In 2016, the New Zealand loyalty landscape experienced a shakeup like never before. In the midst of a market cramped with change from competitors such as AA-Smartfuel, New World Clubcard and Countdown Onecard, Air New Zealand launched the new Airpoints partner coalition.

The launch of the Airpoints coalition required the disestablishment of a previously standing partnership with Fly Buys. The two programmes went head-to-head to acquire, retain and activate members through a huge market shake-up – both with the same objective: to get cards in people’s hands and ensure their loyalty programme became the programme of choice, consistently and repetitively.

Airpoints needed to stimulate engagement with partners and make earning Airpoints Dollars a part of New Zealanders everyday routine. A member-first approach was taken to win the market.

With the intention of creating an emotional connection, Air New Zealand created a comprehensive campaign designed to position Airpoints as the loyalty programme for all New Zealanders – where Airpoints Dollars are ‘Yours for the taking’ – resulting in a fundamental change to the loyalty landscape.

Business as usual activity utilised a data-led always-on strategy, ensuring card scanning behaviour was entrenched in members’ minds. Programmatic technology helped facilitate this. The overlay of Airpoints’ first party data, previous campaign interactions, ATL/BTL touchpoints and retailer specific data delivered a pure member-led campaign, agnostic across publisher and device.

As a result, it wasn't long before New Zealanders got on board with the benefits and potential of the Airpoints offering. The Airpoints programme has achieved fantastic results to date including acquiring new members, increasing members earning through the retail coalition and an accompanying uplift in Airpoints Dollars issuance.