AKT London increases revenue 119% with a referral-driven acquisition campaign
119%
increase in referral revenue during the week-long sale*
75%
of purchases from first-time customers*
42%
of new customers bought again*
AKT London is the UK’s most awarded deodorant. Always natural, never tested on animals, the brand has built an impressive reputation—one that notably does not rely on excessive discounting.
In line with their focus on their product over discounts, they launched a Valentine’s Day campaign to drive new customer acquisition—with an inventive approach that relied on customer referrals rather than gouging prices. This strategy and the impressive results earned AKT London the Most inspiring seasonal sale award at The Klicks 2024.
*All stats courtesy of AKT London.
Learn how AKT London used referrals in place of a traditional sale to drive new customers
Objectives
For Valentine’s Day, AKT launched its Love Campaign to drive sales and customer acquisition while celebrating individuality and inclusivity. The campaign aimed to:
- Drive sales and new customers—without over relying on discounts that may damage the brand’s premium image
- Break through the noise during a busy seasonal holiday
- Ensure the campaign resonated emotionally while remaining inclusive and sensitive to all forms of love
Strategy
The campaign centred around the tagline “Love who you want,” and encouraged customers to share a referral code with their loved ones. To sweeten the deal, AKT London increased their referral incentive from 15% off to 20% for the week leading up to Valentine’s Day, making it the perfect seasonal gift.
The campaign spanned several channels:
- Email and SMS: Segmented messages to existing customer base, highlighting the referral offer and sharing participant stories.
- Social media and advertising: Targeted ads using Klaviyo’s integration with Google, Meta, and more to spread awareness and retarget visitors who interacted with the referral program.
- Their website: Showed Klaviyo’s built-in popups to key segments and created a dedicated landing page to capture and convert traffic.
“With Klaviyo’s seamless integrations and robust customer data management, we were able to execute a highly segmented, data-driven campaign across key channels like social media, web, email, and SMS,” said Ottilia Stridh, CRM & Loyalty Manager at AKT, “We could launch a Valentine’s Day campaign that was both impactful and aligned with our brand values.”
With Klaviyo’s seamless integrations and robust customer data management, we were able to execute a highly segmented, data-driven campaign across channels like social media, web, email, and SMS.
Results
AKT’s seasonal sale campaign exceeded all objectives, bringing in over 5,000 new customers in February—a record-breaking month for acquisitions.
Referral demand surged by 149% month-over-month, resulting in a 119% revenue increase from referrals, three-quarters of which came from first-time conversions.
High engagement across emails, SMS, and social media powered the campaign’s momentum, which also delivered lasting value: 42% of the new customers have made repeat purchases, with 26% making two or more orders, building long-term loyalty and lifetime value.