2013 Silver Best Loyalty Programme or Campaign

Client TUI UK & Ireland

How did the campaign make a difference? Loyal customers book higher-margin holidays earlier, and are more likely to buy ancillary products and act as advocates. This 'little thank you's' programme systematically recognises and rewards Thomson Cruises' best customers, driving an 819% increase in bookings and 239% increase in ancillary sales.

What details of the strategy make this a winning entry? Improving loyalty drives the biggest ROI for Thomson Cruises. A small increase in repeat purchases adds significant bottom line margin. This strategy focused on four core areas: pre-season offers; pre-embarkation excitement; 'little thank you's' on board; and post-holiday retention. As regular cruise customers are a valuable, growing sector, the programme surprises and delights the most frequent travellers with pre-season exclusive email offers, including personalised incentives. Responders are called by retail concierge staff who personally attend to their pre-season bookings. Next is building excitement, using countdown emails and the pre-departure personalised portal; having customer details helps identify (and later reward) eligible loyal non-lead passengers before they embark, and widens the database on validated non-lead passengers. For on-board rewards, the logistical challenge was enabling on-board holiday advisors to recognise and reward loyal customers, with five cruise liners and +500,000 travellers per annum. The innovative mobile-enabled internal 'passenger surprise and delight' portal, which works out at sea, helps advisors identify and fulfil pre-assigned 'little thank you's,' including hand-delivered surprise and delight moments. Finally, for post-holiday retention, loyal customers are kept informed on what's new from Thomson Cruises with a six-weekly contact strategy.

How did creativity bring the strategy to life? Various surprise and delight moments are arranged for different loyal customer tiers, including cabin upgrades, dinner at the Captain's table, an escorted bridge tour, vouchers for spa treatments, or even meeting Thomson the dog, the on-board children's entertainment. Invitation and fulfilment of the rewards is recorded. The portal is essential to the customer rewards programme as it allows on-board holiday advisors to: review passenger lists on location; view customer history and loyalty scores, deliver assigned rewards on board and record live customer feedback. They are empowered to add the personal touch for our best customers. All rewards thank the best customers for choosing Thomson. Most rewarded customers in turn leave their own thank you messages.

Results The programme drove an 819% increase in bookings and a 239% year-on-year increase in online and retail ancillary products sales. 85% of customers who received a gift said they "liked the extra treats very much." 72% said the extra gifts made them "feel like a valued and special customer."