Ahead of The BIG Handshake (TBH) Loyalty™ in Chicago on November 10, we caught up with one of our MCs, Ryan Draude, Head of Loyalty for Giant Food. Giant Food is part of the Ahold Delhaize family, with five brands across the eastern seaboard of the United States, which means Ryan lives and breathes one of retail’s most competitive categories: grocery.
It is his first time with The BIG Handshake Loyalty series but is not a new friend of ours, and he came to the conversation with a clear sense of what makes an industry event worth the time.
“When I go to events like this, I’m not going to be sold,” Ryan told us. “I want to walk away learning things that I can bring back.” That, he says, is exactly what the TBH Loyalty format is built for: an intimate group of practitioners, hyper-focused on loyalty, sharing what actually works rather than pitching how great their programs are.
He was quick to point out the range on the agenda. He is looking forward to the tech stack discussion with Len Covello from Engage People, Alyssa Callahan’s keynote on keeping loyalty strategy relevant inside the organization, and the mix of voices coming from well beyond grocery. The Cleveland Cavaliers and Blings.io will bring a sports marketing lens, and there is even a Broadway angle in the mix.
One session close to his heart is the grocery conversation with Emily Mikus of ADUSA, someone he has worked with directly. It also sets up one of the sharpest contrasts on the program. Emily’s grocery world is transactional and weekly, while Dave Van Saun of Great Wolf Lodge represents an experience that is deeply emotional but might happen once every couple of years. How do you bring magic to one and frequency to the other, and stay top of mind in between? That is the kind of question TBH Loyalty is designed to unpack.
What Ryan values most is the candor. The best sessions, he says, are the ones where speakers get raw about the roadblocks: the budget that ran out, the stakeholder support that was hard to win, the ideas that did not land the first time. “It’s a safe space,” he said. “We’re all talking about the things that we’re succeeding on, struggling on, but it’s that open environment.”
He also sees something bigger taking shape. With the model proven in Europe and Canada, bringing it to the United States feels timely. “The loyalty space continues to grow, but all of us are looking to lean on each other and really help each other out.”
We could not agree more. See you in Chicago.
Join Ryan and a room full of loyalty leaders at The BIG Handshake Loyalty Chicago on November 10 at the Omni Chicago. Register now at tbhchicago.com/tickets.
