How Pokeworks Uses Thanx to Set Their Own Economics

Ha Ly, Head of Marketing at Pokeworks, brings a finance and quantitative analytics background to a role most brands staff with traditional marketers — and the results speak for themselves. In this conversation with Thanx Co-Founder and CDO Aaron Newton, Ha breaks down how he evaluates loyalty the same way a CFO would: stripping out food cost, labor cost, royalties, and ad fund fees to understand true pass-through profitability, then engineering rewards around low-cost items that drive incremental visits without eroding margins. He makes the case that loyalty's most undervalued benefit isn't discounting — it's the communications channel. Without a way to capture guest contact information, even the best brand experience has no vehicle for re-engagement. Ha also tackles the incrementality question head-on, explaining how Pokeworks' data confirms that loyalty members visit more frequently, spend more per visit, and generate higher lifetime value than non-members. For marketing leaders navigating a skeptical finance team, his advice is direct: talk to existing Thanx customers, benchmark the real range of outcomes, and build your own pro forma before you sign anything.