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EE Uses Brand Partnerships to Build Retention-Boosting Loyalty Program

Read how EE used the flexibility and responsiveness of affiliate-powered brand partnerships to create a new loyalty program, plugging a gap in its business.

Part of the BT Group, EE is one of the UK’s largest wireless carriers. Since launching the UK’s first 4G network in 2012, it has expanded to providing superfast connections in more places than any other provider. EE also offers broadband and TV packages, making it one of the UK’s largest subscription businesses in its own right.

Tyviso is a brand partnerships platform helping ecommerce brands like EE grow their revenue, increase conversions, and reduce churn by promoting rewards from 5,000+ advertisers.

The challenge

Maintaining customer loyalty has never been more challenging. That’s especially the case in the telecoms industry, where price sensitivity, increased competition, and evolving customer expectations have made even the biggest providers reconsider their approach to retention.

In exchange for their patronage, mobile, broadband, and TV customers increasingly demand relevant rewards on top of their plans, and providers have been quick to set up loyalty programs to deliver as much.

EE was the only major phone network in the UK to not have a reward program. It needed an effective solution to reduce churn and start building meaningful and longer-lasting relationships with its customers.

The goals

  • Decrease customer churn by 5%
  • Achieve an offer redemption rate of 5%
  • Collate a minimum of 30 exclusive offers
  • Provide a minimum of £1,000 worth of savings
  • Prove ongoing success with a 50% revisit rate

The solution

Building a customer loyalty program can take time, but Awin’s affiliate platform is full of creative options that sidestep many of the technical and administrative hurdles.

Tyviso is one such option. Its plug-and-play brand partnerships technology is available on the Awin MasterTag, making it possible to build a white-label solution packed with rewards from 5,000+ advertisers within a couple of clicks.

Seamless integration

After hearing of Tyviso’s success for Plusnet, a fellow BT Group brand, EE planned to use a speedy API integration to launch its loyalty program within a dedicated mobile app: ‘EE Rewards’. 

Tyviso would secure rewards from top-tier brands and manage all aspects of the technology and partnerships. However, it would operate in the background, adhering to strict guidelines to deliver a native and on-brand experience for EE customers.

EE Rewards was initially launched to a small user base, with Tyviso leveraging real-time analytics to evaluate performance and ensure the program was optimized and tested before being rolled out to all EE customers.

Offer selection

Tyviso worked closely with Awin and EE to hit the brand’s targets for exclusive offers and savings with the right advertisers. Weekly offer rotation kept customers engaged but also gave Tyviso enough data to identify high and low performers.

Promoting a mix of brands, from household names such as Gousto and Tails.com to emerging advertisers like Fussy, SMOL, and Pact Coffee, allowed EE to cater to different customer interests and provide ongoing value as part of their plans.

EE Rewards created a win-win, as the opportunity to target an extensive first-party customer database at one of the UK’s biggest brands meant the advertisers were incentivized to provide compelling offers.

Simple user journey

Meeting EE’s goals for offer redemption and return rates depended on delivering a quality experience. EE Rewards made it simple for users to scan through a list of weekly discounts and head directly onto the partners’ sites to redeem their rewards.

EE Rewards animation

The results

“A super quick, seamless integration with our app enabled us to get an offering to all our EE customers very quickly. The proposition is yielding great results, driving great engagement and importantly returning visitors, and giving us great flexibility to trial new ways for our customers to save money.”

Caroline Nakielny, Head of Rewards & Loyalty – EE

The launch of EE Rewards was a remarkable success, delivering significant value to EE and its customers as well as the promoted advertisers.

Key highlights within the first six months included:

  • Reduced churn: Customers exposed to EE Rewards were 34.5% less likely to churn than customers who were not exposed, vastly over the target of 5%.
  • High offer redemption: Based on 15 million advertiser offers served, EE hit a redemption rate of 7%, smashing its target of 5% and proving the app was resonating with customers.
  • Big savings: Awin and Tyviso collected 68 exclusive offers, delivering a combined value of £1,500 in savings to surpass the targets of 30 offers at a value of £1,000.
  • Sustained impact: Of the customers who visited EE Rewards, nearly all (90%) returned at least once during the six-month period (over 50% target), highlighting the sustained value of the app.

Popular with customers, easy to manage, and firmly on-brand, Tyviso’s solution has since become a vital tool for EE, helping it to deliver added value and keep customers loyal for longer.

If you’d like to use brand partnerships to create your own loyalty program, get Tyviso live with Awin’s rapid integration methods.