings suggest that not all brands recognize how crucial value has become to the American consumer in today's economic environment," says Jeff Zotara, arrivia Chief Marketing Officer. "To remain competitive and capture their members' travel dollars, brands must identify new ways to provide that value better than anyone else and then make sure they clearly convey these differentiators to members."

Travel loyalty programs shift focus from increased membership to profitability

While travelers have increased focus on value, travel brands have shifted priorities from overall membership growth and retention to profitability, emphasizing improving member engagement and increasing incremental spending among program members and customers.

• Only 8% of brands identified customer retention as the top objective of their loyalty strategy, compared to 30% in arrivia's 2021 survey; 57% chose new member acquisition as a program goal for the year ahead, down from 70% in 2021.
• The findings also show a notable shift in travel brand goals: customer lifetime value and program revenue have gained prominence, with the importance of increasing customer lifetime value rising from 16% in 2021 to 29%, and the goal of boosting total member spending jumping from 41% to 54%.

Bridging potential disconnects through expanding the value proposition

The report concludes that brands can reach their engagement and profitability goals by providing strategic discounts on the most popular travel products like hotel stays and expanding earning and redemption options to improve their members' experience.

• A successful way to increase the appeal of offers and conversions is through niche market offerings with a strong following, like cruise travel. Cruise enthusiasts represent more than one-third of the total travel market and have specific preferences that can be catered to through loyalty programs and reward options.
• Cruises are also a market prime for expansion; 32% of consumers expressed immediate interest in a cruise deal, while 50% would consider the offer.

"In today's economic environment, brands across the spectrum are under pressure to generate more revenue from customers, and the travel industry is no exception," added Zotara. "The most obvious way for travel loyalty programs to drive more revenue from existing customers is by taking a member-centric approach to value – leveraging technology – like big data, machine learning and AI – to gather data and develop personalized offers that speak to member preferences."

Arrivia's The Pathway to Program Profits preview report identifies opportunities for brands to boost revenue and conversions while deepening member relationships by addressing the importance of the value and utility of travel rewards – including the right selection of reward options combined with the right level of customer service.