Influencing member behaviour is easier than ever with card-linked offers.

Loyalty programs can help influence member behaviours in ways that benefit both the program operator and the member. We usually keep these changes simple — like when customers spend more with the business and benefit from rewards.

But card-linked offers (CLO) programs enable companies to use different types of rewards to encourage more and different behaviours. This can have powerful benefits for everyone.

The private health insurer, Medibank, is a great example. By using its big partner network through its Live Better CLO program, it influences members to become healthier. Members link their Visa or Mastercard to their account, and then, when they purchase from partners like gyms, athletic clothing brands, or health services, they automatically earn rewards.

When used like this, a CLO program can help create an effect that’s bigger than the sum of its parts. Live Better members benefit by automatically earning rewards and participating in healthier habits. By encouraging members to participate in activities that can help delay lifestyle-related illness, Medibank changes member risk profiles, which helps reduce the load on its services.

Health insurance is an obvious example of how a CLO program can make a big impact through behavioural influence, but wellbeing isn’t the only area in which such powerful changes can be wrought in member behaviours. We also see it in other examples where companies use their loyalty programs to influence behaviour, like when telecommunications companies help customers adopt new technologies, or when airlines offer rewards for travellers who stay with their partner hotels.

This kind of loyalty programming is easier to access with a CLO program for two big reasons:

The partners.

By creating a curated network of participating partners, a CLO program can apply novel influences to member behaviours.

Recently, Loyalty Now was pleased to partner with leading Australian telecommunications company, Telstra, to find over twenty partners for its freshly-launched Shop & Earn program. (You can learn more here: https://www.telstra.com.au/plus/partners/shop-and-earn).

The seamless rewards.

Members are more likely to interact with lower-friction loyalty programs, and it just doesn’t get lower-friction than this. When members link their payment cards, they never have to think about membership IDs, scanning codes or reconciling receipts. If a transaction matches an offer, it’s added to their account automatically.

In the past, technical challenges have meant that implementing CLO programs has been limited to organisations with existing infrastructure, like big banks.

But in 2026, running a CLO program is easier than ever. Loyalty technology partners — like the team at Loyalty Now — have streamlined the technology integration and enablement processes that make CLO programs work. With partners like Loyalty Now to do the heavy lifting, more businesses can now reap the benefits of a powerful card-linked offers program.

‍