Southwest Airlines Online Partner Marketing Campaign
Southwest Airlines
Online Partner Marketing Campaign
The Challenge
While many travelers have purchased tickets on www.southwest.com, relatively few know about Southwest Airlines’ business travel site www.SWABIZ.com. Described as “Southwest.com for business travel”, SWABIZ provides unique benefits for companies seeking to control costs and better manage corporate travel. Because SWABIZ was only for business travel, it did not receive the same level of mass marketing as Southwest.com. Consequently, SWABIZ awareness and usage was lower than Southwest had hoped.
With the goal of increasing visibility and ticket sales for SWABIZ, Spur Digital developed and implemented an innovative and effective online marketing strategy.
The Solution
To create a partner-centric online marketing program, Spur Digital approached the Houston Technology Center (www.houstontech.org) about a web-based joint-marketing program. With more than 6,000 members, HTC is a non-profit organization serving Houston’s technology and business communities. Leveraging HTC’s access to its member base, Spur developed a three-month online campaign plan to promote SWABIZ to HTC members. Results from the campaign were convincing, increasing revenue, brand awareness and customer loyalty.
Campaign Overview
Spur created an integrated program that utilized email and the HTC Web site to promote the campaign to its members. Spur created a SWABIZ account for HTC and offered incentives for HTC members to use SWABIZ.
To encourage usage of the HTC account, everyone that purchased a ticket through SWABIZ would receive double Rapid Reward credit. Additionally, Spur created a sweepstakes in which one ticket was given away each month of the campaign. Winners were drawn from the list of participants that either purchased tickets through the HTC SWABIZ account or that entered through alternative submissions.
To increase awareness, Spur used email and the HTC Web site to communicate and promote the campaign. Multiple brand-enhancing, html emails were sent to all members by HTC and an advertisement was placed on the HTC home page. Additionally, a dedicated landing page was created on the HTC web site. From there, visitors were instructed to take action.
To create multiple touch points, four email announcements were sent to all of HTC’s 6,000 members (24,000 in total).
- First announced the promotion and the special offer for members
- Second announced the first winner of a round-trip ticket on SWA
- Third and fourth announced subsequent winners of monthly drawings
Spur measured weekly sales of tickets through the HTC SWABIZ account and correlated that to the outbound marketing activities. After the campaign, a post-campaign survey was conducted to quantify the change in SWABIZ awareness and measure any improvements in brand loyalty.
The Results
Results of the campaign were compelling, both financially and in terms of brand awareness and loyalty. While Spur cannot share financial results, the following provides a summary:
- ROI was significant as Southwest saw $50 in direct and indirect revenue for every $1 spent on the campaign
- Awareness of SWABIZ among the HTC community increased dramatically, from 19% before the campaign to 71% after the campaign.
- Customer loyalty increased noticeably, as 62% indicated they were more likely to fly Southwest in the future (due in part to SWA’s support for HTC).
Spur Digital’s Role
As a full-service solution provider, Spur Digital managed all aspects, including:
- Developing the campaign plan
- Identifying, engaging and structuring agreements with Partners
- Development of web media – email announcements and landing pages
- Comprehensive tracking and reporting of marketing metrics and business results
- Conducting a customer survey to measure the impact on brand loyalty
- Measuring financial impact and ROI
“We were very pleased with the results from the web campaign Spur Digital planned and implemented for us. In addition to producing great results, they managed all aspects for us and were great to work with.” |
Announcement Landing Page HTC-Branded Reservation Page |
