Right application of data in marketing can differentiate a great campaign from a good one.
The recently concluded Citibank cards travel campaign struck the perfect balance between offering its users value, and increasing usage for the brand. We are diving into how Citi achieved this and turned their campaign into a resounding success!
On offer were exclusive deals with leading partners like MakeMyTrip, Airbnb, Goibibo, Indigo, Paytm and British Airways. Citi wanted to capture their customers at various stages of their travel plans and present them with the perfect offer. To ensure this, Citi identified all the right moments and then paired them with the right technology to deliver the right communication.
On Facebook, which becomes a natural hotbed of activity for anyone on vacation-mode, Citi combined Facebook’s IP targeting with their customer database to identify relevant users. A prime example of this was the FIFA World Cup in Russia. Citi targeted its customers who were in Russia to watch the matches and served facebook ads directing them to the Citi World Privileges website which featured a wide range of offers available in Russia. Similar targeting was deployed across popular travel destinations with Citi card offers, giving their customers one more reason to smile.
Citi also leveraged TV-2-Mobile targeting to amplify their partner offers and leverage their offline advertising’s impact. For example, viewers who were following FIFA matches on their TV were identified and presented with relevant offers on their smartphones. This was done using audio-fingerprinting and frequency mapping to accurately ascertain users watching World Cup matches. They were then served rich media ads on high-end mobile devices from this audience pool which had apps with partner SDKs. Similarly, users who had seen TV ads of Citi partners were targeted with partner-specific Citi offer ads to boost ad recall and clicks.
This also increased the impact of offline communication while making it easier for their customers to avail these offers.
The amalgamation of smart targeting, innovative ad-network partnerships and data yielded not only an increase in usage for Citi, but also drove down spillover. With their highly targeted and relevant ads, Citi registered a consistently high click rate across various platforms – 2x the industry standard on Google and Facebook.
Not only this, the global banking behemoth’s business objectives were also demonstrably impacted, with total card spends shooting up by 6% in Q2 compared to Q1.
#TravelBigWithCiti proves that the right application of data in marketing can be the difference between a good campaign and a great one, and we hope all you brand managers out there will use this as learning to refine your next campaign for ever better results!