Zoe Goulding

CRM & Social Marketing Manager, Virgin Holidays

Martin Campbell

Global Technical Lead, Comet Global Consulting

Customer Case Study:

Unleashing our Campaign Mojo

Background

A project by the name of REBUS (named by IT) was set up to review Marketing Campaign Selection Tool requirements at Virgin Holidays.

A cross-functional team was brought together to identify requirements and ensure any solution would integrate with existing infrastructure and meet marketing campaign ambitions of near real-time, automation and richer more intuitive customer conversations.

A market review and benchmarking of existing systems was undertaken against requirements. It was clear our existing solution was no longer fit for purpose.

The campaign selection tool in-situ was old, unsupported and required significant investment to being it up to scratch. It was also incredibly inflexible, could not bring together multiple data sources and took days/weeks to build a selection.

So, we selected IBM Campaign.

How we landed on IBM Campaign (& Comet)

Key requirements – for non-techies:

1. Quick campaign production capability

2. Automation with high frequency intervals

3. Easy to use – with strong visuals

4. Ability to combine data sources for targeting and segmentation

5. Can easily integrate with existing IT systems and infrastructure

6. Ability to template and repeat same/similar campaigns

IBM Campaign was selected as the best fit in terms of integration and capability.

Comet were selected as our Implementation partner as we loved their approach; immersing themselves in our business and helping us shape the implementation plan and navigate the logistics.

Scope of the Implementation

Project kicked off with all key stakeholders at the end of Feb 2014. A clear plan was shared:

13 key Marketing programmes were identified for delivery in phase 1 (52 individual campaigns across 6 brands)

Campaign deliveries rolled out between April - September 2014

Outbound telephony trial using Avaya dialler capability

Campaign measurement & reporting defined upfront with universal and campaign control cells set up.

Business reporting re-engineered to de-duplicate performance.

IT processes were re-engineered / improved to support agility ambitions (API rather than batch processes and improved frequency)

What the project did - IT bit

Travelbox Web

SCV (Near-time)

IBM Campaign

Customer

E-Dialog

IBM Digital Analytics

Email

Campaigns

Avaya Trial/ Now Conversation Manager

Outbounding

Trial for

Sales / Retail

External agent

Direct Mail Campaigns

What the project did – CommunicationsEnabled activation of the ‘Customer Wheel’

Each Customers’ ‘wheel’ will vary in length. Communications grouped into the following buckets:

Promotional - Inspirational Newsletters / Offers Unleashed / Brochure Launches / Campaign promotions

Conversion - Triggered by Customer research event – quotes, brochure downloads, abandon activity on-site.

Lifecycle - Triggered at key points / anniversaries in Customer wheel, Birthdays, Return Home, Quote Anniversary, Booking Anniversary, reactivation of lapsed customers

Customer Wheel Strategy

Customers in the Dreaming phase of the wheel will spend up to 6 months considering their holiday choice – our role at this point is to inspire and engage.

Inspirational NewslettersMonthly deployments showcasing destination guides and itineraries help to inspire Customers.

Offers Unleashed8 of our very best offers segmented to showcase offers targeted to customer preferences.

Data is fully automated, build is manual.

These are promotional campaigns which have delivered +20%uplift in booking performance.

Dreaming / Thinking

WelcomeThank you and welcome nurture

Brochure fulfillment & Follow-upSupport customer in decision making process

Abandon Browse / BasketRe-capture abandoned visits

Quote Follow-up & ReminderRe-target unconverted quotes

Conversion campaigns have generated a +49% uplift

in booking performance

Researching / Booking

Booking ConfirmationHigh five celebration on booking

Upsell /ancillary programmeWork in progress. Pre-departure contacts are focused on planning your itinerary and excursions to maximise the ‘on-holiday’ fun.

Its time!!! YayPrint off documents and get ready for your holiday

Engagement rates are high for pre-departure upsell

Open Rate 78%

Click to Open 40%

Waiting & Getting Ready

Customer Feedback - How was it for you?

Welcome Home40% of next holiday bookings happen within the first 4 weeks post holiday

Holiday Anniversary – Where next?

Happy Birthday - Where will you celebrate?

Lapsed Retention & WinbackRe-activation of non-responders / inactive customers

All campaigns are fully automated and trigger daily (as a minimum). Booking performance has uplifted incrementally

by +44%

Welcome Home & Reliving

Conversation Manager – An additional opportunity

Outbound trial using Avaya was inconclusive as resources did not permit sufficient impact to be made on campaign leads

In order to really test outbound we devised a cloud based lead management tool that could be accessed by multiple business areas

Key conversations were identified and set up as new campaigns within Campaign, data output was automated to the new ‘Conversation Manager’ tool and allocated to agents

Key benefits: - Targeted conversations as Campaign can reference multiple data streams- Fully measureable activity with quantifiable outputs- Manages capacity and improves productivity across sales channels- Holistic view of customer journey

- Delivers strong incremental sales performance +260%- Represent a new Marketing lever not previously exploited

• IBM Campaign delivers the technology required to join up multiple data universes so customer experience and interactions can be managed holistically

• Communications are triggered by Customer events and actions that are more relevant and tailored.

• Phase 1 has delivered all baseline/foundation level communications – primarily focused on email. There is A LOT of optimisation and build out to do

• Delivers a consistent brand experience and joined up look and feel

• Endless ability to segment, refine and enhance as we learn more about customer behaviours and needs

• Has the potential to shape all conversations

Summary