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80 Key Customer Loyalty Stats & Trends to Watch in 2026 | Perx
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Fireside Chat: UOB × Perx – From Delight to Data-Driven Engagement
As digital banking competition intensifies across Singapore and Southeast Asia, loyalty programs built on points and cashback alone are struggling to drive meaningful engagement. Customers expect real-time relevance, seamless mobile experiences, and rewards that recognise behaviour, not just spend.
In this interview, I speak with Corinna Au, SVP Digital Engagement, UOB, about how the bank is evolving loyalty into a behaviour-led engagement engine – using game mechanics, real-time personalisation, and mobile-first journeys to increase participation, deepen customer relationships, and link engagement directly to revenue outcomes.
Amrith: Corinna, UOB has been a Perx partner right from the early days, and over the years, you’ve created some truly memorable customer moments in-app. Can you take us through that evolution?
Corinna: Absolutely. Our engagement journey has always been about connecting emotionally with customers – and having fun while doing it.
The first gamification collaboration was the eHongbao Lunar New Year 2025 Campaign – a festive game bursting with luck and Lunar New Year cheer. Dressed in traditional symbolism but powered by modern gamification magic, it turned everyday banking into a delightful celebration. Who said finance can’t be fun? Customers loved it – it wasn’t just a game, it was a celebration of culture, color, and community right inside their banking app.
Each of these moments reinforced one thing: people don’t engage with banking features – they engage with stories.
Amrith: And that led naturally to StarRush, your most recent in-app experience. Tell us about that.
Corinna: StarRush was designed as a joyful, gamified campaign to reward customers instantly, no friction, no forms, just play and win. Over 49 days, 350,000 gameplays were clocked, and we issued over 68,000 rewards.
The best part? A 69% earn-to-burn rate, which tells us customers weren’t just playing; they were fully engaged, redeeming, and enjoying the experience. And based on sentiment analysis, the campaign scored around 7 to 8 out of 10 on customer delight – pretty encouraging for a first-of-its-kind banking game at this scale.
Amrith: Those are strong numbers. But engagement curves often flatten after a while. What patterns did you observe?
Corinna: That’s right. We saw incredible traction in the first six weeks, and then a natural plateau, which actually taught us something important. Gamification isn’t static. Customers evolve quickly; they crave freshness, challenge, and personalization.
We learned that instant rewards are great for initial excitement, but to sustain engagement, we needed progression mechanics – levels, milestones, and personalised challenges. That’s what we’re focusing on next.
Amrith: So it’s time to move from “surprise and delight” to “influence and action.” What does that next phase look like for UOB?
Corinna: We’re now exploring how to use data science and behavioral triggers to nudge positive customer actions – whether that’s higher credit-card spend, increased deposits, or referrals.
We want to reward customers for the right behaviours. It’s about turning engagement into measurable business outcomes, and that’s where Perx’s advanced rules engine comes in.
Amrith: Corinna, you’ve been at the heart of this journey, from a themed game that blended luck and fun and perfectly captured the festive spirit, to the starlit universe of StarRush. Now with the latest eHongBao 2026 experience designed to shape real customer behaviour through purposeful play, what’s your vision for 2026?
Corinna: Our vision is to build a connected, intelligent, and rewarding ecosystem – one where every UOB customer interaction has purpose. The new eHongBao 2026 game is a good example: by encouraging simple actions like using PayNow or Scan to Pay, we’re helping customers build healthy, everyday digital habits while rewarding them with moments of joy. That’s where banking is headed. We want to inspire good financial behaviour through play, data, and delight. The bank of the future isn’t just where you transact; it’s where you enjoy and grow.
Amrith: That’s beautifully put. Thank you, Corinna, for your vision, partnership, and for redefining what engagement in banking can mean.
Corinna: Thank you, Amrith. It’s been an incredible partnership with Perx, and we’re just getting started.
Amrith: That’s beautifully put. Thank you, Corinna, for your vision, partnership, and for redefining what engagement in banking can mean.
Corinna: Thank you, Amrith. It’s been an incredible partnership with Perx, and we’re just getting started.
As digital banking competition intensifies across Singapore and Southeast Asia, loyalty programs built on points and cashback alone are struggling to drive meaningful engagement. Customers expect real-time relevance, seamless mobile experiences, and rewards that recognise behaviour, not just spend.
In this interview, I speak with Corinna Au, SVP Digital Engagement, UOB, about how the bank is evolving loyalty into a behaviour-led engagement engine – using game mechanics, real-time personalisation, and mobile-first journeys to increase participation, deepen customer relationships, and link engagement directly to revenue outcomes.
Amrith: Corinna, UOB has been a Perx partner right from the early days, and over the years, you’ve created some truly memorable customer moments in-app. Can you take us through that evolution?
Corinna: Absolutely. Our engagement journey has always been about connecting emotionally with customers – and having fun while doing it.
