Virgin America celebrated its fifth anniversary on Wednesday and officially launched an upgraded frequent flier program.

I recently flew with Virgin America for the first time and was incredibly impressed with the service and operation. My experience lived up to what I'd expect from a Richard Branson-envisioned airline. The only thing ever holding me back from flying them more frequently has been my vested loyalty in other airlines' frequent flier programs. But that could change.

The new program adds elite tiers allowing frequent fliers to enjoy priority check-in, boarding, upgrades and other perks. I had the opportunity to speak with Phil Seward, Virgin America's director of loyalty, and found out a bit more about why they introduced the new benefits and what the future holds.

“Get Found. Be Relevant. Be Consistent. Be Iterative.” Those four calls-to-action have laid the foundation for the new Ektron Digital Experience Management solution, announced today by Ektron, a leading provider of web content management and digital experience management software. Delivering the optimal customer experience requires a new approach that allows marketers to find more customers, and consistently deliver the right content to the right user at the right time in the right channel, treating customers as a “segment of one.”

Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE: ADS), a leading provider of loyalty and marketing solutions derived from transaction-rich data, today announced its Retail Services business has signed a long-term agreement to create and manage turnkey private label, co-brand, and commercial credit card programs for True Value Company (www.truevaluecompany.com). True Value (www.truevalue.com) — a cooperative of independently owned retail locations — offers a wide range of home improvement, hardware products and garden supplies. The True Value cooperative includes approximately 4,650 independent retailer locations worldwide operating under the store identities of True Value, Grand Rental Station, Taylor Rental, Party Central, Home & Garden Showplace and Induserve Supply.

By leveraging Alliance Data's unique customer acquisition and advanced analytics capabilities, Alliance Data will provide True Value with marketing-driven private label, co-brand, and commercial credit card programs that add meaningful value to True Value Company, its retailers and its wide array of customers, including both consumers and small or commercial businesses. The co-brand card program is Alliance Data's first Discover® card product to utilize the unique capabilities of the Discover® network and its millions of merchant locations. All credit card accounts will be consistent with Alliance Data's traditional credit quality standards.

IHG's (InterContinental Hotels Group) Priority Club® Rewards today announced the launch of Priority Club Rewards® Sweepstakes, an industry-first redemption option that enables members to instantly redeem their Priority Club points for entries into a prize drawing.

Priority Club members in the U.S. and Canada can go to www.priorityclub.com/sweepstakes through Saturday, August 11th to redeem as few as 100 points for an entry in the current drawings. Members can enter each new drawing as many as ten times per day for a chance to win brand-name merchandise, gift cards and much more.

Ventana Research has released its latest Benchmark Research on Customer Feedback Management. Ventana Research undertook this benchmark to gain insight into how customer feedback can be better utilized to enhance the customer experience and deliver business value through a broader understanding of the consumer.

The proliferation of new communication channels makes it possible for consumers to compare services quickly and easily, making the interaction between companies and their customer more important than ever. To deliver the best possible customer experience, companies need to adopt a core set of best practices for analyzing customer interactions. The new research, The Role of Feedback in Customer Experience Management, found that collecting and analyzing feedback is the best way to truly understand the customer.

Today, mobile and social technology company Joingo announced their release of the most comprehensive social solution for mobile applications. Joingo’s Mobile Loyalty System, a marketing platform that empowers businesses to create and deploy complete mobile branding strategies, now integrates across all relevant social networks to improve brand awareness.

Joingo drives viral adoption of their customers’ mobile programs through advertising in Facebook timelines, Twitter feeds, and other social channels. Users of Joingo-powered apps can share any content: forwarding offers and promotions they’ve received, sharing event booking details, tweeting about winning a game, and more.