Monarch Airlines created a prize giveaway with a social app that reflected its flight routes and brand values.  

Problem:

During the festive season, Monarch Airlines wanted to stand out with a campaign that would highlight its product offering while reinforcing brand loyalty among new and existing stakeholders.

The Luton Airport-based British airline has a strong social media presence and it uses this to create engagement on an ongoing basis. Monarch’s social media campaigns allow it to derive insight and feedback from its customers, in this way it can identify issues and quickly solve problems.

As well as engaging with its social audience and existing customers, Monarch wanted to build-up its email subscriber database in the run-up to the January sales.

Roz Chandler, MD at Branch Communications, says, “The most important elements of this campaign were acquisition of new customers and brand engagement. We wanted to encourage users to keep coming back every day so we needed a cross platform solution and one that could be accessed from anywhere. We needed to create a fun mechanism that was easy to use.”

Strategy:

Monarch used an advent calendar app as a way to engage and reward its customers every day. The app was designed by Branch Communications, a digital marketing agency.

Through partnership with a range of companies that offered luxury travel and entertainment prizes in the run-up to Christmas, Monarch hoped to forge new business relationships, strengthen its brand and showcase its services and products.

Ian Chambers, head of digital and marketing at Monarch Airlines, says, “The advent calendar allowed us to show the many facets of Monarch; showcasing our scheduled route network via flight prizes as well as our strong relationship with our sister company Monarch Holidays.”

The prizes were often inspired by regular flight destinations such as Alicante, Grenoble, Lanzarote, Larnaca and Tenerife.

Monarch ensured that its prize partners had brand values that corresponded with its own. The partners had to demonstrate quality and value and they had to offer a prize that would appeal to the Monarch customer.

Chambers says, “Our prize partners were very generous with their prizes, and in return they were offered brand exposure through our marketing of the promotion, as well as opt-in email data, which customers spontaneously offered. Prize partners have been universally very happy with the success of the promotion.”

Gathering data has become a priority outcome for digital campaigns. The public have shown that they are generally willing to give-up their personal data in exchange for improved services and products. In Monarch’s case they were able to share this data with their partners thereby creating greater incentive.

The social aspect of the campaign allowed for existing loyal customers to share content with friends and family, it was hoped that this would bring the Monarch brand to new potential customers.

Chandler says, “My favourite technical feature was the ability to share content easily and send emails to friends and family to encourage more entrants. The system was designed so that html emails could be sent by users.”

Results:

Chambers says, “The campaign provided Monarch with an excellent opportunity to reach new and existing customers with a positive, engaging message at a traditionally quiet time of year for the travel industry. Launched just ahead of the key January sales period, the campaign helped drive awareness of the brand; providing both new and existing customers with a fun and exciting opportunity to engage with Monarch and our prize partners.”

The campaign succeeded in helping Monarch to reach new potential customers. There were over 72,000 sign-ups to the online Christmas Advent Calendar App, of those 72,000 entrants 25% were new opt-ins to the Monarch email database. This enabled Monarch to share its January sales message with 18,000 new people.

The campaign was also advantageous for Monarch’s partners. One of the prizes was a seven night stay at Mövenpick Resort Sharm el Sheikh in August 2015.

Stephen Banks, director of sales and marketing at Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts Africa says, "We felt the advent calendar promotion was a really fun, festive concept, and a great way for us to reach out to, and interact with, potential future guests via social media. Monarch is an important partner for Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, and in particular for our resorts in Egypt, so we were keen to take part – and with nearly 9,000 entries for the two prizes we provided, we're delighted with the results!"

The advent calendar campaign helped Monarch to strengthen its business relationships. Those who participated in the campaign were sent a follow-up thank you email which included a special offer for flight bookings.

Chambers predicts that the campaign could deliver up to £1.1m in revenue during 2015. The partnerships were crucial for this success. They also allowed Monarch to build its brand through affiliation with similar brands.

“We know how valuable the customers on our database who we talk to on regular basis are, it allows us to develop a deeper relationship with them and that then often leads to strong repeat bookings, strong customer loyalty and brand affinity/advocacy,” Chambers concludes.