Air Miles is launching a new campaign to mark the refresh of its brand identity and a larger reinvention of its rewards program.
The campaign, titled “It’s All Gravy,” leans in to the value Air Miles can add to collectors’ lives, urging Canadians to take advantage of the many changes parent company LoyaltyOne has been making to the program over the past year.
“It’s just about getting those extras in life. We’re all looking for that, and we all have friends who always seem to get that upgrade and get the most out of their lives,” says Todd Mackie, partner and CCO at Broken Heart Love Affair, which developed the campaign. “Air Miles helps you with that.”
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At the heart of “It’s All Gravy” is a “whimsical” spot that plays up the concept, Mackie says. In it, a pilot walks through a passenger jet where people are consistently shown enjoying the freer – and finer – things in life.
But LoyaltyOne wouldn’t have launched the campaign if it wasn’t reflective of actual changes the company had made to its flagship brand.
“Through research with our collectors, we identified three key areas where they wanted to see enhancements: more redemption benefits, more ways to earn and more promotion opportunities – the added extras that make being part of Air Miles fun and enjoyable,” explains Rachel MacQueen, SVP of marketing and collector experience with LoyaltyOne.
Using that feedback, LoyaltyOne made improvements to the Air Miles program – “accelerating the ability to earn” through new daily offers on its revamped website and new redemption opportunities (including integration with Sobeys’ grocery delivery platform, Voila), and adjusting the redemption values on its wide array of merchandise at a time when collectors weren’t able to spend their points on flights the way they ordinarily might.
Showing those everyday earning and redemption offerings is especially important for a travel-associated program like Air Miles, as leisure travel has been hit the hardest by the pandemic – something competing program Aeroplan tapped into with its own relaunch last year. But travel is still a big part of the value proposition for the program, and ss pandemic restrictions begin to lift, it will also be rolling out a new flight program later this fall.
“Those were the fundamental principles we felt needed to be in place as we went to relaunch, and now we’re coming forward and saying that Air Miles is revitalized and reenergized,” says MacQueen. “But you’re going to see continuous enhancements over the coming weeks and months as we continue to build on this new brand promise of giving people a little bit extra.”
The campaign launched today across TV, OOH, PR, social and digital, with experiential and influencer support. It is the first major campaign from Air Miles’ new agency roster, which includes Ogilvy on PR, Media Experts on Media and Fuse Create on experiential.
