August 6, 2022

Smiles and Rocket Travel by Agoda Collaborate to Boost Marketing Efforts

Rocket Travel by Agoda

Founded in 1994, Smiles is the most known frequent-flyer program in Brazil. With a customer base of approximately 17M travelers, Smiles is now the loyalty program for GOL, the largest Brazilian airline. Rocket Travel by Agoda and Smiles have been working together since 2017. The company was the first global partner to leverage Rocket’s leading technology to provide its customers with the option to redeem miles on hotel stays.

3.4% increase in email open rate

0.6% increase in click-through rate

5% increase in direct market share

As a partner focused on rewarding its customers at every step of their journey, Smiles and Rocket Travel by Agoda’s successful relationship was founded based on true collaboration and incredibly attractive promotions. With a very engaged customer base, however, Smiles saw a decline in engagement in its marketing communication due to the changes in the travel industry brought up by the pandemic over the past two years. Looking for different ways to foster brand loyalty and awareness, both Smiles and Rocket’s marketing team worked together to unveil new opportunities.

Strategic marketing

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Beautiful Rust - Noel F.
‍WINNER

Sukhothai - Tham W.

A Glimpse into the Past with Grandma - Fernanda R.

Sunrise Moment in Bagan - Justyna S.

The Sound of Vinyl - Bruna R.

Sacre Coeur at Dawn - Rubens J.

Laundry Day - Daniel B.

Old Town - Tim C.

Punch it, Chewy - Wesley T.

Old World (in the new) - Yvonne P.

Braveheart - Trim Castle 1200 BC - Joseph N.

Sesame Street - Hannah H.

We came to this place for magic -
Maure L.

1965 Apollo Test Capsule - Erica A.

I can remember this place - Zainab L.

Retirement post school runs - Sravya M.

Let's Play - Ying Q.

Real Alcazar de Sevilla - Arun V.

Nostalgia gives us perspective and, maybe, objectivity- Valentina O.

Love lights life- Diana F.

Rocket Travel by Agoda’s in-house marketing team reviewed the Smiles team's marketing strategies. We audited campaign landing pages and creative for seven different email campaigns. Our travel marketing experts reviewed the post-flight communication on the confirmation page, and opportunities to engage customers.

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Based on the Rocket Travel by Agoda team's findings, we offered strategic proposals based on best practices and our extensive travel marketing experience to increase engagement and improve click-through rates in promotional emails.

Driving audience engagement

The results came in quickly: after implementing the recommendations provided by Rocket Travel by Agoda, Smiles saw an increase of 3.4% in their email open rate and 0.6% in the click-through rate. They also increased their direct marketing share from 13.6% to 18.7%.

Both teams were thrilled to see quick results in such a short period. Today, Smiles and Rocket Travel by Agoda continue working together to offer Brazilian travelers more than 400,000 properties worldwide and 24/7 customer service assistance in Portuguese. Customers can choose to book hotels and earn miles for every hotel night booked, or they can redeem miles to confirm their hotel reservation. Anyone interested in booking a hotel on Hotéis Smiles can access the landing page through www.smiles.com.br/hoteis.

In-depth consumer journeys drive engagement throughout every phase of the customer lifecycle. A robust suite of transactional emails ensure customers have all the information needed at their fingertips from booking, to check-in, and post-trip. Dynamic cross-sell strategies allow us to drive high attach rates with other travel products offered by our partners, generating incremental bookings and boosting the value of each trip, and abandoned search and welcome series ensures customers understand the value of our partners’ travel platforms and stay loyal to our partners’ brands.

Personalized content leveraged throughout our emails, delivering a unique experience for the consumer. Our personalized email communications ensure each customer has all the information they need throughout their travels, easy ways to contact our customer loyalty team for assistance, and suggest travel destinations based on their personal travel preferences. This adds a level of convenience to the consumer experience and drives engagement with our partners’ brands.

Utilizing AI is quickly becoming a cornerstone of email marketing. Using artificial intelligence allows our marketing teams to quickly drive innovation through A/B experimentation. In testing, we have found it to be very effective at driving results and are developing new ways to leverage this emerging technology as email marketing services continue to expand.

Segmenting audiences based on previous engagement data to deliver new messages to the customer and drive continued engagement with our white label platforms.

Robust reporting enables us to continually optimize the performance of our campaigns, and keep partners informed of success and areas of opportunity at every phase of a partnership.

About the author

Rocket Travel by Agoda, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is a leader in the travel industry offering technology and marketing solutions for some of the largest consumer brands in the world.