Background

Airline reward programs make money when people earn and spend points. And they have constantly got new news and information on how their members can earn and spend points. Which they mercilessly bombard them with. Airline and vacation deals, app launches, shiny new websites, bonus offers, perks, redemption deals, bank deals, deals, deals. Where to earn points, here, here, here, there!! It’s overload. And the result is that customer engagement rates plummet. We needed a way to reach our members in new ways that would allow them to hear about all the ways to earn and spend points. And what’s more, we needed to prove that Velocity Points are easier than ever to earn. In fact, you can pretty much earn them anywhere.

Describe the creative idea

Rather than paying one person with millions of followers lots of money, we converted our marketing budget into points and offered millions of people, with a handful of followers, millions of points. A ‘Call to Earns’ video launched the new platform, asking real members (who actually use the program) to create content about points, for points - an epic product demonstration of the power of Velocity Points. We put 12-months of briefs online and let members choose what they promoted - our new app, 15% transfer bonus offers, and many more. The more creative, authentic and educational the content, the more points they got, regardless of how many followers. Earnbassadors democratised the entire points category, allowing regular people to earn more points than influencers and those other rich people who earn points on their big expensive credit cards. Which meant more regular people got to fly around the world

Describe the strategy

Word of mouth and customer endorsements are 64% more trustworthy than pure brand messages (Nielsen). But influencers, especially in the travel space, are saturated and shameless. How could we get the reach of influencers with the authenticity of a real person? The first step was finding our influencers. A small percentage of members contribute to the majority of our revenue. Research told us that they ‘got’ the program, describing it in ways we’d never considered). How could we get them to create content? By paying them in the one thing they want more Velocity Points. Now we needed to get this content seen. We identified the members who needed to do more, their current behaviours and what their next best actions would be for revenue and engagement growth. From here we grouped them into segments and used paid media to amplify our member content to these segments.

Describe the execution

We started by inviting the millions of Velocity members to become an #earnbassador. Within minutes, they were sharing program hacks we didn’t know existed. The creativity was immense - we had surfers, skydivers, and puppeteers. Within 48 hours, we had over 150 pieces of content. But most importantly – the content was all simple and easy to understand. We used addressable paid-media to turn the best Earnbassador content into ads targeting our specific segments. Never flown with us? We used member videos to teach them about our 600 destinations. Never earned points on groceries? We shared member content about getting to Fiji from filling their trolley. This content was reposted across Velocity’s social, website, and owned channels - including the inflight magazine, and we even produced a clothing line (distributed through airline lounges), all aiming to get members in the know to share social content in exchange for Velocity Points.

List the results

Leaving your marketing in the hands of consumers is terrifying. Ultimately, the risk was well worth the return. It returned a wealth of creative, educational and revenue-driving content delivering: 5700+ pieces of content (and growing) +484.5% positive sentiment 7.76M earned cumulative reach 30% increase in retail revenue Almost 10,000,000 Velocity Points have been paid to Earnbassadors - achieving exactly what Velocity exists to do - give everyday Australians the chance to travel in return for loyalty. It also revealed real-life feel-good stories. Earnbassador Julie flew her daughter Josie to a New York exhibition showcasing work from individuals with Down Syndrome. Sarah visited her friend recovering from chemotherapy. And many more travelled the world on Velocity Points. The Earnbassadors continue to create content for the brand, saying all the things we need to say (and some that we don’t) in a better, more human way than any brand could.