make it personal: engaging travelers with personalized messaging

MAKE IT PERSONAL

Luke Daigle Underline Communications

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Brian Lenhart American Express Travel

AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL

E N G AG I N G T R AV E L E R S W I T H

P E R S O N A L I Z E D M E S S AG I N G

© THE FUTURES COMPANY 2015 1

FUTURE TRAVEL TRENDS

July 9, 2015

C O N S U M E R S W I L L T R AV E L M O R E

O F A M E R I C A N T R A V E L E R S

S A Y T H E Y W I L L T R A V E L F O R

L E I S U R E T H E S A M E A M O U N T

O R M O R E I N 2 0 2 0 85 %

Source: American Express Travel, “Future Travel Trends” (2015)

S T R O N G L Y A G R E E /A G R E E :

L E I S U R E T R A V E L I S A B I G

P R I O R I T Y I N M Y L I F E 64 %

P E O P L E P R I O R I T I Z E T R AV E L


82% 67% 58% 55%

UNITED STATES UNITED KINGDOM MEXICO CHINA

W I L L I N G TO S A C R I F I C E I N OT H E R A R E A S O F T H E I R L I V E S I N O R D E R TO T R AV E L M O R E


76% Book flights and hotels

73% Research destinations

60% Streamline check-ins

T R AV E L E R S U S E T E C H N O L O G Y


63%

84%

83 %

O F U . S . M I L L E N N I A L S A R E

W I L L I N G T O L E T B R A N D S

T R A C K T H E I R H A B I T S F O R

B E S P O K E S E R V I C E

W I L L S H A R E D ATA F O R P E R S O N A L I Z AT I O N


Press Release: amex.co/1MNDdSI

Full Report: amex.co/1KH3L2c

© THE FUTURES COMPANY 2015 1

FUTURE TRAVEL TRENDS

July 9, 2015

How We Increased Email Clicks by 22% Using Personalization

C A S E S T U D Y:

The Situation

AmexTravel.com

CONFIDENTIAL - Page 3

April 18, 2013E-mail Creative

Current Email Campaign

A U D I E N C E

Amex Cardmembers

F R E Q U E N C Y

Monthly

G O A L S

Build awareness Drive online bookings

Offer promotion

Benefit reinforcement

Travel inspiration

CONFIDENTIAL - Page 3

April 18, 2013E-mail Creative

Current Email Campaign

!  Boost engagement

!  Increase bookings

!  Improve relevance

K E Y I S S U E

Single, generic

creative sent to

all customers

One size fits all?

The Insight

Cardmember travel attitudes and needs are highly fragmented.

Some Cardmembers take lots of short weekend trips, while others take only a few long, expensive trips.

Some are ‘do-it-yourselfers’, while others prefer to let full service agencies take care of the entire process.

Some will pay a premium for a special experience, while others are extremely price sensitive.

— AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RESEARCH

“ ”

G Location

k Interests

g Family Card

Customer attributes correlate to travel preferences

T Spend Age

Z

Segmentation?

Segment audience using personas?

Young Professional

International Jetsetter

Family Traveler

Luxury Seeker

Empty Nester

Tap into individual customer attributes

k Interests Card

T Spend

g Family

G Location Age

U

PERSONALIZATION VS SEGMENTATION

Specific

Adapts to individual

High variability

Tailored to the person

General

Based on assumptions

Limited variability

Tailored to a persona

Z U

Personalized marketing is now a “must-have”

10-20%

Source: Skift + Boxever, “The Future of Personalized Marketing In Travel” (2014). Stats based on Boxever results with airlines and OTAs.

increase in revenue per week

improvement in conversion rates

more revenue per visit from repeat visitors

5%+ 3-7x

Brands realize the importance…

of marketing professionals across multiple industries said personalization is “important” to “extremely important”. 94 %

Source: Conversant, “The Personalization Imperative” (2014)

…but there are challenges

!  Securing internal resources to coordinate

!  Building a single customer view across channels

!  Finding agencies and vendors to execute

70 % of brands fail to personalize their messages.

Source: Experian Marketing Services Email Marketing Study (2013)

The Solution

A new, dynamic email template that is personalized to the individual message by message.

[ Beauty shot of email on an iPad in outdoor setting ]

y

y

y

y

y

Examples for illustration only.

125 potential content

combinations

5 message

slots

3

content variations

=

The Results

29% increase in open rate

22%

increase in click rate

Thank You

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