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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Become a partnerFounded 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 rate0.6% increase in click-through rate5% increase in direct market share.
Flying Blue, the loyalty programme of Air France, KLM, Transavia, Aircalin, Kenya Airways, and TAROM, and Rocket Travel by Agoda launched a new platform that provides Flying Blue customers with more options to earn and use points on hotel stays. With this launch, Rocket Travel by Agoda has expanded its reach globally, as Flying Blue became Rocket’s second white label partner in Europe.Since launch, bookings have increased by 200%. The customer-centric and partner-branded website, the improved user experience, the expanded option to earn and redeem Miles, and the emphasis on delivering quality support are some of the key reasons why this partnership has been successful.
One leading global aviation company with a successful loyalty program turned to Rocket Travel by Agoda to create a redefined hotel booking experience.The airline market’s profits dropped 33% in Q2 of 2024, amid an increase in labor costs and jet fuel prices. These market conditions are forcing airlines to look at how they can maintain profitability, coming in the form of cutting routes, grounding planes, and finding ways to increase efficiency. Smart airlines are leveraging their loyalty programs to cultivate new revenue streams and achieve their business objectives.
Jim Thompson, the iconic Thai lifestyle brand, aimed to expand its visibility among a diverse, global travel audience. To do so, they needed to place their promotional offers in front of travelers who were actively planning their trips. However, advertising channels tend be imprecise, often showing ads to a general audience instead of people who are actively planning a trip. This can lead to wasted budget and missed opportunities to connect with interested travelers.
ShopBack is Asia-Pacific's leading shopping and rewards platform. They connect over 50 million users with 15 million merchants and partners, driving billions in sales for them annually. Given their current scale, it's hard to believe that just over a decade ago, ShopBack only started to set out to help people across the region save money with cashback on their everyday shopping. Very quickly after launching, ShopBack identified an opportunity to launch a dedicated travel vertical. Their goal for the vertical was to provide strong travel offerings that would drive high booking volumes for travel partners, enabling ShopBack to earn from these referrals and pass higher cashback deals back to their members. However, launching a travel vertical presented unique challenges for a platform primarily known for retail cashback. To win member confidence for these higher-value travel purchases and provide a truly competitive service from day one, ShopBack knew they needed two key elements: access to a vast selection of global travel options and the backing of an established, trusted name in the travel industry. This was about more than just adding inventory it was about ensuring a reliable and appealing booking experience that members would trust. “We needed a partner who could offer both scale and trust. Rocket Travel by Agoda gave us global reach with local credibility, which was key to winning our users’ confidence early on.” - Hazel Then, Regional Head of Commercial, ShopBack
