Carnival UK and HH Global
An increase in email campaign open rate of 25% and click-to-open-rate of 7%
Background
Carnival UK is the operating company for P&O Cruises and Cunard. They provide unforgettable holiday experiences and operate a winning culture to achieve standout success. Cunard ships have been defining sophisticated ocean travel for over 175 years.
The worldwide pause in the cruise industry resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic caused unprecedented numbers of cancelled cruises for Carnival UK (CUK), including flagship brands P&O Cruises and Cunard Cruises. Guests were under stress and highly likely to request a refund for their cancelled cruises, creating an impact on the business. CUK’s goal was to keep guests engaged, feeling valued and provide reassurances where possible. CUK needed to maintain future interest in cruise bookings at a time when confidence in the travel industry was low and traveling was restricted by law.
The challenge for the CUK business and specifically the Marketing Team was how to keep customers engaged when faced with a complete and sudden stop on sailing due to Covid-19. How could they minimise the business impact? Marketing had to deliver a value exchange to guests that would keep them from cancelling bookings and make them feel valued and rewarded for keeping faith in CUK for the future. The team had to deliver this experience in a way that would reduce the impact on other CUK internal teams, namely the customer call center.
There were 3 key goals for this project:
1) Reduce guest cancellations due to the pandemic for paused and upcoming cruises, retaining bookings and revenues for the future
2) Engage with guests on a 1-2-1 basis with a personalised value exchange: ensuring guests were incentivised to rebook
3) Automate and deliver this experience digital channels: reducing the demand on internal teams
The Apteco solution
With the goals in mind CUK was faced with questions around what data was needed to deliver a personalised communication and where would this data come from. They also needed to consider what additional business logic and rules had to be created, including rules that worked for two brands with different strategies, communication plans and demographics, as well as developing a compliant solution that abided by many different and changing regulations. Another vital consideration for this project was reporting. CUK needed to be able to develop detailed reporting for the wider business to drive strategy and business decisions based on data facts. CUK and HH Global needed to develop a solution which was flexible enough for the many additional challenges presented by the pandemic and to develop a focus on FCCs and reduce refunds.
To provide a value exchange unique to each booking and guest, with a reduced marketing team, required collaboration of people, process and technology. The value exchange was to provide Future Cruise Credits (FCCs) over and above guests’ money currently paid (deposits and in full) to all customers. This was managed through multiple digital channels to reduce the workload on internal customer services teams, and was also automated to reduce the workload on marketing teams. It was especially important that the email communications were clear to avoid causing confusion and directing queries to an already busy call center. CUK needed to combine complex booking information for each booking, for each passenger and translate that into an easy to understand communication with the lead guest.
The capability and flexibility of both the HH Global Interactive Single Customer View (HHGi SCV) and Apteco FastStats and PeopleStage was critical to delivering success. CUK was able to move quickly from insight to action, utilising Apteco export extras functionality to push HTML tables via PeopleStage to the ESP, allowing complex and calculated information on guests’ FCCs to be sent via a single email to the lead guest. This automated journey provided valuable information and reassurance for the guest and CUK gathered more data than ever before, enabling this data to drive many improved customer journeys.
The capability and flexibility of both the HH Global Interactive Single Customer View and Apteco FastStats and PeopleStage was critical to delivering success. We were able to move quickly from insight to action.
Hannah Maun, CRM optimisation manager, Carnival UK
Hannah Maun, CRM optimisation manager, Carnival UK
The impact on the business
The FCC campaign was a very successful campaign, retaining critical brand engagement. 1-2-1 Engagement with a personalised and incentivised value statement, automation of the communication delivery with a clear message to avoid increased demand on internal teams and retaining bookings and revenues. As a result, Carnival UK was able to execute a highly complex and personalised customer experience that not only engaged customers but resulted in a 58% redemption rate of the FCC against future bookings for guests sent the communication, dissuading tens of millions of pounds off refunds, and forward booking Carnival UK ships into 2022.
Customers experienced improved communication of highly personalised offers, providing value to guests.
58% redemption rate of the Future Cruise Credits (FCC) against future bookings for guests receiving the communication.
Increase in email campaign open rate of 25% and click-to-open-rate of 7% when compared against internal benchmarks.
A substantial decrease in human hours being used by the business to respond to calls and queries.
By utilising Apteco marketing software, we were able to track and measure the impact on guests of the Future Cruise Credits journey. Allowing us to understand behaviour and identify trends, adopting an agile approach to testing, offers and onward strategy.