The first gamification collaboration was the eHongbao Lunar New Year 2025 Campaign – a festive game bursting with luck and Lunar New Year cheer. Dressed in traditional symbolism but powered by modern gamification magic, it turned everyday banking into a delightful celebration. Who said finance can’t be fun? Customers loved it – it wasn’t just a game, it was a celebration of culture, color, and community right inside their banking app.
Each of these moments reinforced one thing: people don’t engage with banking features – they engage with stories.
Amrith: And that led naturally to StarRush, your most recent in-app experience. Tell us about that.
Corinna: StarRush was designed as a joyful, gamified campaign to reward customers instantly, no friction, no forms, just play and win. Over 49 days, 350,000 gameplays were clocked, and we issued over 68,000 rewards.
The best part? A 69% earn-to-burn rate, which tells us customers weren’t just playing; they were fully engaged, redeeming, and enjoying the experience. And based on sentiment analysis, the campaign scored around 7 to 8 out of 10 on customer delight – pretty encouraging for a first-of-its-kind banking game at this scale.
Amrith: Those are strong numbers. But engagement curves often flatten after a while. What patterns did you observe?
Corinna: That’s right. We saw incredible traction in the first six weeks, and then a natural plateau, which actually taught us something important. Gamification isn’t static. Customers evolve quickly; they crave freshness, challenge, and personalization.
We learned that instant rewards are great for initial excitement, but to sustain engagement, we needed progression mechanics – levels, milestones, and personalised challenges. That’s what we’re focusing on next.
Amrith: So it’s time to move from “surprise and delight” to “influence and action.” What does that next phase look like for UOB?
Corinna: We’re now exploring how to use data science and behavioral triggers to nudge positive customer actions – whether that’s higher credit-card spend, increased deposits, or referrals.
We want to reward customers for the right behaviours. It’s about turning engagement into measurable business outcomes, and that’s where Perx’s advanced rules engine comes in.
Amrith: Corinna, you’ve been at the heart of this journey, from a themed game that blended luck and fun and perfectly captured the festive spirit, to the starlit universe of StarRush. Now with the latest eHongBao 2026 experience designed to shape real customer behaviour through purposeful play, what’s your vision for 2026?
Corinna: Our vision is to build a connected, intelligent, and rewarding ecosystem – one where every UOB customer interaction has purpose. The new eHongBao 2026 game is a good example: by encouraging simple actions like using PayNow or Scan to Pay, we’re helping customers build healthy, everyday digital habits while rewarding them with moments of joy. That’s where banking is headed. We want to inspire good financial behaviour through play, data, and delight. The bank of the future isn’t just where you transact; it’s where you enjoy and grow.
Amrith: That’s beautifully put. Thank you, Corinna, for your vision, partnership, and for redefining what engagement in banking can mean.
Corinna: Thank you, Amrith. It’s been an incredible partnership with Perx, and we’re just getting started.
Frequently Asked Questions: Digital Loyalty in BFSI
What is the most effective way to increase active users in a banking app?What is the most effective way to increase active users in a banking app?
According to the UOB and Perx partnership, moving from functional features to emotional storytelling is key. By using “modern gamification magic” and cultural celebrations, banks can turn everyday transactions into community-focused experiences that customers enjoy, rather than just a utility they use.
How do you measure the ROI of gamification in financial services?
Success is measured by moving beyond “gameplay” counts to “value” metrics. A key KPI is the earn-to-burn rate—the percentage of earned rewards that are actually redeemed. For example, a 69% earn-to-burn rate indicates that rewards are relevant to the user’s lifestyle and are driving actual value for the customer.
How can banks prevent engagement drop-off after the first month?
‘Purposeful play’ is a strategy that uses gamification to nudge customers toward specific financial habits. Instead of rewarding random activity, it rewards “the right behaviors,” such as digital payment adoption (PayNow/Scan to Pay), increased deposits, or referrals. This transforms engagement into measurable business outcomes.
What is 'purposeful play' and how does it drive behavioral change?
‘Purposeful play’ is a strategy that uses gamification to nudge customers toward specific financial habits. Instead of rewarding random activity, it rewards “the right behaviors,” such as digital payment adoption (PayNow/Scan to Pay), increased deposits, or referrals. This transforms engagement into measurable business outcomes.
Featured Experts
Corinna Au Senior Vice President, Digital Engagement, UOB Corinna is a leader in digital banking transformation at UOB, specializing in humanizing the customer experience. She focuses on using storytelling, gamification, and data science to drive emotional connection and “purposeful play” within the UOB app. Her work has successfully scaled major campaigns like StarRush and eHongbao, turning digital banking into a platform for both transaction and growth.
Amrith G Senior Vice President, Customer Relationships & Performance, Perx Technologies Amrith is an expert in marketing analytics and customer performance at Perx Technologies. He partners with global financial institutions to bridge the gap between customer delight and measurable business outcomes. By leveraging advanced rules engines and behavioral triggers, Amrith helps brands transition from simple loyalty rewards to sophisticated, data-driven engagement ecosystems.
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