Fly Buys is New Zealand’s largest loyalty programme with over 2.4 million cardholders. There are over 50 participating retailers and businesses. Youth (aged 18-25) account for over half of all new Fly Buys members annually. However, their engagement with the programme is not sustained and too many of them become disengaged in the programme after only five years. With an aging population, Fly Buys realised that it needed to do something to keep the youth engaged for the health of the programme.

The Fly Buys proposition as a whole has wide appeal, but something wasn’t keeping the youth hooked, so it needed to be re-positioned to appeal to a youth market – so Fly Buys Flats was created. Market research was used to leverage existing product attributes to change perception about Fly Buys in this youth market, drive acquisition and lay the seeds for a long- term plan of continuous engagement. The focus was on youths in the flatting environment as Fly Buys becomes relevant to them at this time as they become more self sufficient and start shopping and spending in Fly Buys partner categories.

An earlier test campaign in Dunedin, together with a control group in Palmerston North, provided insights into how to engage with this youth group. This test also gave insights into incremental market gain and helped performance gaps to be diagnosed that this 2011 youth campaign was designed to remedy.

The 2011 youth campaign had a two-phase approach

• Start with perception changing (Fly Buys isn’t just for your parents) and acquisition: Trolley Challenge, University Orientation weeks & Fly Buys Dream Machine Kombi van visits
• Continuous engagement to show relevancy, demonstrate why youth should be part of Fly Buys and decrease dormancy: TradeMe gutters, key card eDM, Flat Stack online game.

Two key objectives were set for this campaign and 10 months into the campaign the decreased dormancy target was achieved, and the number of ‘flats’ identified in the Fly Buys database was on target.