Crack the Case
Best Incentive Campaign
Agency: Ogilvy
Campaign: Crack the Case
Client: Intercontinental Hotels Group
In February, Intercontinental Hotels Group wanted to attract Hilton Hotel members who were upset with the recent devaluation of their points and increase share of wallet for their hotels, and launched the “Luckiest Loser” campaign. They captured information from more than 110,000 Hilton Hhonors members who said they would now be compelled to stay at an IHG property and be more active in its Priority Club Rewards (PCR) loyalty program.
In August, that was followed up with “Crack the Case,” a campaign targeting the Luckiest Loser audience, as well as prospects with similar profiles in the PCR database.
The campaign, which included targeted email and direct mail, led recipients to a personalized landing page. The promotion was treated like a mission to get recipients to crack open a case holding their bonus points, with messaging such as “We’ve been expecting you, Agent Crisafi,” and “should you accept this mission …”.
More than 158,000 customers were invited to earn multiple bonus points for overcoming ‘hurdles’ with the possibility to earn an additional large payoff at the end. Each hurdle was based on previous engagement behavior and predictive history, such as earning 1,000 points for taking a survey or opting-in for email, or earning points for staying at IHG properties. Customers that achieved four out of five hurdles unlocked their ‘latches’, earning a large payoff for cracking the case.
The rewards were progressive over a period of nine months, with multiple ways to win, culminating in nearly 26,000 distinct offer combinations. Frequent guest offers were more customized, while more than 20,000 frequent guests, who averaged more than 45 nights per year, got their own unique offer combinations.
Website visitors received dynamic messaging when they logged in using their Priority Club number, such as personalized hurdles, messages and bonus points offers.
Over the nine-month period, Crack the Case generated an average 44% email open rate, a 7.2% clickthrough rate and a 58% registration. Total hotel stay revenue equaled $356 million. More than 2,369 cases were cracked.
