Live From DMA07: InterContinental Makes Over Loyalty Communications

Several years ago the InterContinental Hotels Group ripped up the strategy for its mailings to loyalty members and started from scratch.

There were a number of things wrong. First, the one-page mailing was cluttered and lacking in sophistication. Second, it was printed in boring black type.

It just wasn’t very sexy, Ken Bottt, the director of global consumer marketing for InterContinental said yesterday.

The loyalty program, Priority Club, launched in 1983 growing to 33 million members, up from 21 million three years ago. The company, which has 3,700 hotels worldwide, mails 12 million statements annually.

Criteria for the new global program posed challenges. It needed to centralize numerous regional mailings that included 400 different versions in nine languages such as Kanji, German and Dutch. Still it had to be flexible enough to incorporate the latest personalization strategies based on region, member status and other factors. And it had to cater to the needs of the multiple partners participating in the loyalty program such as Hertz and Sharper Image. Lastly, costs had to come down.

Among a number of initiatives, international readership surveys were used to modify the format and content.

With help from direct marketing services company IWCO Direct and Digitas, a global interactive agency network, the new program included a four-page multi-color statement featuring strong branding, a template design for efficiency, variable messaging areas, integrated personal account information and promotional content and aggressive merchandising of program offerings.

The results included enhanced personalization, complex versioning, improved cycle time and enhanced collaboration between all parties to boost InterContinental’s marketing efforts.

“These are living and breathing animals, you don’t just launch it and walk away,” said Tom Wicka, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of IWCO Direct. “This is a powerful marketing tool that needs to be flexible and often updated at the last minute.”

The new format is tested two to three times every 18 months to make sure people are reading it. The latest version drew a 10% lift in readership.

“We were able to do all this, all while lowering our costs,” Bott said.