Engagement: Live Your Best Break
Engaging passengers has never been more challenging nor more important in the quest to address declining conversion rates. Relying on in-store engagement is no longer enough, especially with over half of consumers deciding whether or not they are shopping before they travel. In this sense, digital engagement is critical and an expectation especially from the fast-growing Gen Z and Millennial shoppers.
Marrying the best of physical and digital at all the key points of the customer journey to leverage the huge advantage of a captive audience – this is the core idea behind the Engagement pillar within the VERSE model.
To achieve meaningful engagement, which is critical to recruiting shoppers, Nestlé International Travel Retail (NITR) has adopted an end-to-end approach which links both digital and physical elements to create a truly omnichannel experience.
NITR engages with consumers and supports its retailers with holistic consumer campaigns, retailer-specific initiative, and promotions that appeal to consumers along their journey. To engage consumers early, the company invested heavily in pre-trip advertising, Out of Home media and in-store displays to drive purchase intent.
KitKat engaged with travellers ahead of their trip with the short digital clip above that highlights its travel retail-exclusive offerings
The KitKat Live Your Best Break campaign is the perfect example of these efforts. With the tagline ‘Break in a World of Flavour’, the campaign employed advanced 360-degree digital communication tools to engage with consumers throughout their travel journey and make them aware of the availability of KitKat products in airports.
The campaign ran for nine weeks – from the beginning of November to the end of December 2022 – at Dubai International, Hamad International, Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International, Singapore Changi and Sanya Phoenix International airports.
It used online channels to engage, inform and encourage, while point-of-sale promotions and cross-category opportunities inside the store were used to drive sales. The campaign effectively presented the message to the consumer at the appropriate time, targeting specific shoppers with a clear call-to-action.
Live Your Best Break leveraged digital technology to connect with travellers, delivering KitKat marketing messages at every stage of their journey including during their stays in their destination city.
Holistically approaching consumer engagement
Live Your Break followed consumers throughout their journey, beginning with targeted digital media, O2O capabilities, engaging retail displays, promotions and cross-category deals
NITR analysed travellers’ route trends to define the most important origin cities/countries to target. It also took into account global events and the uneven post-pandemic travel recovery in different regions, and adjusted its approach accordingly to maximise effectiveness.
The activations were strategically timed to coincide with the FIFA World Cup 2022, which significantly impacted passenger movements through various airports, including Hamad International Airport in Doha, and Dubai International Airport.
Pre-trip engagement was a critical element; this was made even more effective when combined with geo-targeting, exclusivity and Sense of Place.
To promote KitKat for customers travelling through Hamad International Airport, NITR launched a pre-trip campaign which promoted Qatar Duty Free-exclusive expressions of KitKat and KitKat Dark 70%.
The expressions feature vibrant illustrations of camels and the desert, with Qatar’s distinctive skyline in the background.
During the trip, the visuals changed to highlight the exclusivity of the product in Doha, with a call to action to take a break and discover the expression at any of Qatar Duty Free’s stores.
KitKat geotargeted travellers passing through Doha with the Qatar-specific Live Your Break digital campaign
The strategy was centred around the identification of the best touchpoints to reach each type of traveller. It leveraged partnerships with travel data providers to activate these platforms and reach audiences.
It leveraged multiple platforms, including Middle Eastern, Western and Indian booking platforms, social media, airlines, and programmatic networks, to reach the target audiences at each airport while addressing the expected passengers’ nationality mix and online behaviour.
At 135.1 million, the cumulative impressions recorded by the campaign was almost two times higher than the original target of 86.8 million.
The campaign delivered an overall click-through rate of 2.36%. It affirmed NITR’s digitally-driven approach to engagement and showed how digital technology can transform the accuracy and efficiency of delivering key brand messages, reaching potential travel retail customers and enriching the quality of brand impact on the shop floor.
According to NITR, the campaign helped increase sales performance across all of the participating airports.
Spotlight Series – September 2023