If you can say things as simple as “I’d like my steak grilled medium-well,” or “I’d love another beer” you may have a place on Raymond Ludwin’s marketing team.
That’s because, according to the AVP of brand activation and collector experience at Air Miles, there has been a rule established for some time now that whatever messages are crafted for consumer consumption be as accessible as possible.
“It’s our language rule: nothing goes out unless you can think of it being said at a barbeque,” Ludwin told the audience at the Canadian Marketing Association’s Connections conference last week, adding that this same simplicity and straightforwardness required a rethink of its graphic design elements as well.
“You could charitably say we looked like 1960s IBM — very traditional and bank-like. Consumers won’t let brands like that in on a daily level. It felt too cold and unapproachable.”
It wasn’t enough to just change the tone, however. Ludwin said a key turning point for Air Miles came when the organization recognized it needed to reposition the very notion of collecting rewards.
“We started to think of ourselves like these guys,” he said, showing a slide during his talk of a box of Cracker Jacks. “It was like you had to dig through some pretty crappy popcorn and peanuts to get there. We didn’t want to be like an old treat.”
Instead, the Air Miles marketing team decided to position itself more like a Kinder Surprise — an egg that’s delicious in and of itself, regardless of the toy you get when you open it.
“We realized the journey is as much of a reward as the prize itself,” he said. “You need a shorthand symbol to rally your organization. For us it was this idea of Kinder Surprise. It’s helpful, because now people understand when we say Kinder Surprise we’re looking for those things that will offer daily rewards.”
To the outside world, however, the strategy has manifested itself through a series of experiences that offer some kind of value just for being a collector, rather than having to actually redeem points. Ludwin pointed to several recent initiatives over the past year, including its “Smile Booth,” where consumers could pose for a photo and enter a chance to win bonus points. According to Ludwin, surveys conducted after the promo saw 77% of participants saying it made them feel like a valued collector. It also led to a double-digit rise in collector activity.
More recently, Air Miles announced a music program with Live Nation called Detour which will bring singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor to one of five local communities.
Ludwin said such tactics offered a “virtuous loop of engagement.” By producing content as it happens, you can then have more to offer on social channels to drive effectiveness. This doesn’t have to come at a high cost, either; Air Miles has a young person on staff who helps manage much of this activity.
“It’s way cheaper and easier than doing this externally,” he said. “I would say, find yourself a whiz kid. You just can’t have ours.”
Ludwin also recommended “doing some things in your marketing campaigns that you barely understand.” When Air Miles set up an activation at the WayHome arts and music festival last year, for example, “we had people who insisted we needed a bubble machine,” he said. “I go to the activation and there are all these millennials taking pictures with bubbles behind them. It was brilliant. Little things like that, that seem weird, can turn out to be really much better than what you may think initially yourself.”
