BalticMiles leveraged social media and crowdsourcing to modernize its loyalty program. It launched the BalticMiles Brainstorm program on Facebook, which allowed members to provide ideas on potential partnerships and rewards. The top ideas received bounties and the winners worked with BalticMiles on development. This drove significant engagement increases and the first fan-inspired project was implemented within three months, helping to boost rewards earning. The initiative won a global innovation award and BalticMiles continues collaborating directly with members.

1. BalticMiles Crowdsources Growth
Strategy with Its Customers
BalticMiles, the loyalty program of airline airBaltic, leverages on social media to modernise its loyalty
program and received huge boost of confidence from both frequent and non-frequent flyers,
winning global recognition with Loyalty 2013 award.
The Challenge
Where the story begins
BalticMiles is a multi-partner loyalty program that rewards
members for their interactions with the airline airBaltic, and for Strong regional
competition
shopping at partner retailers.
While it is an extensive rewards program, airBaltic is not part of
any airline alliance. As such, it faces strong competition from Need to grow
loyalty programs such as FinnAir Plus under oneworld alliance customer base
and SAS EuroBonus.
To optimize customer loyalty and results, BalticMiles Sought active
approached SimpliFlying to help it build closer relationships member
with its customers, as well as expand the customer base by feedback and
tapping into the network of its partner merchants. participation

2. SimpliFlying’s Expertise at Work
Advise – Conceptualize - Coordinate
Over the course of two days, SimpliFlying acquainted the BalticMiles team with case studies
of airline loyalty programs from around the world. We facilitated an intensive brainstorm
session to come up with ideas that would effectively leverage BalticMiles' biggest advantage
as a small program - flexibility. Not being part of an airline alliance program meant
BalticMiles could quickly innovate in accordance to the latest trends and feedback.
In June 2012, BalticMiles Brainstorm program, was launched on Facebook to solicit from
members ideas for creating the world's first user-generated loyalty level. Conceptualized
with SimpliFlying and the application developed by Napkin Labs, Brainstorm sought to drive
further engagement by putting its customers at the center of the company's growth
activities.
The Idea
Bal$cMiles
Brainstorm
is
a
crowdsourcing
pla5orm
that
allows
members
and
fans
to
directly
impact
their
use
of
the
loyalty
program.
How It Works
Members
could
contribute
ideas
on
• The
poten$al
merchant
partners
to
include
in
the
loyalty
program
• The
types
of
benefits
or
privileges
desired
for
a
par$cular
membership
level
Making it Work
Ideas
were
voted
through
Facebook
“likes”−
with
the
top
being
awarded
with
a
bounty
of
100,000
mileage
points.
The
winners
would
also
be
invited
to
work
with
the
Bal$cMiles
team
to
further
develop
the
their
ideas.

3. Results & Impact
BalticMiles and customers working hand in hand
Over 420 new
ideas and 6000 Within a month of the program launch, BalticMiles received a
comments twentyfold boost in “likes” on its Facebook page, saw over 400
ideas and a swath of new page visitors. By the end of the
campaign, BalticMiles Brainstorm had fielded about 6,000
comments.
First fan-inspired
project Three months later, BalticMiles announced their first fan-
implemented
inspired project– a rewards project that sets a personal goal
within three
months for each user. This not only encouraged shopping among the
members, it helped to raise awareness about BalticMiles’
network of merchant partners, especially to the less active
Won award at members.
Loyalty 2013
As a result, 5% of BalticMiles’ most active database segment
has further multiplied their rewards points by 3.5 times.
In 2013, BalticMiles Brainstorm received the Global Innovation
in Technology Award at Loyalty 2013.
Currently, BalticMiles is embarking on the second phase of
the initiative, bringing in the winners of BalticMiles
Brainstorm to form a board that would be working closely
with the team to develop and implement the ideas.
What BalticMiles has to say:
“We
were
very
happy
to
work
with
SimpliFlying
team.
Their
exper$se
allowed
us
to
excel
with
a
truly
innova$ve
campaign
that
was
very
much
appreciated
by
our
members.”
- Gabi Kool, CEO, BalticMiles