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IAB HK Digital Awards 2024: Best Use of Technology - SILVER (Cathay Pacific Flies High with DCO Flight Finder)

 

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Campaign: Cathay Pacific Flies High with DCO Flight Finder

Brand: Cathay Pacific

Agencies: Digitas Hong Kong, Adzymic Dynamic Advertising Platform

 

Challenges & Objectives

Facing stagnant ad performance due to generic creatives, the goal was to use data-driven retargeting assets to attract potential travelers and boost flight bookings on Cathay Pacific’s website.

 

Insight and Strategy

Insights

  • Post-pandemic, Cathay Pacific anticipated a travel resurgence but faced limitations in ad personalization with only 3-4 generic creative variants.
  • Programmatic display could reach audiences, but performance plateaued due to lack of intent-based personalization (e.g., preferred destinations).
  • Manual creative customization was time-consuming and costly, hindering scalability.

Strategy

  • Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO) Technology: Partnered with Adzymic to automate personalized ad creation.
    • Data-Driven Personalization: Ads dynamically displayed users’ last-browsed destinations and real-time pricing.
    • Scalability: Automated creative production enabled mass personalization across programmatic channels.
    • Cost Efficiency: Reduced production time and costs while improving relevance.
  • Flight Finder Campaign:
    • Prospecting: Targeted in-market and affinity audiences based on Cathay’s top 10 destinations.
    • Retargeting: Customized ads for each visitor based on their last-searched route, streamlining the booking journey.

 

Execution

Data

  • Integrated multiple DSPs (DV360, The Trade Desk) for precise audience insights
  • Targeted users via:
    • Affinity segments (travel interests)
    • In-market signals (active booking intent)
  • Created retargeting pools based on website browsing behavior

Creative

  • Custom DCO templates by Adzymic:
    • Aligned with Cathay’s brand guidelines
    • Flexible for long-term use with quick copy/image swaps
  • Automated personalization via DCO:
    • Dynamic ad generation using:
      • Site behavior data
      • Booking engine API (real-time pricing/destinations)
      • Geolocation
      • DSP bid requests (Smart Macros)
    • Enabled hyper-relevant creatives at scale
  • Optimization & Performance
    • A/B tested rotating banners for performance insights
    • Real-time dashboards tracked top-performing:
      • Destinations
      • Language versions (English/Traditional Chinese)
    • Data-driven budget allocation to highest-converting creatives

 

Innovation

  • DCO Smart Tag Implementation
    • Tracks each visitor’s last-browsed destination on Cathay’s website
    • Feeds data into ad server to personalize ads based on user preference
  • Real-Time API Integration
    • Pulls live lowest fares for 70+ Cathay destinations
    • Ensures ads display up-to-date pricing
  • Intelligent Geolocation Features
    • Auto-detects user’s location via IP address
    • Shows fares in local currency
    • Pre-fills departure city in ads
  • Dynamic Messaging via DSPs & Smart Macros
    • Prospecting: Targets users by travel interests
    • Retargeting: Customizes ads by market/destination intent
    • Combines destination + fare quotes for hyper-relevant messaging

 

Results

  • Creative production turnaround time reduced from 3 months to 1 month.
  • Cost savings of over 40% by repurposing branded templates for multiple ad variants.
  • Click-through Rate of up to 9X above standard banner benchmarks of 0.20% CTR 
  • Engagement Rates 2X higher than standard banner benchmarks