Building a loyalty platform for MVP Group
How we designed and launched a rewards ecosystem for the MVP Group in three months, turning a small request into a platform that kept growing years later.
- Role
- Lead UX/UI designer: product strategy, visual and interaction design
- Team
- 2 designers, freenet scrum team
- Company
- Maya Philippines
- Timeline
- October to December 2019
MVP Rewards is a loyalty and rewards platform for customers of the MVP Group, a major utilities and services conglomerate in the Philippines. It started with core services like electricity (Meralco), water (Maynilad) and internet, and has since grown into a wider ecosystem of commercial partners and affiliates.
The objective
The project had two goals: drive engagement and retention by rewarding customers for everyday payments, and generate actionable insight into spending behaviour across service categories.
By connecting essential utilities with lifestyle purchases, MVP Rewards set out to be a loyalty experience that touched nearly every part of a customer's day.
A small request
This is one of the most memorable projects of my career, partly because it was meant to be a small side project. Our calendar was already full with our main product, the freenet.ph app. Then, in the last quarter of a busy year, the business team asked us to design and launch a loyalty platform for our parent company.
Unlike projects that start from scratch, this one came with a head start. The business already had a concept and brand direction. Our job was to turn that groundwork into a cohesive, engaging product, balancing the sponsor's vision with the realities of design and build.
Three months, with Christmas in between
We had three months, with the holidays in the middle, and we launched before New Year's. It was an intense sprint I wouldn't necessarily recommend, but I'm grateful to have gone through it with the freenet team.
What made it fascinating was how different it was from our main product. freenet.ph was about access and inclusion, designed for the mass market. MVP Rewards was about exclusivity and premium value: the velvet rope, the VIP life. Working on two opposite product philosophies side by side was a great exercise in range.
Ironically, freenet.ph has since been decommissioned, while MVP Rewards, the side project, kept growing. In 2025 it moved to PLDT Home's loyalty and rewards. What started as a small request became a platform with real staying power.
Our sponsors thanked the team with spa gift certificates for surviving the sprint, a lighthearted ending to one of the most challenging and rewarding projects I've worked on.
