The Billion Point Giveaway

Background

Velocity Frequent Flyer, Virgin Australia's loyalty program, wanted to tap into the 'everyday spend' that approximately seven million Australian's (roughly 45% of Aussie consumer card holders) put on a credit card that earned rewards points. They operated an 'in-direct model' which encouraged people to move these reward points to their programme. People then used the points to fly with Virgin Australia or a partner airline. To encourage transfers, Velocity had a bi-annual offer in May and November, where members received 15% bonus Points when they transferred.

Idea

Meet Tim, the intern who 'accidentally' sent an email to some of Velocity Frequent Flyer's 7.5 million members with a typo offering a slice of one billion (instead of one million) points when they transferred reward points.

After 24 hours, Velocity declared they'd honour the mistake. The ensuing consequences were made into a 40-part miniseries, in which Velocity employees were followed as they lived through the experience, from denial ("What Points?") to discovery ("We're going to need more planes.") to delivery.

Using Velocity's first-party data to find the audiences of opportunity, the customer database of 7.5 million members was split into nine identifiable segments. Lookalike modelling was applied to the highest value cohorts, increasing the propensity for high-value conversions. The data was used to predict conversion likelihood, helping to refine Velocity's owned contact strategies and creating bespoke messaging across all channels.

Smart media knew what people had already seen, and served the next relevant episode when they went online. Audiences were targeted with owned and paid media including display banners, social posts, LinkedIn (where Tim job hunted), and in-airport collateral. Consumers were then driven to a fully-responsive online microsite containing a purpose-built Points calculator. People entered in the amount of points they wanted to transfer, then a 'result' told them how big their share of points was and where they could go with them.

Results

Compared to Velocity's previous campaign (November 2016) which had been their most successful to date, there was a 116% increase in new transferees and the average points transfer was 27% higher. The overall uplift in points transferred was 34% leading to a 58.4% increase in revenue compared to November, on a media budget cut by 35.3%.

Every dollar spent during May generated $6.60 in return on marketing investment (ROMI). And "The Billion Point Giveaway" video miniseries was viewed over 7.3 million times.

With a highly targeted, high frequency media buy, where typically there would be fatigue and a drop in completion rates, the sequencing of new episodes meant completion rates were sustained between 62.27% and 79.22%, with an average 66% resulting in a steady stream of transfers throughout the month. The campaign smashed all records with more people moving more points than ever before.

Our Thoughts

This has to be one of the most complete direct marketing campaigns of the entire year. Complete in the sense that it is the perfect blend of data-driven analysis with creative delivery.

Creating specific audience profiles and delivering content made especially for them is one thing, but keeping them engaged is quite another. This idea succeeded triumphantly because the videos are based on a real human truth, namely that we all love a good cock-up. But we also like it when brands come clean. So far, so good, but added to all that is a sharpness in both the scripts and the direction of the films that makes them a joy to watch.

The science of data-driven media meets a top-notch creative idea and the result is kerchingggg.

This is exactly the sort of 'idea that sells' that The Caples Awards should be looking to honour in 2018.