Why is this work relevant for Creative Data?

Whilst on the surface this appears to be a simple 3-minute music video. In actuality, it’s a carefully constructed piece of comms, with a cast of characters invented and mined from real shopper data. A sophisticated segmentation strategy that was cleverly disguised as a modular film. Where each individual character reflected a different Flybuys benefit and partner. Each of these character stories were seamlessly cutdown for behavioral targeting on social, digital and YouTube, and framed as a provocation to use Flybuys to take more points, more vacays, more fuel, more everything.

Background

Despite being the biggest and most well known loyalty program in Australia, with 1 in 3 Australians part of their membership base, Flybuys were facing a cliff of ambivalence about the program, making the future of the program look dire. Not only were two thirds of our base completely dormant, having not redeemed a single point in the last year, but also, in comparison to other loyalty programs we were attracting less new and younger members. As they saw the brand as boring, outdated and ‘pointless’. So we were set the challenge of making Flybuys relevant to the next generation of shoppers; those under 35. By reframing savvy as the new sexy. A program that could help more Aussies thrive instead of simply survive paycheck to paycheck.

Describe the Creative idea / data solution (20% of vote)

We created an invitation, a direction and more importantly an attitude in one simple statement; Give a Flybuys, take more. This brazen statement is about the pride in hacking savviness, finding bargains and the competitive spirit between customers to get to the top of their points game. Launching this new attitude couldn’t just be a message in an ad, it needed to be felt. We therefore created a 3-minute music video, an anthem, to celebrate the everyday legends winning at their finances with Flybuys. It was cleverly crafted to be a modular film, with each character (invented from shopper data) reflecting a different Flybuys benefit and partner. Each of these character stories was seamlessly cutdown for behavioral targeting on social, digital and YouTube, framed as a provocation to use Flybuys to take more points, more vacays, more fuel, more everything.

Describe the data driven strategy (30% of vote)

To ensure our film would resonate with our audience, we needed to properly understand them. We surveyed 7,000 members to truly understand who they were and what they wanted. We developed a clustering algorithm from 170 behavioural, demographic and transactional variables to identify our core segments. We took these segments and dug deeper with a mix of qual and quant research to understand their membership journey, needs, wants, barriers, perceptions and an understanding of how Flybuys can make their lives better, in order to build this out for a look-alike audience. From our research findings we invented a cast of characters for the film. All mined from real shopper data. With the aim being that our audience not only related to these characters, but could see themselves in them too. A strategy to encourage sign-up.

Describe the creative use of data, or how the data enhanced the creative output (20% of vote)

At a time when young Aussies saw Flybuys as boring and irrelevant - we needed content which would connect and resonate with them. And prove the value of the program in their lives. This is where data comes in. Although on the surface this idea appears to be just a 3-minute film. Underneath it’s a carefully constructed and strategic data play. With a cast of characters, or rather six personas, all invented from shopper data. Each of which also reflect a different Flybuys benefit and partner. All of our character stories were then seamlessly cutdown for behavioral targeting on social, digital and YouTube. Framed as a provocation to use Flybuys to take more points, more vacays, more fuel, more everything. Undeniably and authentically Australian, these characters were not only familiar to our viewers. They saw themselves in them. Their hopes, dreams and ‘points’ goals.

List the data driven results (30% of vote)

So if we were boring, outdated and irrelevant before, what were we after? Innovative, engaging, exciting and generous. After seeing the campaign, people were increasingly seeing Flybuys as personally relevant (from 43% to 45%) and started seeing Flybuys as a ‘smarter way to shop’ from 31% to 33%. In the first 4 months of the brand repositioning we saw a 25% increase in sign-ups, which translates to 113k new members. Of our new savvy members, 39% of them were under 34 year olds, a complete turnaround in audience base. And this group was actually using the program; we saw a 10% increase in offers activated (which is a signal for intent) since the campaign launched.Flybuys does not track ROI as a measure of success. Engagement with the product and the ability to gather unique consumer data as a way to recruit and service more partners is their core KPI.