Customer Journey Attribution Case Study: Cruise Line Company

    Optimising CRM Activity to Chart a Clearer Path to Conversion

    Direct mail campaign revenue increased by 287% and spend by 81%

    “Surprise and Delight” loyalty emails drove reactivation and incremental revenue

    Strategic insights challenged internal assumptions about CRM’s limited scope

    Case Study Snapshot

    • Who: A Cruise Line Company
    • Industry: Travel & Tourism
    • Challenge: Inability to measure the impact of CRM communications across different customer segments and sales outcomes
    • Solution: Bespoke customer journey attribution and mapping for CRM activity
    • Results: 287% uplift in revenue from Direct Mail campaign, identification of email as an effective sales closer, and improved understanding of non-direct and Travel Agent-related CRM impact

    Client Overview

    • An international cruise brand with a growing customer base
    • Known for strong brand loyalty and multi-layered customer communications 
    • Revenue was measured in relation to bookings and on-board spend by customers
    • It used increasingly sophisticated CRM activity, including direct mail, email marketing and travel agent relationships to drive sales
    • However, attribution of revenue generation was becoming increasingly difficult due to the complex customer journeys and multi-channel communications

    The Challenge

    The cruise line struggled to measure the impact of its communications on different types of customers, unable to identify which marketing was working and which was not.

    The cruise line’s brand awareness is substantial, and its loyal customer base is growing significantly. As a result of this expanding audience, the organisation’s CRM activity was also adapting to accommodate the growth, introducing layers of customer engagement and loyalty communications, as well as launch and campaign offers.

    Its communications were largely aimed at driving initial bookings and the subsequent on-board revenue generated from the guests’ spending. But herein lay the challenge: as the cruise line’s communications became more complex, the organisation was struggling to measure the impact of these communications on its different customer segments.

    With multiple activities and marketing mixes now being utilised, tracking, measuring, and reporting became more problematic. This meant a smarter, more comprehensive approach to data management and analytics was needed.

    The Solution

    UniFida applied a bespoke customer journey attribution solution to the cruise line’s CRM activity, so that the organisation could track and analyse customer behaviour from initial contact to final purchase.

    Customer Journey Attribution & Mapping

    The attribution model joined all touchpoints prior to booking and onboard spend, making it possible to track combinations of direct mail and email engagement at an individual level. 

    This enabled the cruise line to identify which sequences converted best, and which communications delivered the highest ROI by cruise type or segment.

    Results & Benefits

    For the first time, the cruise line organisation was able to see which sequence and mix of communications were most successful in influencing bookings and on-board revenue – a huge turning point in the company’s marketing strategy.

    “Surprise and Delight” brand loyalty communications with no immediate call-to-action, such as birthday communications, proved valuable in driving sales and reactivation. This allowed the organisation to see the success and importance of such communications, and email improved as a sales closer.

    The cruise line could also understand the value of its Direct Mail communications by quantifying the sales from customers who did not engage in emails. 

    As a result, the Wave Direct Mail campaign’s spend was increased by 81% and revenue by 287%.

    In essence, understanding which CRM activities drove the Travel Agent bookings was valuable in breaking down siloes around thinking that CRM was only important for direct bookers.

    ✔ Direct mail campaign revenue increased by 287% and spend by 81%

    ✔ Email identified as a high-performing sales closer

    ✔ “Surprise and Delight” loyalty emails drove reactivation and incremental revenue

    ✔ Clear visibility into CRM impact across booking types (including Travel Agent sales)

    ✔ Strategic insights challenged internal assumptions about CRM’s limited scope