How American Airlines Leveraged Zero-Party Data and Personalization To Increase Revenue

A recently published 2022 Digital Consumer Trends Index from Cheetah Digital, shows that email crushes all other forms of customer outreach—by up to 108%. Looking at specific formats, email outperforms SMS by a staggering 92%, and banner ads by 39%. Cheetah Digital, which Forrester named a “strong performer” in email marketing, saw this first-hand during a recent project for American Airlines. The airline engaged the Cheetah Digital platform and strategic services team to design a campaign that would engage its highest-value customers in a more human way. Specifically, American Airlines wanted to extend customer engagement beyond a single, transactional email, and offer more of an ongoing, personalized experience. The first step in personalizing anything involves collecting information, and the best way to do that is by asking customers questions and offering them value in exchange for answers. So, AA started by temporarily upgrading the frequent flyer status of customers before they reached the necessary mileage threshold. If those customers maintained a level of travel frequency during that time, that status then became locked in for the year. This rewarded customers earlier for the same activity, thus providing value and earning loyalty. Once customers registered for the status upgrade, AA asked for additional information in return for an additional bucket of free miles. Questions included anything from where and when they planned to travel, to what kind of items they typically pack, through a fun, almost gamified, experience. That information was then used to provide destination recommendations, one immediately and another 30 days later. The idea was to give travelers new ideas and motivate them to act on them. And the results were amazing. Of those who began the survey, 84% finished. The emails sent afterward had over 54% open rates. All this resulted in a lift in revenue as well—to the tune of an average increase of $20 per user.

How American Airlines Leveraged Zero-Party Data and Personalization To Increase Revenue

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