Against a backdrop of rising fuel costs and intense competition in the low-cost airline market, GB Airways set out to find new revenue streams, which could set it apart from the competition. Using customer feedback from its in-flight surveys, the British Airways franchisee concluded that homeowners abroad were an established and growing market, and a…
GB Airways finds Long Tail in overseas home-buyers
Against a backdrop of rising fuel costs and intense competition in the low-cost airline market, GB Airways set out to find new revenue streams, which could set it apart from the competition.
Using customer feedback from its in-flight surveys, the British Airways franchisee concluded that homeowners abroad were an established and growing market, and a group largely untapped by competitors.
The research results led to the development of GB Privilege, a bespoke email campaign offering specific benefits for overseas homeowners. The campaign was designed to acknowledge frequent travellers to the same destination, and offer them tailor-made promotions.
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Prior to launch, a mailing was sent to those with only a postal address to invite them to sign-up to the programme via a microsite.
The airline tested three versions of an email and found that the more personalised the message, the greater the response.
Following survey change recommendations, the number of email addresses captured increased by 7% and levels of opt out halved.
Since its launch last May, 186,000 Privilege emails have been distributed. Privilege communications make-up 13% of the nearly 1.5 million emails sent by the airline, but now account for 47% of all conversions to sale and 43% of total revenue.
