American Express - Gold Card
Who’s got room in their wallet for another card? Swedish banks automatically provide their customers with either a VISA or MasterCard, along with all the cards provided by department stores, supermarkets, airlines, hotel chains, etc. Thus the battleground in the ‘wallet war’ is persuading consumers to switch from one card to another or to perceive the specific advantages of procuring yet another card; and it takes a lot of persuasion. All top-name contenders are actively and simultaneously promoting their cards, resulting in consumer ‘white out’. In addition, there is little perceived differentiation between any of the cards.
But wait. Surely consumers know the difference between a credit card, a debit card and a charge card? And that the American Express Gold Card is one of the best charge cards with a generous range of premium benefits?
“Seriously, what’s the Gold Card good for?”
Therefore the work group had to start with identifying genuine customer benefits. The offer of double bonus points for travel seemed appealing and the extensive insurance coverage was impressive and certainly added security for anyone away from home.
From this starting point came the single biggest strategic insight for the campaign: that the Gold Card was the perfect card for the frequent flyer. Consequently our communicative challenge was to impress this busy target group with Gold Card travel-related benefits in a quick and accessible way, along with the business challenge to SELL MORE GOLD CARDS NOW.
Frequent flyers can be considered to be always on the move, and therefore a difficult target audience to pin down. A specific example may be that an advert in a magazine may go unseen for weeks, while the people at the airport display stand may start to look familiar. Our target group also covered not only business travellers but all people who regard themselves as regularly flyers.
“Has anyone read the small print?”
“114 heavy arguments for easy travelling” was chosen as the overall concept for its clarity and relevance to the target group, while still giving room for creative expression.
Our target audience was literally on the move, so the creative team needed a strong idea that quickly communicated Gold Card travel-related benefits and pushed sales. The idea came from reading the reams of small print that always accompanies the application form. Here the terms and conditions of the card are set out in legal jargon. But if the benefits could be spelled out plainly, and with some imagination, then this would resonate with the target audience and win their attention even in a stressful environment, like a crowded airport.
The complete list of benefits was available in the passport-style brochure and on the website, otherwise in all other media channels the different arguments were promoted one by one. Main topics in tune with the target group were insurance, worldwide service, security and the bonus points program. For example: Argument #10 Buy new trips with old trips, Argument #28 You get your own personal travel agency, Argument #47 Genuine compensation for delayed baggage, Argument #82 You are insured on your ski vacation, Argument #97 Shopping tips in major cities.
The numbering system directly expressed the large range of benefits and made people curious to find out more. And expressing benefits in such concrete language also helped salespersons at the airport make a more compelling offer.
This collection of arguments for the 114 campaign is unique. Gold Card benefits have never before been collected together in this way. The underlying legal and insurance clauses have been expressed in the simplest language from a traveller’s perspective.
Our copywriter took three months, including her own vacation, to investigate fully all the terms and conditions and rewrite them in terms more relevantly for the frequent flyer. The art direction focused on creating clarity and a distinctive travel-oriented design.
From unnecessary luxury to ‘must have’
The campaign successfully repositioning the Gold Card: from an unnecessary luxury to a ‘must have’ before, during and after travel.
Measured results from American Express are:
• Direct sales: FOUR times as many completed applications over control
• DM addressed boarding-pass: 40% improvement over control for new card applications
• Online new card applications: 25% improvement over control
These are remarkable results in a saturated market.
The airport stands were such a success they have remained beyond the campaign period. Feedback from salespersons was extremely positive.
For this campaign the copywriter, Anita Sjöman, was nominated for ‘Copywriter of the Year’ in the Swedish Golden Key DM marketing awards. The campaign was also nominated for the Echo Awards 2008, in Las Vegas. Other markets have expressed interest in adapting the campaign too.