Guy Cierzan offers insight on creating brand loyalty in the digital age

Guy Cierzan is as loyal as they come. He worked at customer-loyalty firm Denali Marketing before it was acquired in 2010 by Olson, the Minneapolis advertising agency. Before that, he spent years at loyalty giant Carlson Marketing. Cierzan is currently the managing director of Olson 1to1, the division of ICF Olson that specializes in client loyalty programs and customer relationship marketing, or CRM. Some of the department's recent clients have been Hilton Hotels, The Vitamin Shoppe, Advance Auto Parts and Darden Restaurants, whose brands include Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse. Olson also helped Amtrak create its guest rewards program and LensCrafters rebuild its marketing database to help it better understand its customers.

Q: As attention spans get shorter, does that affect customer loyalty to brands?

A: I think that to the degree that we see customers as a bit more fickle, I think it's driven by both the reality that they have such instantaneous ability to access choices and information that their decisions are often made in moments. And so the interactions we have with them that are ultimately made to cultivate loyalty, it can either build that loyalty bond in the moment or it can detract from it. … It can lead to being a bit more fickle. But I would argue that, as much as that can cause some disruption to what we are trying to do, it also is an opportunity for brands that can do it right.

Q: Olson does work for large hospitality chains like Hilton Hotels as well as retailers like Best Buy and Toys"R"Us, which have been affected by newer, digital competitors such as Airbnb and Amazon. How are traditional brands working to strengthen their relationships with customers?

A: They absolutely are thinking of both the Airbnbs and, to some extent, the Expedias of the world as more of your nontraditional competition. I think what we are seeing is the traditional brands still have the ability and/or are trying to combat that a bit with some of the aspects that they have uniquely as a brand. … Whether that's a retailer that's embracing the fact they have a brick-and-mortar presence and leveraging the type of experience that they can deliver in that space. Or if it's a more traditional hotel company that is leveraging the brand asset of consistency to combat a bit of the nontraditional or innovative approach that an Airbnb would give.

Q: How do you try to balance customers' demand for personalization with their wariness of having their personal information analyzed?

A: Certainly data can be incredibly powerful relative to how we can personalize the message, the offer, the experience, for customers. … At the same time, there's a line. We really, first and foremost, look at ensuring that customers have opted in and given permission to use the data and use it in a way that's true to what's expected.

A: The loyalty work we do is a significant business for us. Both sizable within the construct of our broader business and also one where we have good momentum and growth history and we see additional opportunity ahead as well.

Q: How do you explain the benefits of being part of a larger company like ICF versus being a fully independent agency?

A: If you are used to being a Fallon or a Mithun or an Olson that obviously can be a big leap and can be a big leap for employees. … We definitely are not a holding company scenario. … I think with ICF it's a relatively large, at least compared to the old days of advertising agencies in Minneapolis, it's a relatively formidable company. It's publicly traded. It's got some global scale to it. They are committed to our business. They are willing to invest in our business. … It also opens up other opportunities. For us, some of those come in the form of some of the industry verticals and practice areas that ICF has a lot of work in. Health care, energy, aviation being three of them that can get interesting for us and then the other aspect of it is having a much broader global presence.

Q: How does ICF Olson stay nimble and innovative?

A: Invariably when you scale something up, and that would probably be true whether you were independent or part of something else, but when you scale up and have a bigger organization some of those things maybe that served you well from an innovation standpoint start to get challenged. I think for us, first and foremost, hiring the right talent and the right people obviously is critical … but as important is creating the right culture, the right approach to the work. The internal environment where people feel inspired, where they feel motivated, where they feel driven.