The Bonus Awards 2027 what is new?

Switzerland joins, two brand-new Jury Awards, and one date to circle: 7 April 2027. Registration for The Bonus Awards 2027 is now open — and for the first time, the competition covers all three DACH markets.

Loyalty has long outgrown its buzzword phase. It is a fast-growing market that helps companies hold on to their customers and keep growing through uncertain times. Since 2021, The Bonus Awards have honoured the achievements of this industry — and unlike most awards, they don’t leave the verdict to a panel of experts alone. The heart of The Bonus Awards is the Customer Award: the winners are chosen by the people who actually collect the points.

That principle has built real scale. More than 149,000 loyalty programme members have already cast their vote, making The Bonus Awards the largest competition of their kind in the DACH region. For the 2027 edition, three things change — and all three make entering more valuable.

1. Switzerland joins: the first Switzerland Bonus Awards

In 2027, the Swiss loyalty market gets an award of its own. The Switzerland Bonus Awards will crown the country’s best loyalty programmes for the first time, following the same customer-first logic that has driven the German and Austrian editions for years.

The Swiss edition launches lean and focused, with voting across three categories:

  • Best Loyalty Programme
  • Travel
  • Best Campaign

Registration for Switzerland costs CHF 499 and already includes a ticket to the Award Gala. Swiss entrants step straight into an established voting audience of well over one hundred thousand loyalty members across the region — a reach no first-year award could build on its own. With Germany, Austria and Switzerland now all on board, The Bonus Awards cover the DACH market in full for the first time.

2. Two new Jury Awards: B2B Loyalty and Temporary Loyalty Programmes

Alongside the Customer Awards, journalists and VIPs assess entries in the Jury Awards. For 2027, the line-up grows by two categories that reflect where the industry is actually moving:

  • Bonus B2B Loyalty Award — recognition for loyalty and incentive programmes aimed at business customers, dealers and partners, a segment that has been doing sophisticated work for years without an award to show for it.
  • Temporary Loyalty Programmes Award — for campaign-driven, time-limited loyalty mechanics: collector promotions, seasonal challenges, limited-run point events. Short-lived by design, and often the most creative work a brand produces all year.

They join the established Bonus Media Award, which honours the strongest external communications as judged by a panel of journalists covering the loyalty industry, and the Bonus VIP Award, where a jury of public figures picks the trendiest programme of the year.

3. The Customer Award: eight main categories, your choice of subcategories

The voice of the customer remains the most important evaluation criterion. In Germany, voting takes place across eight main categories that map the breadth of the loyalty industry — you enter your programme in one of them:

  • Shopping
  • Travel
  • Move
  • Lifestyle
  • eCommerce
  • Hotel
  • Cashback
  • Finance

Each main category holds up to four subcategories — Programme of the Year, Best Promotion (to earn points or cashback) and Digital User Experience among them. You decide freely which subcategories you compete in, and which you skip.

The effort on your side is deliberately small: only the Best Campaign/Promotion subcategory requires a submission at all — one image and a short text. Everything else needs no further material.

The timeline for 2027

Stage Date
Registration & submission deadline 31 October 2026
Public online vote 25 January – 14 February 2027
Bonus Awards Ceremony 7 April 2027, Frankfurt

Registration for German entries is EUR 499, with a DACH Loyalty Days add-on for EUR 299. Swiss entries are CHF 499, gala ticket included. Throughout the three-week voting window, the vote is pushed by PR activity on our side and by activation within your own member base — turning the award into a genuine engagement campaign rather than a logo on a slide.

What winners take home

The top three in every category receive a trophy and digital badges. Every other participant receives a digital “Top Programme” badge for their own public communications — so the visibility isn’t reserved for the podium.

The ceremony: DACH Loyalty Days, Frankfurt

The winners are announced on 7 April 2027 at the Bonus Awards Ceremony, held during the DACH Loyalty Days in Frankfurt. The DACH Loyalty Days are a first-class, day-and-a-half congress on the latest trends in customer loyalty — the place where CRM and loyalty experts and decision-makers come to sharpen their thinking, meet their peers and take part in the discussions that shape the year.

Be there: discover new trends, share what you have learned, and build connections that last. It is the single best room in the region for taking your loyalty programme and your customer relationships to the next level in 2027 and beyond.

Put your programme in the spotlight

An award voted for by your own customers is worth more than any self-assessment — it is proof, and it is proof you can use. Entries for The Bonus Awards 2027 are open until 31 October 2026, in Germany, Austria and, for the very first time, Switzerland.

Register your programme now. Questions? Just send us a message — we’re happy to get back to you.