Six loyalty marketing team roles in a data and source ownership plan

What to take away

The six roles worth naming

The inclusion rule is simple: a role appears only if it owns a data set, a source or a sign-off that another role relies on. Job titles that own nothing stay out. This list is written for UK teams. Data protection duties apply across the UK, but some advertising and licensing rules differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Scheme owner

Accountable for the business case, budget and trading calendar. The scheme owner signs off the definition of an active member, because every later metric inherits that choice. Without one owner, two teams can report different member counts from the same warehouse.

Data steward

Owns schema, joins and retention windows for member, transaction and referral tables. The steward documents which fields are derived and which are collected. That record matters when an auditor asks how a reward was calculated.

Source librarian

Maintains the register of external sources: regulator guidance, official statistics and platform documentation. Each entry needs a publisher, a page title and a retrieval note. The ONS digital economy data is a sensible first entry for UK market sizing, and the register records the release used.

Consent lead

Owns lawful basis, preference centres and withdrawal flows. This role also checks that referral invitations name the sender and explain what the friend will receive. Consent evidence should be reproducible, not reconstructed after a complaint.

Creative standards lead

Owns claims, disclosures and native content rules. The IAB UK principles for native distribution are a practical reference for loyalty content that sits beside editorial. The standards lead maps each principle to a review step.

Evidence reviewer

Runs the pre-launch review and records dissent. This role keeps the decision log, including which sources were rejected and why. Where a scheme touches public bodies, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 sets the transparency expectation for procurement records.

Before and after ownership

For example, a team paying £400 a month for a loyalty platform can still fail an audit if nobody owns the member definition.

How the roles interact

Start with the loyalty marketing operations and delivery guide so the six roles sit inside a delivery model rather than beside it. The guide covers scheduling, budget and handover, which is where ownership usually breaks.

For England launches, run a pre-launch review so the evidence reviewer and consent lead sign the same document before go-live.

Name a deputy for each role. Holidays and resignations are the common cause of missing source records, and a deputy list is cheaper than a re-audit.

Common questions

Who owns external data sources?

The source librarian, with the evidence reviewer checking that each source supports the sentence it sits in. Ownership means the register is updated when a publisher revises a page.

Can one person hold two roles?

Yes, in small teams. Keep the sign-offs separate where you can, because the same person writing and approving a claim weakens the record.

Does this apply outside England?

Data protection duties apply across the UK, but some evidence and licensing rules differ in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Teams preparing an English launch can work through the loyalty marketing launch review, then check the devolved position before reusing the pack.

How often should the register be reviewed?

Quarterly is workable for most schemes, plus a review before any launch. Add an entry whenever a platform changes its documentation.