OREANDA-NEWS. May 26, 2015. Red Planet will today begin establishing a 100,000 strong research panel, in another step forward as a leading digital media, analytics and research services business.

Red Planet was created by Qantas Loyalty, a division of the Qantas Group, in early 2014 and launched commercially in September last year.

For over a year the business has been successfully creating more relevant and engaging digital marketing campaigns for a range of clients across varying industries, under the ‘media’ arm of the business. Red Planet’s media offering brings the sophistication of targeting seen in the email direct marketing world into a digital environment by bridging both online and offline data.

Executive Manager, Red Planet, Vaughan Chandler, said the new Red Planet Panel would fundamentally change the face of market research in Australia.

“We have achieved remarkable results for clients in the media and analytics side of our business and the creation of the research panel is the next exciting chapter in Red Planet’s offering.

“Clients will be able to engage Red Planet to conduct market research on their behalf and feel extremely confident that the insights will be real and therefore highly valuable to inform their business decisions.

“The panel will be made up of a diverse range of Qantas Frequent Flyer members who opt-in to receive and complete market research surveys, in return for earning Qantas Points.”

Mr Chandler said the insights ascertained from the research panel would be representative of the views of the Australian population, with one key differentiator being the panel’s scale.

“With 100,000 consumers on board, we know we can generate insights covering the breadth of the Australian demographic.

“Another key differentiator is our ability to coordinate research with our broader knowledge of Australian consumer behaviour, enabling both increased trust in the accuracy of the research as well as delivering a new level of actionable insights for our clients.”

The first invitations inviting Qantas Frequent Flyers to become part of the research panel will be distributed today.

Last week Red Planet also launched a new website showcasing its services across the three different elements of its business: media, analytics and research services.

“The richness of our knowledge from over 10.7 million Frequent Flyer members is hard to beat and the results speak for themselves,” Mr Chandler said.

“The initial targeted online advertising for Qantas Airways, using Red Planet insights and modelling, made it four times more effective than traditional campaigns the airline had run.

“Many companies have rich data on their own customers but what Red Planet brings is the know-how and systems to leverage that data to get a better return on investment for advertising spend,” he added.

Red Planet’s clients also include Avis Car Rental, Budget Car Rental, iSelect, Hilton, NAB, Bankwest, Athlete’s Foot, American Express and Super Retail Group.

Client Case Study: Dymocks

·         Red Planet was tasked with increasing member engagement in the Dymocks Booklover loyalty program by targeting members with offers relevant to them.

·         Approach: identify previous high-value members with declining engagement. Red Planet profiled members based on their past purchase behaviour (Red Planet used Dymocks’ own data).

·         418% improvement in open rates for targeted eDMs, compared with non-targeted.

·         Open rates as high as 50% on individual targeted campaigns.

·         30% boost in conversions (that is people acting after seeing the marketing i.e. through a purchase).

·         Dymocks has achieved continued sales growth since it started marketing with Red Planet.

 Background

·         The name Red Planet is derived from the services it provides:  Media, Analytics and Research Services = MARS = Red Planet.

·         Red Planet will invite select Qantas Frequent Flyer members to be part of the Red Planet Panel via email. Those invited will be able to opt-in to become a panel member. Given the Red Planet Panel must be diverse and credible, Red Planet will then assemble the panel from the self-nominations. Members will receive up to 300 Qantas Points per completed survey from 1 August 2015.

·         While Red Planet harnesses data held and gathered by Qantas Frequent Flyer, member privacy is paramount. Clients are only provided with a selection of anonymous traits that cover a spectrum of user behaviours.  This information allows clients to choose segments and traits that are relevant to their marketing objectives.  Red Planet is then able to initiate the marketing communications on behalf of its partners.

·         Visit the Red Planet website at www.redplanetgroup.com.au