Malaysian Media Awards Winners Showcase

The Challenges
Air travellers have been conditioned to become deal-hunters thanks to low-cost carriers – promotions is the norm; changing on an almost-daily basis. This meant we were seeing declining ROIs with the traditional campaign-based approach to promotions – where a fixed set of popular destinations was promoted during the sale period. We needed a smarter way to compete in this constantly evolving environment.

Insight, Strategy and the Idea
A data-backed approach was implemented to identify where the untapped sale opportunities are. We enabled machine learning capabilities by combining 5 types of slow and fast datasets: • Load factor of the various routes • Real-time consumer behaviour data on the online booking site • Lookalike modelling of our frequent flyer database • Audience segments being prospected by the various programmatic display partners • Fare prices from Google Flight Search

Media Execution
We dubbed this the “Malaysia Airlines Growth Intelligence” (MAGIc) machine. Using the MAGIc machine, our campaign performance is optimised in real-time, to aid in: • New destination promotions: The system’s ability to match real-time growth in demand vs. load factors and predicted ROI allowed us to quickly switch off destinations that was nearing capacity and to switch on new destination promotions. • Dynamic creatives: Housing of a repository of campaign materials that allowed us to trigger custom messaging, redesigned creatives and real-time fare price (pulled directly from Google Flight Search) with relevant chain of remarketing ads within a minute (which traditionally takes 7 days), whilst reducing human error • Switching between platforms for effectiveness: Reallocation of budgets between platforms, audience segments, and creatives that delivered a higher ROI

Results and Effectiveness
This new automated, adaptive approach was exactly what we needed. By comparing the campaign’s results against our last benchmark (best performing) online fare campaign: • Average daily sales jumped 27%, equal to RM 1.2m incremental sales/day. • Tactical campaign ROI improved significantly by 64% • Total sales from promoted routes was 4X higher Source: Client data