5 Loyalty Programs Nobody Talks About (That Are Quietly Winning)
The best loyalty mechanics cannot be found in the loyalty playbook. They are hiding in recycling programs, festival activations, mobile games, fitness apps and fantasy sports leagues.
Most loyalty coverage fixates on the same programs: Airlines, hotels, credit cards and the occasional grocery chain. The result is an industry that keeps benchmarking against itself and wondering why outcomes look identical. The brands winning right now borrow from categories that have nothing to do with loyalty.
The Earn Action Is the Strategy
Before the list: The thing most programs get wrong isn't the reward. It's the earn.
"Spend money, earn points, get discounts" is table stakes. It's also invisible. When every program in your category runs the same mechanic, the mechanic stops being a differentiator and starts being a cost of doing business. If your loyalty program could be swapped with a competitor's and your customers wouldn't notice, then you don't have a loyalty program.
Every program below either replaced the earn action with something unexpected, or kept the points but wrapped them in a story worth talking about. That's the playbook.
Here's who's running it:
1. Boots "Recycle at Boots" — Earn by Bringing in Garbage
Members get 500 Advantage Card points for depositing five hard-to-recycle items, such as toothpaste tubes or mascara wands and spending £10 in-store. The program is now live in 700 UK locations and has recovered more than 145 tons of hard-to-recycle plastic since 2020.
The steal: The earn action isn't a purchase. It's a brand-aligned behavior that drives foot traffic. Boots didn't add a loyalty feature. They made loyalty the mechanism for a sustainability initiative, and the store visit comes along for the ride.
2. Liquid Death Country Club — Enroll by Selling Your Soul
Free if you legally sign over your soul ... $125,000 if you'd rather pay cash. Either way, more than 225,000 members get exclusive merch, early drops, private events and VIP festival access at Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza.
The steal: When you don't own the transaction (Liquid Death sells through retailers, not direct to consumers) make loyalty about identity and community instead. The enrollment mechanic is the brand. Everything downstream is just fulfillment.
3. KFC Rewards Arcade (UK & Ireland) — Redeem by Playing an Interactive Game
Every qualifying order triggers an instant-win arcade game in the app. Swing a 3D hammer, win free food. The relaunch drove 1.3 million redemptions, a 22% lift in app transactions and 51% week-on-week app download growth.
The steal: Turning redemption into play eliminates the "saving up" tax. Most programs make customers wait. This one makes them want to open the app. The game isn't the reward; it's the delivery mechanism for the reward.
4. Bergzeit Club. Earn with Your Strava Data
The German mountaineering retailer rewards members for hikes, runs and climbs tracked via Strava and Vertical Life. A 95% lift in order frequency and 25% higher average order value per member.
The steal: Reward the lifestyle data customers are already generating outside your store. Bergzeit didn't ask members to change their behavior. They attached value to behavior that was already happening, meaning the program earns relevance every time someone laces up, regardless of whether they're shopping or not.
5. Death Wish Coffee Swig League. Points Wrapped in a Sports League
Subscribers join one of two teams, Pitch Black versus Creamators, in a nine-inning, nine-week baseball-style campaign, earning team points for referrals, opt-ins and challenges. Redemption rates hit 70%. Repeat customers show 4.8 times higher average order value than one-time buyers.
The steal: A points program doesn't have to stay a points program. Wrap it in a competitive narrative and the math changes. Members are now competing for their teams. That's a different psychological contract, and it shows up in the numbers.
The Pattern
Five programs. Five different categories. Five completely different earn mechanics: Garbage, soul, play, sweat and rivalry.
In all of these cases, spending is just the default because it's easy to measure. The brands on this list asked a different question: What does our customer already value, believe or do? And built the earn mechanic from that answer. Everything else is delivery infrastructure.
The unsexy categories are where the real innovation is happening right now. A pharmacy chain, a canned water brand, a fast-food app, a mountaineering retailer, and a coffee company are doing more interesting loyalty work than many airlines and hotels combined.
That's not luck. Constraint breeds creativity, and the brands nobody expects to innovate are the ones who have to.
About the Author
Jennifer Kunz is director of loyalty strategy at Brandmovers, where she builds programs designed to change behavior, not just reward it. With more than 10 years across Fortune 500 brands, she blends gamification, data and smart economics to drive measurable growth in acquisition, engagement and revenue.
