AAA Insider, one of AAA Southern New England's newest member programs, is also one of its most effective. A year in, free-to-paid memberships are converting at nearly 95%, compared with the club's general renewal rate of around 89%.
Even more striking is the unlikely audience this program serves. AAA Insider is aimed at teenagers, the youngest of whom, at 13, aren't old enough to have a learner's permit.
“We tend to take the long view,” says Mary Wyatt, vice president of marketing for AAASNE, which serves the Massachusetts and Rhode Island markets. “It's very important to us to follow these young people through college, until they get out into the work force. Our intent is to expose [young people] to AAA in every aspect so they'll be [aware] of all our benefits.”
AAA Insider owes its existence to analysis. Marketing folks created it after studying consumer purchase information about some of its benefits and discounts and determined there was a need for pre-driver and very-new-driver memberships.
Insider has value beyond attracting additional members. AAASNE found that when the combined activities of all household members are rolled up into one view, the households spend more when there's at least one AAA Insider in the family.
The data analytics program that consolidates AAA's member information is called Element 360, which is run out of Direct Focus, the national organization's internal operation that offers database support for branch offices.
Element 360's perspective of AAA's members has enabled branch offices to refine offer targeting. Before a branch had a full view of its members, someone in its benefits division might've seen that an individual wasn't taking advantage of leisure and entertainment offerings and was sent a “Please don't leave us” message. But if that target had relied heavily and frequently on roadside assistance, such a message would have been inappropriate at best, and off-putting at worst.
AAA national employs a suite of analytics products from SmartFocus in Bristol, England. But this wasn't the first effort the parent organization made to add such savvy to its marketing mix. In the late 1990s, the organization asked two large database firms to pull together data from its various touch points. “They came back to us shaking their heads,” says Daniel Mathieux, director of member relationship management development for AAA's national office.
These challenges haven't abated. At AAA Southern New England alone, a single view of a customer incorporates data from 23 different sources.
The extent to which each branch takes advantage of AAA national's Direct Focus unit varies greatly. Some rely on it to support their own analytic efforts; others treat it as a black box, throwing all their data at it and asking for only fully analyzed, actionable data in return.
AAASNE is among the more sophisticated data users. Both Wyatt and Sue Burns, the branch's director of marketing membership, get elbow-deep into their data. Burns is a borderline reports junkie, and admits to pulling both regular campaign tracking and analysis reports from Direct Focus, as well as requesting call, sales and conversion information from its contact center on an ad hoc basis.
The youth market isn't the only niche AAASNE's analysis has yielded. “We model on non-response as well,” says Burns. “We go after folks that we know have traveled, but may not have traveled in the past three years. We can get their interest up again, particularly if we have a good promotion for them.”
The branch uses an on-site propensity model to increase its members' value and reduce attrition. As part of this model, AAASNE employs a points-based product index to measure members' affinity levels. (These points are internal only; members usually aren't aware of them.)
Any interaction — whether requesting roadside assistance, purchasing discounted movie tickets or making travel arrangements through the branch — adds additional points to a member's record. Members who sign up and don't use any of the service have only one point, and are considered unlikely to renew.
The points system allows AAASNE to automatically trigger attrition-prevention and upsell campaigns as soon as it has enough individuals in each category to make outreach efforts cost-effective. Yes, the branch does send out information on a one-off basis immediately after, say, talking to a member through its contact center. But the points system allows it to use batch processing and still reap the benefits of proactive efforts.
It doesn't hurt that AAA Direct Focus takes full advantage of SmartFocus' application suite. “They have our Chaid modeling program, and they do regression and cluster modeling,” says Will Condon, vice president for technical consultancy at SmartFocus. “[AAA's] modeling engine can work with different types of data.”
For AAASNE, the future of modeling lies in additional segmentation analysis. Buoyed by the success of the youth program, Burns is hoping to design similar efforts for other demographics, such as female heads of household, new parents and single parents.
Insider Information
AAA Insider, AAA Southern New England's program for children age 13 to 15 and nine months, offers a number of benefits to entice pre-drivers.
- “Show Your Card and Save” discounts at a variety of retailers, attractions, and services, including LensCrafters, Reebok, Hard Rock Café, Salem Witch Museum, Showcase Cinemas, Boston Celtics basketball games, and Sirius Satellite Radio.
- Movie, theme park and special event ticket purchasing at aaa.com.
- A subscription to AAA Insider, the program's quarterly newsletter.
- Contests and games.
- Free TripTiks, TourBooks and maps.
- Passport photos (fees may apply).
- A free one-year associate membership, including roadside assistance, at age 16.
Source: AAA Southern New England
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