How Atlanta-Based Cardlytics is Improving Customer Loyalty for Banking Institutions – Shannon Johnson

ASBN recently caught up Shannon Johnson, Group President of Financial Institutions at Cardlytics, at the 2019 FinTech South Conference at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Cardlytics is an advertising platform that resides in digital bank channels, giving them a very unique view of customer loyalty and marketing.

Founders Scott Grimes and Lynne Laube started Cardlytics in 2008 after previously working as bankers at Capital One Bank. Despite the fact that Capital One had very good data and analytics capabilities, both Scott and Lynne felt that they could be doing so much more with the data in order to really bring value back to the bank customers.

In her presentation, Shannon discussed the nuances of customer loyalty. Cardlytics is an advertising platform that resides in digital bank channels, with a very unique perspective of loyalty from the bank’s side and also from the advertiser’s side. The platform sits right next to a lot of those loyalty programs, which a lot of advertisers already have. Cardlytics then can help do the marketing for those loyalty programs.

Drung the ’09 recession, when Cardlytics was founded, Shannon was with PNC Bank which had a very successful debit credit rewards program. However, when the federal government passed the Durbin Amendment, Shannon needed to find an alternative system. The problem was that at that time banks could not fathom handing over their transaction data to a third party so again it was the founders’ thoughtful approach towards privacy and security that made Cardyltics so successful.

To find out more about Cardlytics, be sure to watch our entire interview above.

The Atlanta Small Business Network, from start-up to success, we are your go-to resource for small business news, information, resources.