The Company
Air New Zealand provides air passenger and cargo transport services within New Zealand, as well as to and from Australia, the South West Pacific, Asia, North America and the United Kingdom. Air New Zealand UK flies to New Zealand, Los Angeles and Hong Kong out of London Heathrow.
The Challenge
Air New Zealand really means it when it says that it strives to provide its customers with an outstanding level of customer service in a unique and refreshing “kiwi” way. Always challenged with finding forward-thinking ways to engage with customers, Air New Zealand UK sought new ways to use email to focus on customer relationships and brand building, solicit timely customer feedback, and take a more personal touch to its unique service.
The Solution
Air New Zealand refers to the approach to its customer campaign as “Personality Allowed.” Using Silverpop Engage, Air New Zealand sends personalized pre-flight and post-arrival emails to passengers utilizing Silverpop’s Dynamic Content functionality. Its pre-flight email with a welcoming subject line includes imagery tailored around the upcoming destination, such as shots of local cultural events or popular delicacies, a weather update, and flight details along with the ability to share your information with friends via Facebook and Twitter using Silverpop’s Share-to-Social capability. Air New Zealand’s brand personality also shines through, with each message showcasing a photo of a flight crew member who will be on the recipient’s specific flight.
An important call to action included in the post-arrival email is a link to the company’s MyVoice program, which serves as a comprehensive preference center, collecting and housing a great deal of important information about each customer. By encouraging recipients to click on the link, Air New Zealand aims to increase the amount of information collected from each participant. By incorporating this information back into its email program, Air New Zealand can deliver a higher degree of relevancy. And the strategy is working, with the MyVoice program link being one of the most popular.
The Results
While primarily focused on building customer loyalty, the “Personality Allowed” campaign has also generated impressive results. The pre-flight emails have an average unique open rate of 69 percent and an average unique click rate of 38 percent—well above industry averages. The post-arrival emails have an average unique open rate of 62 percent and an average unique click rate of 40 percent.
In addition, reactions from passengers to this inventive campaign have been incredibly positive, from thousands of active Facebook comments to some customers even printing out the emails to show the featured flight crew member while on board. One customer even commented, “What a brilliant email campaign … I think that this is the first piece of e-marketing that I have ever received that I thoroughly read, found helpful and actually printed out!”
Download the PDF to learn how Air New Zealand's "Personality Allowed" campaign yielded impressive results
