The first-of-a-kind campaign ran from 7-8 March to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Lagardère Travel Retail has teamed up with Estée Lauder Companies to disrupt the baggage reclaim experience at London Luton Airport (LLA) to mark International Women’s Day (8 March), as commercial progress continues at the newly extended terminal building.

In a partnership with Aelia Duty Free and Clinique, passengers on selective flights arriving from domestic UK locations were handed Clinique gift bags containing the brand’s new Moisture Surge 72-Hour Auto-Replenishing Hydrator (50ml), Moisture Surge Face Spray (125ml), a Clinique luggage tag and 15% discount coupon for pre-order purchases at Aelia Duty Free.

Part of a new ‘self-disrupt’ initiative designed to enhance the conversion of browsers into buyers, the activation drew support from influential bloggers Sonja Kovac and Freddy Cousin Brown to amplify the event across social networks using the hashtag #TravelClinique.

Aelia Duty Free is also supporting the initiative with Clinique visual cues such as banners and in-store fascias across departures and arrivals locations from 8 March to 7 April, which includes the popular Easter weekend travel period.

The campaign, said to be LLA’s largest ever single brand activation, positions Clinique hostesses to hand out vouchers to passengers in international departures, enabling them to redeem samples of Moisture Surge 72-Hour Auto-Replenishing Hydrator from the Clinique counter.

Passengers from UK domestic flights react to receiving their Clinique gift bags on arrival.

CROSS-CATEGORY POTENTIAL

Reacting to the initiative and Aelia Duty Free’s future plans for ‘self-disruption’ activities, Ambroise Fondeur, Chief Business Officer, Lagardère Travel Retail said: “I am excited. We really managed to do what we wanted to do – create excitement and something different.

“What will be interesting now is what happens on social media, which in the end was one of the main targets; how is (the activation) relayed, even to people who have not been exposed to it.”

Fondeur says the travel retailer and its partners will look to gather in the coming weeks to take stock of the campaign’s effectiveness.

When asked whether there is scope to extend the initiative to other categories aside beauty, Fondeur admitted it would be an ‘ideal scenario’ to open out exposure on a more regular – or even permanent basis.

“The work required to make this happen was quite intense, hence the need for partnership, otherwise it would not be possible. For sure, we can get even more sophisticated. At the end of the day, it is about how you create emotions, memories and moments for people that they associate with London Luton shopping and Clinique.

“Obviously I expected women to be enthusiastic, but I was even more surprised by the reaction from men; they recognise it is something for their loved ones and fully associate with it.”

Commenting on the initiative, Amaury Dehen, Managing Director, Lagardere Travel Retail UK said: “It’s a first step – we’ve been working with Estée Lauder and a couple of airports and clearly this Clinique event is huge, very different from what you may have seen somewhere else and engages customers in general.

“It’s a trial for us to see how customers react and how the communication spreads. That’s the test. Of course we need the sales too and based on this we can replicate as much as possible. We need to make sure it remains unique.”

Jonathan Pollard, Chief Commercial Officer, LLA.

NEW AELIA STORE

Praising the partnership with Aelia and Clinique, Jonathan Pollard, Chief Commercial Officer, LLA added: “From the airport’s perspective, when the opportunity came to light the timing was perfect as the transformation we are going through at the moment places a huge focus on customer experience.

“Aviation over the last few years has sometimes lost some of its fun. Our objective is really to move away from the monotony of going from A to B, but also when you’re within the airport, having a really great experience.”

The campaign comes amid an exciting time for LLA’s wider commercial vision under its £150m ($176) terminal uprade plans.

“The transformation is progressing incredibly well, we’re into the exciting phase of the development and this year we will open up 30 new retail brand offerings and catering outlets,” Pollard revealed to TRBusiness.

“We have some fantastically exciting names in the fold, like Hugo Boss, Ted Baker and Chanel. We know that the available retail space has increased by 140% and the breadth of product offering will be notably different to the experience customers would have had previously.

“The timing is perfect as it aligns with ongoing growth at the airport, we handled 15.8m passengers last year and we’ll be 16.7m this year.”

A prominent Clinique banner greets passengers entering Aelia Duty Free’s main departure store.

The vast majority of new leases are set to be in place by the end of April, with more sizeable openings due to take place towards the end of the year.

On the Aelia side, Dehen confirms TRBusiness’ previous hunch that Aelia’s main departure duty free store is set to undergo a slight reconfiguration of its layout and passenger mapping.

In addition, Chanel are opening an airport-first 65sq m unit, and there are plans to open a last-minute 104sq m standalone Aelia Duty Free departure outlet before the gates from mid-May onwards.

This is set to stock a limited range of tobacco, alongside best-sellers from Aelia’s core selection.

Dehen says the new unit expects to yield a 5-10% uplift in sales for the retailer.

“We are opening new units in the second part of the lounge, including a last-minute [departure] store,” he confirms. “It is a long journey to the departure gates and there is a good uplift to generate [revenue] from a second store.”

Ambroise Fondeur, Chief Business Officer, Lagardère Travel Retail.

PRE-ORDER GROWTH

Pre-order is not a significant part of Lagardère Travel Retail’s existing menu, says Fondeur, but with new services tailored towards customer needs the potential is there to develop a concept, but the question rests firmly on whether it delivers value.

“What we are trying to do is add new services that create value for customers and pre-order is one of them,” he says.

“Shop and collect for us is much bigger – it does not have huge sales yet but is growing every day. With digital tools we are able to create new services that suit the needs of different customer profiles.

“As an organisation we are fully convinced that this is the way to go moving forward. You may not have short-term payback or big sales; that being said, some of the platforms can represent a significant part of the business.”

Commenting specifically on pre-order’s impact at Luton, Dehen says the indirect transactional impact on pre-order sales such as planning and browsing are hard to measure, but the service is growing.

“We can see that the figures are not huge, but growing fast and creating value,” he adds.

Watch out for the April edition of TRBusiness for an extended interview with Ambroise Fondeur and a detailed report on Lagardere Travel Retail’s full-year results, announced yesterday.