Caravan Industry Association of Australia exceeded competition target by 679% and collected 6,000 survey responses

The Caravan Industry Association of Australia isn't Lexer’s typical client.

They’re not retail, not ecommerce, and rarely even direct-to-consumer, but – boasting a database of over one million profiles – the Association identified a need to better store, view and understand their data.

Years later, this foundational work, leveled-up through the adaption of Lexer’s Form Builder and unrivaled integration capabilities, culminated into a national campaign that achieved incredible, highly measurable results.

The background: a CDP for enrichment, awareness and identifying new audiences

Caravan Industry Association of Australia (CIAA) is the peak national body for the caravanning and camping industry in Australia. Operating as a not-for-profit, its huge membership base spans caravan parks, state-level associations, manufacturers, service providers and camping enthusiasts Australia-wide, all acquired through public advocacy and awareness campaigns over the last decade.

Despite conducting significant research within their advocacy endeavors, Caravan Industry Association of Australia’s Marketing Director, Keelan Howard, was seeking a new tool. One that could help the marketing team become more self-sufficient and less reliant on internal teams, enrich their database, optimize paid media spend, and most importantly: understand their audience to identify how to expand it. 

For an industry association, the competitive landscape is different. They strive towards the prosperity of the industry-at-large – battling against cruises, hotels, property, whitegoods and wherever else would-be campers may choose to spend their time and money. Growth can’t be achieved with the introduction of new products or services, but rather relies on audience expansion alone.

“We had essentially reached saturation of our known audiences so the next step was identifying more consumer types. Having used Experian in the past, I knew that if our customer data was better structured and profiled, we could compare against Experian Mosaic audiences and reach entirely new segments. I felt our assumptions about our audiences were limiting us, but needed the data to prove it.”  Keelan explained.

The challenge: unprecedented times call for an unprecedented campaign

After seven years of successfully reaching new audiences and fine-tuning campaigns with Lexer’s CDXP, Caravan Industry Association of Australia was faced with a new, confronting challenge: even if the forthcoming summer peak-season was a huge success for most caravan holiday parks, it would still not recover the losses sustained due to fires, COVID-19 and repeated lockdowns over the previous 24 months. 

Keelan formulated a plan. A consumer-focused promotional event designed to support caravan holiday parks by encouraging off-peak bookings, incentivized by the chance to win a million dollars. Titled “Road to a Million”, campers would earn competition entries by staying in a caravan park during the promotional period, with longer distances earning more entries.

While spreading the word was right in Keelan’s wheelhouse – through his media connections and experience in using Lexer to activate the campaign across diverse channels – measuring its success proved difficult.

Caravan Industry Association of Australia’s customer journey sees consumers actively engage in the initial stages of the cycle. However, when they eventually decide to 'convert' and make their booking, the process takes place within the independent systems of the caravan park they choose. At this point, consumers transition from CIAA’s customer journey to one of the 1,278 participating caravan parks.

The solution: unrivaled integrations and Lexer Forms

Form Builder, Lexer’s fully-integrated survey tool, supported by best-practice integration capabilities, was deployed to help track bookings, identify participants and collect further feedback. 

Embedded directly into the parks’ management software via an iFrame, the survey was included in the post-booking communications, including thank you and feedback emails. When communications were distributed by each of the parks, they triggered events that securely connected consumer profiles to the Caravan Industry Association of Australia’s CDXP. 

This reintroduced customers back into their own customer journey and established a direct path for campaign insights with no delay. According to Keelan, Lexer Form was critical to solving two major pain points in navigating this multifaceted campaign: 

1. Understanding performance in real-time and allowing for tweaking throughout the active promotion period, as opposed to waiting until the conclusion of the three-month-long campaign.
2. Reporting to key stakeholders who were heavily invested in the performance and success of the campaign.

Keelan explains, “Without Lexer Forms it would not have been possible to collect and analyze in real-time. A more labor-intensive, traditional online survey tool would have required additional analysis, creating more work and a slower turnaround.”

The results: 6,376 surveys submitted and a broader reach than ever before

The campaign exceeded expectations across all metrics, and the inclusion of the survey allowed the team to quantify their results and gain qualitative insight. It both leveraged from the Caravan Industry Association of Australia’s CDXP-driven learnings over the last seven years, and contributed to it further. Highlights include:

• The campaign exceeded competition target by 679%, attracting more than 852,649 entries from 77,937 participants with an initial target of 10,000 unique entries. ‍
• More than 6,000 opt-in survey responses were completed. With no incentive to complete the survey, other than a polite request and optimized timing, this is an exceptional result. Each response adds significant value to The Association and their CDXP. ‍
• 23 million impressions across digital were garnered utilizing email marketing, paid and organic social, and their network of members. This included 3.1 million video views and 1.2 million landing page views.‍
• 1 in 3 campers were influenced by the campaign. The survey, which provided valuable insights into the motivations, attitudes, and influences of the 6,319 respondents, added a whole new dimension to this campaign.

Keelan and the Caravan Industry Association of Australia are a testament to the compounding value of a long-term CDXP. Beyond being just a marketing campaign optimization tool, creating a clean and well-organized customer database delivers diverse value. It enables organizations to gain valuable insights, enrich the data, and expand the database, which in turn supports the successful strategy and positioning of high-value multichannel campaigns, while enabling them to operate more smoothly. 

Combining this value, with Lexer’s integration capabilities and the fully-integrated Form Builder, made connecting and enriching customer profiles easier than ever before.

Interested in learning more about how Lexer can help you understand– and grow – your customers using data? Book a demo today.