Boots Advantage Card
Background
Boots Advantage Card is one of the UK’s most popular loyalty programmes. Their Quarterly Mailing is a welcome sight on members’ doormat.
After the pandemic, Boots leveraged their Quarterly Mailer to entice Advantage Card members back in-store as well as drive digital adoption through personalised coupons.
To address the increasing production and mailing costs, Boots needed a more strategic approach to targeting to improve the mailer's efficiency for the upcoming year.
Solution
Boots had noticed a decline in Quarterly Mailing engagement amongst some digital-first members, so they chose to optimise spend with a hyper-targeted strategy; sending the mailing to those who would be most receptive to it. This strategic approach allowed Boots to manage the rising delivery costs as well as cater to the unique preferences of their diverse member base.
By creating Quarterly Mailing dummy audiences based on previous results from each member segment, Boots was able to create performance forecasts to determine members with the highest propensity to engage with it. With a more targeted audience identified, Boots used a machine learning model, to score each member's likelihood of using potential Quarterly Mailing offers. This was then overlaid with contact optimisation functionality to determine the best six offers for each member to receive. On top of the offers, the Quarterly Mailing was further personalised based on whether members qualified for various in-store 'Advantage Points' events or Over60s' events, for a hyper-targeted and hyper-personalised mailer.
To make the Quarterly Mailing stand out on the doormat, Boots used a vibrant design featuring the Advantage Card lock-up and colours. This ensured exclusivity and easy identification by members who eagerly anticipated its arrival each quarter.
Moreover, during Christmas and Summer, the creative wove in the Boots wider seasonal campaign, enhancing the mailing’s relevance to members' lives and emphasising Boots as the destination for that season's shopping. To heighten anticipation and foster member engagement, seasonal competitions were incorporated into the mailer, alongside Golden tickets where members could win big prizes.
To eliminate barriers to coupon redemption the existing formats were re-imagined into craft wallet-sized coupons with perforations, removing the need for members to carry the entire pack when shopping. The coupons were colour-coded to clearly indicate which coupons could be used together and iconography was introduced to explain coupon usage. This streamlined the process for members, reducing cognitive load and making it easy to identify the best saving opportunities for them.
QR codes within the mailer expediated the app download process, minimising steps members needed to take to start using the Boots app and highlighting the extra benefits they would receive.
By always including information about the members' points balance, Boots reminded them to use their points on their next shop, further incentivising in-store visits.
Results
Boots’ targeted and data-driven approach for the Boots Quarterly Mailer campaign enhanced its efficiency and restored its success.
By employing machine learning models, the personalised offers achieved an average redemption rate of 23.9% among members, with members redeeming 2.4 coupons in-store on average.
The new strategy contributed to the wider business success. When comparing the mailed group against the control, Boots have seen a 3.2% increase in customer spend through communications, this contributed to a significant uplift in incremental sales over the given period.
Furthermore, the hyper-personalised Quarterly Mailing, based on age and comms opt-it, led to 2,745 incremental sign-ups to the Over60s club, and 18,583 incremental app downloads across the four mailings.
Source: DMA Award Entry 2023, Retail and eCommerce
