Taking flight: How Flight Centre engineered a world-class affiliate program
When Flight Centre entered the affiliate marketing channel in July 2023, they wanted to work with a small group of partners to grow online bookings in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
Less than a year later, they not only scaled across markets and verticals, but they also built a high-performing, diverse affiliate program that is now a global benchmark for travel brands entering the space.
The set up
Upon launching their affiliate program with Partnerize, the team initially planned to work with just 10 partners. However, with the Partnerize team's support and ongoing education around affiliate strategy, industry best practices, and performance insights, the brand expanded its portfolio to nearly 100 partners.The expansion grew not just in quantity, but also in the strategic diversity of partner types.
The treatment
Flight Centre’s approach to affiliate marketing was structured, strategic, and built for scale.
As a well-established brand, they prioritized building trust and brand equity within the affiliate channel. They strategically leveraged cashback sites for initial revenue generation, reinvesting those early returns into premium content placements to reinforce their brand.
Any initial hesitation towards working with content partners was due to uncertainty around how they could best be used to drive online revenue. However, this was overcome by testing them as part of the channel mix for destination-based retail sales campaigns & short-term tactical sales. This allowed Flight Centre to gradually expand into content, closed groups, and other strategic opportunities, all driven by performance insights.
Finally, leveraging the Partnerize platform and Maximize Service, the brand rolled out dynamic reward structures to incentivize performance across multiple categories including flights, hotels, car hire, cruises, and packages - all tailored to drive higher average order values (AOVs).
"Partnerize gave us the foundation and flexibility to scale quickly, intelligently, and globally. Their team and platform were critical in helping us move from a cautious pilot to a performance-driven, high-growth program."
Rob Sexton
Global Digital Performance Lead, Flight Centre
The results
Flight Centre’s affiliate journey is a masterclass in how to enter the channel with a smart, scalable, and results-driven approach. By combining strategic partner recruitment, performance-focused commissioning, and creative innovation like CLOs, they’ve set a new standard for affiliates in the travel space and proved that with the right support, new-to-channel doesn’t have to mean slow-to-scale. The results from their affiliate efforts speak for themselves:
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See how the Partnerize Partner Management Platform can help you scale your partnership programs, diversify revenue streams, and ensure outstanding brand protection.
