Everyone loves a loyalty programme! That promise of a little extra for nothing must be why the average American holds 29 loyalty club memberships. But that number doesn’t tell the whole story.
In reality, that same average consumer may only actively engage with 12 of those clubs; the rest languish unused in wallets, points unspent, and brands unremembered.
The airline sector is not immune. Loyalty points or added miles were meant to keep customers coming back, time and again, to the same airline. But engagement has dropped. Travellers are buying their airfare through aggregators and see points or miles as too time-consuming to acquire for all but the most frequent flier. And price still has a huge impact on airline booking – even when it comes down to just a few dollars.
Brand engagement matters if operators are going to keep a slice of the $2.7B that is spent every day on travel and hospitality. The challenge in such a highly competitive market is in keeping consumers interested and engaged after an initial booking. So, if points and prizes aren’t attractive and differentiation sometimes comes down to a question of dollars and cents, how do airlines maintain loyalty?
The key is in the…- humblebrag. Travel provides the perfect opportunity for a subtle – or not so subtle – brag on social media. Just as fitness friends post the steps they’ve walked or miles they’ve cycled, travel fans love to quantify the miles they’ve flown and places they’ve seen.
Delta cottoned on to this idea early. In 2016 it began to use its SkyMiles Medallion loyalty program data to share with members a personalised rundown of their year with Delta. While this was clearly a neat idea, it unfortunately was an email with static content and a limited amount of information. Read and delete.
Working with Idomoo, Delta put some spice into its yearly recap campaign by using Idomoo’s Personalized Video as a Service (PVaaS™) platform to create dynamic, ‘Native Personalised Videos’. Delta used frequent flier data to create hundreds of thousands of unique videos – one for their Medallion member – that, included the number of upgrades they’d managed to swing, their favourite destination, and other fun data points, like how they ranked travelling with the airline. Each member received his or her own, unique jet-setting humblebrag video, created just for them.
Of course, what’s the value of a great story if there’s no one to tell it to? So the latest iteration of the Delta’s end-of -year campaign has embedded share buttons. This, has generated more than 400,000 video views and inspired a new campaign hashtag – #deltamedallionlife – which has appeared on more than 1,000 posts so far.
It’s not just the popularity of the campaign that impressed Delta, nor its success in driving viewers to its website (a mere 500% over its benchmark). It was the speed of engagement. Delta saw social mentions and sharing within minutes of distributing the videos. The Personalised Videos hit the sweet spot of customer loyalty – they’re not just bringing customers back; they’re drawing in their friends and family, too.
So, how do you get Personalised Video to work for you? You can start by following these simple tips:
Bring the Boast: Boost your customers’ social clout and help them celebrate their travel milestones, bringing shareable, braggable content.
Timing: Delta used the end of the calendar year to create its Year in Review videos. Logical timing given the content, which ensured high open and engagement rates. Timing may not be everything, but it can go a long way. Other appealing points in time to engage travellers may include the start of a loyalty membership, a tier upgrade, an upcoming trip, a travel season or a special occasion like the traveller’s birthday.
Expand Your Reach: While engaging existing customers can help acquire new ones through social sharing, as was the case with Delta, why stop there? Dynamic video ads are hyper-targeted to customers’ Facebook and Instagram profiles and activity and are far more engaging than any legacy ad formats. Dynamic Display ads improve customer acquisition by 60%, but Dynamic Video ads can bump CTRs by 5X, and be fun and engaging while at it.
Cross Sell and Upsell: Use Personalised Video to drive sales contextually, turning an ineffective direct sales pitch into a conversational and engaging pitch that translates directly to your bottom line.
What to know more about giving loyalty that boastful boost? Get in touch below.
