Mail engaged Sky's current customers to promote the brand to new customers.
Sky knew the power referrals had in driving sales. Humans love to share; they love to be in the know and a referral comes from sharing something you love. Their belief was that if a customer had benefitted from a good offer and experience through someone they knew and trusted (a friend or family member) they were more likely to want to spread that further so that others felt the same.
Sky developed a working hypothesis: those customers who had joined through the referral programme were familiar with the offer and knew the process. This experience would make them advocates of Sky, its content and the referral programme itself, making them more likely to refer Sky to others. Sky were confident that the behavioural and emotional factors were strong,
so they wanted to explore how current customers could be engaged to help drive referrals
Sky targeted those customers who had joined Sky via the Staff Friends and Family referral programme within the last 12 months - so referral would be front of mind. The strategy mirrored the same offer - one that was only available through this channel. This enabled customers to have something that was exclusive and designed to be shared - increasing their social status and currency. To ensure that the 'what's in it for me?' question was answered, referrers were rewarded with the chance to win an iPad mini.
The cost per acquisition was the lowest seen from any Referrals communications piece and total sales reached a Referrals record level
The creative mirrored what the customer had received during their referral experience - which was built around animated movies and programmes on Sky. Monster University characters were chosen to give humour and warmth to the mailing. Movies were used to highlight the strength of the offer and how that would make their friends feel and the iPad mini prize was used to showcase more of Sky's amazing content to great effect. Tear off vouchers attached to the mailing provided a neat mechanic that communicated all the necessary information - making it easy to refer a friend.
<
<