2017 Silver Best customer journey

Acxiom

Client: Heathrow Airports

Connected Passenger Experiences

Campaign overview

Travelling through an airport can be a detached, and sometimes stressful time.

Heathrow Airports wanted to address this disconnect, by changing the way passengers relate to their journey and creating a personalised, relevant experience through CRM.

Strategy

When travelling through an airport, the usual experience feels like being processed through a web of security, lounges, shops and services. It can be difficult for passengers to move through, engage with and appreciate in a short period of time.

Behind the scenes lays a complex variation of technologies, partners and data that drive operations. Add the 208,000 daily visitors at Heathrow Airport, each with individual tastes, wants and needs, plus 120 different retail brands to support and the scale of the project deepens.

The goal was to unite Heathrow around a central view of the passenger with the ability to recognise and react to real-time events and touchpoints.

Acxiom created a vision of the ideal passenger experience, then assessed, tested and resolved identity, data, content, insight, segmentation, reporting, martech and communication gaps to make it a reality.

Creativity

Across a suite of communications, addressing customer lifecycle, journey stage, context and real-time events, Acxiom created entirely personalised experiences using dynamic copy, images and links.

Delivered across email, push notifications and digital display in paid and owned media using data and insights to guide the content.

Bringing the promise of 'making every journey better' to life, content was classified into 47 categories for engagement insights.

Combined with transactional data, lifestyle/demographic data and Wi-Fi log-in frequency, seven personas were crafted, followed by next best action models. Look-a-like models were then activated within off and online data, extending reach internationally.

From recognising on-airport presence from car number plates to Apple Wallet messages specific to that terminal and member, each step is a passenger-focused and personalised consideration that aims to make for a more seamless journey when travelling through Heathrow.

Results

Doubling the scale of the communications program, Heathrow Airports have seen increases in email engagement rates; with open rates rising by 26%.

Click to open rose 9% with average ranging 10% - 21%, vs. benchmarks of 10.5% retail, 11.2% travel.

At the same time unsubscribe rates fell by 14%.

Revenue contribution from the Rewards loyalty program has also seen growth. Incremental retail spend per member rose 13%, due to a 56% uplift in transaction frequency per visit and 9% uplift in members actively using their cards.

Media efficiencies by on-boarding first party data and activating it for paid social, search and programmatic display, have also reduced the cost of that traffic by up to 85%.

Moreover, the program has spoken to the wider business on the role of data driven marketing in shaping better passenger experiences beyond operational improvements.

Team

Mark Arnold (Senior Manager, Consumer Engagement) Acxiom - Jason Skelton (Account Director) Acxiom - Federico Gibson (Planning Consultant) Acxiom - Lisa Ryder (Senior Client Services Manager ) Axciom - Pawel Szymanski (Senior Decision Support Analyst) Acxiom - Piotr Szopa (Delivery Analyst) Acxiom - Chris Milne (Senior Analyst) Acxiom - Allen Chan (Manager UK Analytics) Acxiom - Filip Fiebiger (Solutions Co-ordinator) Acxiom - Abigail Acland (Planning Consultant) Acxiom - Beth Hardie (Senior Delivery Analyst) Acxiom - Amelia Waddington (Director Analytics & Data Science) Acxiom - David Keens (Principal Technology Consultant) Acxiom - Simon Chatfield (Head of CRM & e-Business Heathrow Airports Limited) - Claire Burley (CRM Manager Heathrow Airports Limited) - Graham Bradley (Loyalty Program & Propositions Manager) Heathrow Airports Limited - Elizabeth Hunt (CRM & Loyalty Marketing Executive) Heathrow Airports Limited - Tracy Thomas (CRM & Loyalty Marketing Executive) Heathrow Airports Limited - Mechelle McBride (CRM & Loyalty Marketing Executive) Heathrow Airports Limited - Sam Allen (CRM & Loyalty Marketing Executive) Heathrow Airports Limited - Emma Langford-Lee (Managing Partner) Havas Helia - Shelly Tucker (Account Director) Havas Helia - Jerome Jefferson (Account Manager) Havas Helia - Helen Spencer (Associate Planning Director) Havas Helia - Evelyn Szyprowska (Account Manager) Chaos Design - Stuart Irvine (Digital Manager) Heathrow Airports Limited

Contributors

Havas Helia (Creative design) Chaos Design (Creative design)