top of page

Crown loyalty program 
Strategy & Design

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Crown Resorts operates a premium hospitality and entertainment ecosystem where guest loyalty is a critical driver of repeat engagement and lifetime value.

 

Working with Tuncarp, a design agency partnering with Crown Resorts and Mastercard (Financial partner), I led the design strategy and experience redesign of Crown’s loyalty program to improve clarity, engagement, and consistent value realization across online and offline touchpoints.

Duration: 6 months

Team: Design Director, Design Lead, 2 UX/UI Designer

CROWN'S INITIAL BUSINESS PROBLEM

Crown identified a decline in engagement among newly acquired loyalty members.
While acquisition numbers remained strong, a large percentage of members did not meaningfully engage with the program beyond sign-up.

​

The initial business hypothesis was that improving the experience for “guest members”—particularly through enhanced rewards and benefits—would help re-engage them and drive repeat visits.

Engagement lifecycle.png

PRE-DISCOVERY & MARKET SCAN

Prior to stakeholder discussions, we conducted a brief market scan to understand how leading hospitality ecosystems drive loyalty beyond transactional rewards.

Examples such as Dubai Mall and Marina Bay Sands highlighted the role of cross-experience engagement across retail, dining, travel, and entertainment—informing early hypotheses around continuity, clarity, and perceived value.

Crown - Research 1.png

Dubai Mall provides buggy and hands-free shopping service where upper-tier members can shop and have the buggy either drop the bags at the car or provide a delivery service to hotel/residence for members

Crown - Research 1.png

Marina Bay Sands provides a personal shopping service where VIP members engage personal stylists from individual brands to pre-select pieces. Members are accompanied by a dedicated chaperone to embark on their VIP shopping journey.

Loyalty functioned as an always-on engagement mechanism, integrated across experiences rather than existing as a standalone program
Crown - Research 2.png

DEEP DIVE - Understanding the Loyalty Ecosystem

Stakeholder Interviews

  • Conducted interviews across loyalty, marketing, operations, and digital teams to understand ownership, priorities, and delivery constraints

  • Teams were aligned on the importance of loyalty but measured success differently, leading to fragmented decision-making

  • Loyalty messaging and mechanics varied between digital channels and on-ground experiences

  • Operational realities in venues were not always reflected in digital assumptions, creating experience gaps

Quantitative & Lifecycle Analysis

  • Analysed member lifecycle data (via Mastercard) from acquisition through engagement and redemption

  • Identified significant drop-offs post sign-up, with limited progression from passive to active members

  • Redemption behaviour was inconsistent and often delayed, reducing perceived value of rewards

  • Data suggested the issue was not lack of benefits, but lack of visibility, clarity, and reinforcement of value over time

MY ROLE AS A DESIGN DIRECTOR

My focus was to support the team in reframing the problem statement based on research insights and business constraints, while providing clear strategic direction and ensuring delivery within tight timelines.

​

The strategy focused on:

  1. Making loyalty tangible by expanding and aligning touchpoints across online and offline experiences

  2. Establishing a clear information hierarchy for loyalty tiers, supported by concise and consistent messaging across touchpoints

  3. Acting as the design liaison between Crown’s business innovation team and Mastercard’s technical partners to align experience, feasibility, and delivery

  4. Ensuring design decisions reflected operational realities within venues.

Reframing the Problem Statement

(User + Need + Insight)

Loyalty members needed an intuitive way to see their status, benefits, and progress across touchpoints, because poor visibility of benefits weakened motivation to engage.

Key findings - Synthesis

  • Members perceived value but it was unclear and poorly surfaced.

  • Lack of clarity made them unmotivated to engage and redeem their perks & vouchers.

  • Digital and physical touchpoints felt disconnected, weakening confidence.

  • Loyalty was treated as a standalone program, not an integrated journey.

  • Members lacked clarity on immediate value, reducing motivation.

  • These experience gaps diminished trust and engagement, even with strong rewards available.

Opportunities

  • Redesign information architecture for tier and milestone progression so members instantly understand status and benefits.

  • Interactive property map that contextualizes loyalty value in real-world and digital journeys.

  • Interest-based milestones (e.g., retail, wellness, gaming) to personalise engagement paths.

  • New KYC flow for casino & gaming to personalise experiences and reduce onboarding friction.

  • Virtual NFC-enabled loyalty card to unify digital and physical identity.

  • Optimize internal SaaS tools used by Crown teams to ensure experience consistency and execution quality.

  • QR-assisted voucher redemption at offline touchpoints to reduce friction and reinforce value in moments that matter.

Crown App.png

DESIGN LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS

  • Loyalty systems succeed when they are designed as continuous behavior loops, not isolated programs or screens.

  • Engagement is driven by clarity and timing of value, not reward volume, members act when benefits are visible and meaningful in context.

  • Scalable experiences across online and offline touchpoints depend on design decisions grounded in operational and delivery realities.

  • Driving impact in complex loyalty initiatives requires strategic alignment across teams and stakeholders, translating insights and constraints into a shared, executable direction.

bottom of page