Why is this work relevant for Direct?

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 fewer 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 As they saw the brand as boring, outdated and ‘pointless’.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 (30% of vote)

At a time when people didn’t give a F%^K about Flybuys. We launched ‘Give a Flybuys. Take more’. A 3-minute music video, that gave Flybuys a younger voice, an ownable attitude and an anthem to savviness. One that said the more you scan, the more you take. Voiced by frontman Blake Scott from the Peep Tempel, his unapologetic sound embodied the new Flybuys. And was mirrored in the performance of each character - who all mimed in time to Scott’s Aussie drawl. This cast of characters however, weren’t simply fictitious. But invented from a wealth of real shopping data. Giving Flybuys a short-cut into the real Australia. Characters that people not only found familiar, but could see themselves as. Because if these characters could sign-up and take more every day - they could too.

Describe the strategy (20% 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. Driving them to sign-up and download the app.

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

Although on the surface this idea appears to seemingly be 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 a wealth of shopper data. Each of which also reflect a different Flybuys benefit and partner. All of our character’s stories were seamlessly cutdown for behavioral targeting on social, digital and YouTube. We brought the campaign to life in social media, celebrating people’s savviness, showcasing the Flybuys ‘easy wins’, and showing people how they could take more with our various partner offers. And every consumer touchpoint from in-store comms to eDMs received a complete change in messaging, tone, look and feel.

List the 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.

Describe the use of data, or how the data enhanced the campaign output

At a time when young Australians saw Flybuys as boring and irrelevant - we needed content which would connect with them and prove the value of the program. So we surveyed 7,000 members to understand who they were and what they wanted. We then developed a clustering algorithm from 170 behavioural, demographic and transactional variables to identify our core segments. We took these segments and dug deeper with qual and quant research to understand their membership journey, needs, wants and how Flybuys could make their lives better. From here we built out our look-alike audience, or rather the six characters we used in our films. Using behavioral targeting, we then married cutdowns to people on social, digital and YouTube. Although on the surface this idea is just a film. Underneath it’s a strategic data play. With characters not only familiar to viewers, but with the same aspirations as themselves.