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Data-driven growth with Acxiom and Territory Media
In Partnership With
Client overview
SunExpress, a leading leisure airline focused on connecting Europe and Türkiye, wanted to improve customer acquisition and retention in the UK. The airline partnered with Acxiom and Territory Media to leverage advanced data and media strategies, developing a more targeted and personalised approach to marketing.
Business objective
SunExpress needed to identify and engage the right customer segments with the goal of increasing customer acquisition and retention. With a diverse audience across the UK, creating a more data-driven and personalised marketing strategy was essential to improve campaign efficiency and effectiveness. Working with Territory Media, SunExpress engaged Acxiom to utilise its InfoBase® data to gain deeper insights into its target audience.
The Acxiom and Territory Media solution
Data from Acxiom’s InfoBase Purchase Transactions, powered by Affinity Solutions, was critical in providing a deeper understanding of the UK-based travellers interested in Türkiye. SunExpress could not provide its first-party customer data (as would usually be expected to fulfil this process). So Acxiom were able to provide anonymised SunExpress customers as a proxy for the first-party data for this project, from InfoBase Purchase Transactions. This rich data allowed SunExpress to analyse consumer behaviour patterns, identify key trends, and build distinct audience segments. Territory Media played a vital role in activating these segments in the paid media space, ensuring SunExpress could reach its target customers across various platforms effectively.
Audience segmentation and persona creation
Acxiom’s data-driven approach enabled the creation of distinct customer personas in the UK. These personas were based on key demographic and behavioural insights, allowing SunExpress to effectively tailor its marketing efforts to address the unique preferences and needs of different audience segments. By leveraging these personas, SunExpress was able to develop more relevant and targeted messaging, driving both customer acquisition and retention.
Approach and execution
Phased Implementation
The project was structured over four key phases:
1. Discovery
Acxiom’s team explored the data to identify UK travel segments for SunExpress. The initial analysis was conducted using Acxiom’s proprietary data InfoBase Purchase Transactions powered by Affinity Solutions and analytical tools, supported by Territory Media’s market insights.
2. Audience creation
A deep analysis was carried out to segment UK travellers based on their travel behaviours. This stage involved summarising key profile insights and building clustering models to refine the audience segments.
3. Insight review
SunExpress received an initial review of the segments, with feedback provided to fine tune the personas. Territory Media then worked to align the media strategy with these segments for optimal activation.
4. Executive summary
The final personas and segments were presented to SunExpress, allowing its marketing teams to fully integrate these insights into the campaigns. Territory Media ensured the identified segments were activated across multiple media platforms, driving precision targeting and greater campaign efficiency.
“Acxiom’s InfoBase Purchase Transactions data provided valuable insights into the purchasing behaviours of potential SunExpress customers. By analysing these patterns, we were able to identify key consumer trends and tailor our marketing messages to resonate with each segment’s specific preferences and needs. This allowed us to create highly personalised marketing messages, which significantly improved the relevance of our communications.”
— Ines Pfab
Director Client Service & Data Analytics, Territory Media
Territory Media’s expertise in precision media activation
Territory Media played a crucial role in the activation of the segmented audiences across several media channels, including social media, display, and paid search. The firm’s expertise in media planning and execution ensured the targeted segments received the right messages through the most appropriate platforms.
Social media
This platform proved particularly effective for engaging younger, high-intent travellers with targeted ads driving significant engagement.
Paid search
Leveraging search platforms enabled SunExpress to capture high-value customers at critical decision points in their travel journey, boosting conversions.
Results and impact
The collaboration between Acxiom and Territory Media led to significant improvements in both customer acquisition and retention for SunExpress. By deploying tailored media campaigns, based on data-driven insights, these key outcomes were achieved:
Improved campaign efficiency
SunExpress experienced a marked increase in click-through and conversion rates across its media campaigns. The precise targeting allowed the company to minimise ad spend wastage and focus on high-potential consumers.
Higher engagement rates
The use of personalised marketing messages, aligned with each persona, led to better customer engagement and higher relevance of communications.
Increased retention
SunExpress observed a rise in repeat bookings from high-value customer segments, reflecting the success of retention-focused campaigns.
“Knowing our customer is the key to unlocking the power of personalized messaging and dynamic performance media. Today’s cutting-edge machine learning algorithms can only deliver their full potential when fuelled by a deep understanding of customer needs and behaviours.”
— Asu Erayda Akyüz
Head of Performance Marketing & Marketing Automation, SunExpress
Overcoming challenges
A key challenge in this project was integrating the various data sources and ensuring the segmentation strategy could be seamlessly applied across SunExpress’ marketing channels. Acxiom’s data experts and Territory Media’s media planners worked closely to troubleshoot integration issues, ensuring the insights were properly leveraged for campaign activation. This close collaboration helped SunExpress achieve the desired results without delays.
Feedback and future outlook
SunExpress’ marketing team highly valued the personas and audience segments Acxiom developed, which provided a clear framework for content creation and campaign planning. Territory Media’s media activation strategy empowered the team to target relevant audiences more effectively, streamlining workflows and improving campaign outcomes.
Looking ahead, SunExpress plans to continue its collaboration with Acxiom and Territory Media, exploring new markets and expanding its data-driven marketing strategies. Future projects may include predictive modelling to further refine customer targeting and optimise campaign performance.
Conclusion
Through a successful partnership with Acxiom and Territory Media, SunExpress transformed its marketing strategy in the UK, improving both acquisition and retention rates. By harnessing Acxiom’s data insights and leveraging Territory Media’s media activation expertise, SunExpress delivered personalised and impactful campaigns that resonated with the target audience.