Mastercard Makes Loyalty Play With SessionM Buy

Mastercard is acquiring the U.S. technology company SessionM to help it build more profitable relationships with consumers, Mastercard said in a press release on Tuesday (Oct. 22).

SessionM’s loyalty platform spurs stronger bonds with retailers, restaurants, airlines and consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. The acquisition will help Mastercard use data-driven insights to offer personalized guidance to brands.

“Consumers’ expectations about their experiences with brands are changing,” said Francis Hondal, president of loyalty and engagement at Mastercard. “We believe that the future of loyalty needs to be re-imagined to enable seamless digital experiences, and SessionM’s consumer-centric capabilities will help us broaden our value to marketers across sectors in exciting new ways.”

Loyalty programs help brands deliver value to the expanding array of digital consumers. With the SessionM platform, brands can leverage technology to execute a campaign, manage data and measure results.

“SessionM shares Mastercard’s commitment to creating experiences that drive lasting loyalty and meaningful, impactful customer engagement,” said Lars Albright, co-founder and CEO of SessionM. “We look forward to joining the Mastercard family and to bringing our innovative technology to even more customers in more places around the globe.”

Mastercard is always looking to advance its data-driven services, illustrated by its acquisition of the analytics software company Applied Predictive Technologies.

“With our suite of data-driven services, we aim to help our customers end to end – from advice to execution and everything in between,” said Kevin Stanton, chief services officer for Mastercard. “Our complementary technology and teams will help brands drive greater loyalty with both proprietary and card-based programs, reinforcing Mastercard as their partner of choice.”

Mastercard also announced this week that it is rolling out Mastercard Bill Pay Exchange with the help of several new partners, including ConEd, Avidia Bank, Aliaswire Inc., OSG Billing Services and Transactis. The new offering will make it easier for consumers to view, manage and pay telecom, utility, rent, credit card, mortgage and other bills without the hassle of setting up different accounts, tracking multiple passwords or logging onto multiple websites. Consumers will be able to make payments with cards or real-time payments or from bank accounts.