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Square recently announced they were getting into the loyalty game. They join a growing trend of third party loyalty program providers to accompany the ever-expanding programs that are offered by companies themselves totaling over two billion participants worldwide. Loyalty is only second to .

As more startups pop up to offer “loyalty” programs and larger, more traditional brands look to get into the “loyalty” game, there’s something we have to address right now. Many of these programs don’t generate loyalty.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a scant three years since I wrote about how to fix college football by eliminating the championship game.

Go give that a read for a refresher and make these notes:

• Stop reading before you get to the predictions. Other than Clemson and Georgia Tech playing in the ACC title game. Stop after that one.
• How about a little pat on the back for the prescience in saying conferences should be 10-14 teams
• BC was coming off back-to-back ACC championship games and so it was only mildly insane to pair them with Alabama in a game. Sidenote: Please fire Frank Spaziani.
• Navy is joining a conference. Thanks fellas! However, BYU has left a conference. Sigh.

But here we are with another debate. The BCS is dead and a four team playoff will happen. But of course nothing is simple, so there is all kind of debate as to the best way to do this. With that, I present to you fresh in 2012, my NEW fix for college football in which I explain very simply how this should work.

I had a whole post planned about emoticons. It had a provocative title: “Emoticons: The Most Important Advancement in Digital Culture Since the Internet.” It’s a little wordy, but totes provocative, amirite? It was based on the idea that since we’ve moved to such text heavy communication in the digital age, it is easy to misconstrue meaning. However, facial expressions are universal so emoticons can provide the subtext to conversation that we’re otherwise lacking. The issue, of course, is that subtext is most important when interacting with someone you don’t know very well but if there is anyone you shouldn’t use emoticons with (especially as a dude in his early 30′s) it is someone you don’t know very well. Then I would launch into a plea that we erase the stigma of emoticons because it’s a way to show emotion with anyone in the world.

Except for this critical detail. Apparently it isn’t. The article even calls out emoticons. What haters. But we at Denuo are never phased by a late audible, so here’s the fun we’ll have instead.

For those that are unawares, Dan Buczaczer keeps a running list of band names. They’re comprised of simple phrases he hears or thinks of through the course of his day. Being the fan of naming things that I am, whenever I thought of one I would contribute to the list. My favorite being Ghost Chorus. I still have the goal to start a band with that name. But occasionally we would stumble upon phrases that could be band names but were so bad no band would reasonably use it.

Fret not, citizens, for we devised a solution and created a whole NEW game.

This past weekend I attended the in Boston for the third straight year. Typically after coming back I recount everything I heard like an excited first grader coming home from summer camp. Mostly because I hear awesome nuggets of information and can’t wait to tell someone because then it’s like I came up with the ideas.

This year, though, I was struck by how many things that were discussed that were applicable to brands. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because the ultimate goal of marketing and sports business is the same; sell. The following are five things that marketers could learn from the sports business world.

Culture Comes First

There was an entire panel dedicated to franchises in transition. There was one resounding consensus: the most important thing for a team is its culture. That will be way more valuable than any draft pick. The 49ers hired Jim Harbaugh because he is a strong personality and would create a winning culture. Drew Bress came to New Orleans because it felt like family to him because that is the culture they fostered. It’s how teams identify themselves and connect with fans. It should be no different for your brand.