#723: Building loyalty across different generations of travelers with Jeff Zotara, arrivia

The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX

The Agile Brand

Business, Marketing

5 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you had to pick one of the biggest challenges facing CMOs today, how high on your list would customer loyalty be? Agility requires a deep understanding of your customer and the ability to adapt to their ever-changing needs and expectations. It also requires a willingness to experiment and learn from failures, quickly iterating on strategies and tactics. Today, we're going to talk about the evolving landscape of travel loyalty programs and how brands can best engage with different generations of travelers, particularly in the face of changing economic conditions and emerging generational trends. To help me discuss this topic and other highlights from arrivia’s Loyalty and the Changing Traveler report, I'd like to welcome, Jeff Zotara, Chief Marketing Officer at arrivia. About Jeff Zotara Jeff Zotara is the Chief Marketing Officer of arrivia, a travel technology company providing travel loyalty, booking, and marketing solutions to consumer-facing companies that want to deliver exceptional value to customers, uncover new revenue streams, and drive growth through exciting travel rewards and member benefits. With more than two decades as a strategic and operational marketing leader, Jeff is focused on driving growth and marketing technology across brands and providing the best member experience at the intersection of travel and tech. Jeff Zotara on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffzotara/ Resources arrivia: https://www.arrivia.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Get a copy of arrivia's Loyalty and the Changing Traveler report: https://resources.arrivia.com/report-survey-loyalty-changing-traveler Don't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150" Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstromDon't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.showCheck out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Agile brand.
0:03.0	Welcome to Season 7 of the Agile brand, where we discuss the trends and topics marketing leaders need to know.
0:15.0	Stay curious, stay agile, and join the top enterprise brands and MARTEC platforms as we explore marketing technology, AI, e-commerce, and join the top enterprise brands and Martec platforms as we explore marketing technology,
0:23.1	AI, e-commerce, and whatever's next for the Omnichannel customer experience.
0:27.9	Together we'll discover what it takes to create an agile brand, built for today and tomorrow,
0:32.1	and built for customers, employees, and continued business growth.
0:36.9	I'm your host, Greg Kilstrom, advising Fortune 1,000 brands on Martec, employees, and continued business growth. I'm your host, Greg Kilstrom, advising Fortune 1000 brands on Martec, AI, and marketing operations.
0:43.3	The Agile Brand Podcast is brought to you by Tech Systems, an industry leader in full-stack technology services,
0:49.3	talent services, and real-world application. For more information, go to T-E-K to teK systems.com. To make sure you
0:56.9	always get the latest episodes, please hit subscribe on the app you listen to podcasts on, and leave
1:01.7	us a rating so others can find us as well. And now on to the show. If you had to pick one of the biggest
1:09.0	challenges facing CMOs today, how high on your list would customer loyalty be?
1:13.6	Agility requires a deep understanding of your customer and the ability to adapt to their ever-changing needs and expectations.
1:21.6	It also requires a willingness to experiment and learn from failures, quickly iterating on strategies and tactics.
1:28.3	Today we're going to talk about the evolving landscape of travel loyalty programs
1:32.3	and how brands can best engage with different generations of travelers,
1:36.3	particularly in the face of changing economic conditions and emerging generational trends.
1:42.3	Tell me discuss this topic and other highlights from
1:45.4	Arrivia's loyalty and the Changing Traveler Report. I'd like to welcome back to the show,
1:50.5	Jeff Sotara, Chief Marketing Officer at Arrivia. Jeff, welcome back to the show.
1:55.4	Thank you, Greg, and thanks for having me back and looking forward to a good conversation today.
2:00.6	Yeah, yeah, looking forward to, you know, glad to have you back.
	...

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