Avios partners Cardova to promote travel rewards programme

Avios travel rewards programme partners include: Avis Car Rental, Protea Hotels, BP, Pick n Pay, Lew Geffen Sotheby's International Realty, ABSA Rewards, Ucount, British Airways, and Iberia. There is also the Avios credit card, which allows you to collect Avios currency anywhere you shop.

More than just a brand

Carat, Mortimer Harvey and the Avios marketing team embarked on a partnership with production company Cardova to integrate branded content into existing programmes as well as develop a new Advertiser Funded Programme. The aim of the project is to become more than just a brand, but rather a rewards programme that is positioned as an everyday easy-to-collect currency that can be used for travel whether it is for flights or accommodation.

"Integrating the brand into platforms where the fit felt natural was key; with a big task of membership acquisition as well as awareness and education, this partnership was recommended as it can deliver on all those objectives," said Ilsa Grabe, Carat.

Avios created a travel community on the morning show Expresso on SABC 3 to demonstrate to consumers how easy it is to collect rewards by encouraging sign-ups daily, the brand is benefiting from the high frequency as well as the integrated nature of brand education through every day topics.

The brand has been giving away rewards and prizes, which continues week on week to increase the Avios membership base. Adding to this, NaWeek an Afrikaans lifestyle programme on SABC 3 on Saturdays at 7pm and has been sponsored by Avios. The programme is centred on all things local.

Since the partnership inception the Avios client base has increased by 30% and the run-rate of sign ups and engagement week on week continues to grow.

Across various platforms

"With the advent of PVRs and the increasingly cluttered environment in which brands must cut-through to consumers, content marketing is fast becoming a necessity rather than a consideration in the marketing mix. Our partnership with Cardova has allowed us to integrate Avios brand messages seamlessly into relevant TV platforms in a way that doesn't disrupt but rather adds value and engages the viewer.

"What's more, this is a truly unique partnership due to the way in which we track the campaign performance through both soft and hard metrics.

"Most content marketing campaigns tend to rely on softer brand measures (e.g. brand awareness) to track marketing effectiveness, whereas with this partnership we have been able to track viewer engagement and resulting growth of the Avios Travel Rewards Programme member base through a real-time online dashboard, allowing us to work very closely with Carat and Mortimer Harvey to optimise and maximise ROI throughout the campaign," said Rahul Patel, Avios Marketing Head.

Partnership in the true sense of the word benefits all parties and this campaign has set out to do exactly that.

"Cardova's various platforms, consumer segments, show times, reach and programmes offered a unique partnership opportunity for Avios South Africa. It allowed Avios to share with Expresso, Hayden Quinn, NAweek and other viewers the value of our programme, our partners and how every South African can become part of the Avios world. Cardova's branded content offer brands like Avios a great way to educate, differentiate and drive brand exposure whilst sharing key messages with the audience and the success to date has surpassed all our expectations," said Andries Zietsman, GM, Avios Group.