Briefly comparing Advantex and Futura in this post:
Futura signed with Aeroplan Feb 9, 2009. Gross revenue from Aeroplan program about $1.7 million
Advantex signed with Aeroplan March 2012. Gross revenue from their marketing only division- $4.8 million. Somne of this is related to their CIBC Advantex program, but mostly from Aeroplan.
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Categories FUT: Auto sales & Service (for the most part).
ADX's categories: Men's/ladies fashions, footware, accessories business segment (Fashion Retail), Maybe restuarants also.
The point is, ADX is earning double revenue than FUT ius from their Aeroplan program despite being a latecomer. So did Futura make a mistake in choosing the auto sales/service category and not the categories ADX got?
On more than one occasion, others have mentioned that the car sales/service category will not lend itself well to any loyalty program, because of their nature. on the other side ADX seems to have done well with their idustry categories given by Aeroplan.
It may be easy in hindsight to say that FUT did not do their due diligence back in 2009 and now lay the blame on an "unpredictable" automotive sales/service market. Some may say FUT would be profitable today if they chose the industry categories ADX did, plus addressed the debt issue earlier. ADX can finance operations from cash generated from their businbess now, according to management.
Futura can't. So what went wrong? Both had debt levels way up there and a large payroll. But one is clearly ahead.