Automated anniversary campaign tallies 61% open rate and leads to 1.5 million Facebook impressions
The CompanyFounded in 1960, Thai Airways International celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2010. From its home base in Bangkok, THAI flies to more than 70 destinations worldwide, including 13 major cities in Europe and the United Kingdom, more than 40 cities in Asia and 11 domestic destinations in Thailand-ultimately reaching across 36 countries on five continents.
The Challenge
THAI was looking for an email
marketing platform that would enable it to better communicate with its Australian
leisure and business travelers. Operating 46 weekly nonstop flights between
Bangkok and Australia, THAI has a continuously growing database of more than 100,000
Australian travelers. To fully realize the business potential of Its Australian
customer base, THAI needed an email solution that would help it deliver timely,
relevant, multichannel
marketing campaigns that would engage and expand its existing customer
base.
"Working in such a dynamic, fast-paced sector such as travel with drastic changes in customer behavior and communication, it's essential for us to have the right tools in place to engage with our customers," said Korakot Chatasingha, THAI's General Manager for Australia. "With new routes and opportunities opening all the time and an ever-expanding Australian customer base, we need to be communicating clearly across multiple channels."
The Solution
THAI selected Silverpop Engage for its ability to support
communications across multiple channels, including email, surveys, landing
pages and SMS. Upon implementing Silverpop Engage, THAI turned its focus to cleansing
its data so it could begin sending more relevant emails to subscribers based on
their preferences. With that goal in mind, THAI employed Silverpop's ANZ to
assist in the creation of a 50th Anniversary campaign designed to update
current contact details and collect email preference and demographic
information from THAI's existing Australian database.
THAI created a multifaceted campaign using Silverpop emails and landing pages and its Share-to-Social feature. It sent an email offering contacts in its existing database a chance to win a free trip for two to a select European city. Via the email, THAI led its contacts to a prepopulated Web form, created using Silverpop Landing Pages, and used the free trip promotion to entice them to update their information and provide additional demographic and email preference details.
THAI, with the help of Silverpop ANZ used the details from the 50th Anniversary campaign to develop a specialized template for ongoing, highly segmented messages promoting current specials and new travel destinations and routes. For example, THAI sends customers "fare special" emails promoting offers that are running within the travel time frame customers indicated on the 50th anniversary campaign Web form.
To further boost opens and click-throughs, THAI employs Silverpop's Send Time Optimization for its ongoing emails. This feature uses past data to send emails to recipients when they are most likely to be in their inbox and engage with an email-all on an individual contact basis.
The Results
The THAI 50th anniversary program proved that an
engaging and enticing email will drive results. With an open rate of 61
percent, the initial email resulted in 1 in 5 contacts updating their information,
providing more details about themselves and their preferences. The social-sharing
links within the email drove more than 1.5 million Facebook impressions, leading
to thousands of new contacts signing up for THAI's email program.
Working off a strong database loaded with detailed information on customer preferences and demographics, THAI's current emails are more targeted and relevant than ever and have an average open rate of 40 percent, a sizeable increase over the Australian industry standard of 16 percent to 24 percent.
----Download the PDF to learn how Thai Airways International achieved a 61% open rate and 1.5 million Facebook impressions.
