Innovation was key at the 2015 Loyalty Awards

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By: Wise Marketer Staff |

Posted on February 26, 2015

Innovation was key at the 2015 Loyalty Awards

JetBlue, Accor, Azul Airlines and Qantas' have all been recognised for their particularly innovative loyalty initiatives in the Loyalty Awards, presented at the Loyalty 2015 conference in Istanbul, Turkey.

JetBlue led the way in the technology category launching Badges powered by Comarch Gamification Platform as a social engagement extension of their TrueBlue loyalty programme. Badges connects members, working toward points and badges, to the airline whilst promoting the brand in social channels at the same time. This allows JetBlue to accurately measure conversations that stem from social sharing. Anytime members interact with Badges, JetBlue are able to track detailed behaviour analytics, thus developing rich user profiles enabling JetBlue to put a dollar value on each person interacting with Badges.

"TrueBlue Badges has given us a valuable platform to interact with our customers outside of their normal booking and flying activities. Members are able to earn TrueBlue points for most of the badges they collect and for simply enjoying their regular activities such as using social media and sharing their experiences with friends and family. We've seen increased engagement and excitement from TrueBlue members who join badging as they start to compete with each other and share their JetBlue activities with their networks", said Kelly Roe, Director of Loyalty and Partnerships at JetBlue.

In the Excellence in Management category the judges picked out Accor for their Le Club Accorhotels, which 6 years after its launch was in need of a marketing revolution. They created a new brand promise 'You're at the heart of it' and launched it with their new website which incorporated new functional and emotional features. Accor's strategy was based on two main leverages; programme generosity and members' recognition. This newly adopted personalised communications approach with full member lifecycle and targeted offers have successfully acquired 4 million more members for Le Club Accorhotels.

"Le Club Accorhotels is a young and dynamic programme, which has already 18 million members. The Accor group is very proud to receive this award, which acknowledges the work done in the past months, and the will of Accor to put the satisfaction and recognition of its customers at the heart of its strategy, as well as the improvements of its products and services," said Isabelle Birem, Senior Vice President Loyalty for Le Club Accorhotels.

TudoAzul, Azul Brazilian Airlines Loyalty programme, was recognised in the Loyalty partnership category for their co-branded credit card with Itau. The card offers a list of compelling and innovative features leading to an astounding percentage of Azul customers accepting the card when offered it. Azul Airlines have successfully demonstrated an efficient way to reward loyal customers as well as a powerful tool to attract new customers.

Alex Malfitani, Head of Loyalty at Azul Airlines, commented: "The award recognises the innovative design of the TudoAzul credit card. This is a card that goes beyond the typical co-branded card - not only it rewards purchases with TudoAzul points but it also offers other exclusive benefits such as a 10% discount on any Azul ticket. It underlines the continued development of our loyalty programme, which continues to grow quickly with over 4.5 million members, and highlights the strength of our partnership with Itau, the largest private bank in the southern hemisphere"

The best marketing campaign award went to Qantas, which boasts the largest frequent flyer programme in Australia with over 10 million members. Qantas' challenge was to educate its members in ways to earn points without flying. The solution was Qantas Points Quest - an online game that saw customers following clues that led to products. As participants successfully reached the products, they won prizes - while each product showed customers another way they could earn Qantas Points.

Qantas Loyalty's Chief Marketing Officer Stephanie Tully said: "The Qantas Points Quest was created to immerse our members, through a fun and interactive mechanism, in the multitude of ways to earn Qantas Points via hundreds of partners. A compelling through-the-line marketing campaign drove incredible traffic to the site, resulting in over 1.2 million entries in just over four weeks."

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