Seatfrog board · Wednesday 23 September 2026

Marketing update

Sheran Gale, Head of Growth Marketing

Where we started, and what changed

March 2026, when I joined: one message to everyone across 68 automated sends, and the two biggest campaigns held nobody back to measure against

Efficient today: three specialists hired, ten journeys designed, Marketing’s email and push moving onto one platform; one journey is live and six more ship in Q4, a quarter later than the June plan

Effective by the end of Q4: every channel on one platform and personalised in real time on the churn-risk score; in Q1 2027 the AI 1-to-1 decisioning engine takes one decision per customer

March 2026when I joined
We are here todayTodaySeptember 2026
End of Q4 2026December
Q1 2027
Customer experience
The message
Channels
People and process
Data and models
FragmentedLaying the foundation
“You don’t know me”
One size fits all: one message to everyone
Email and push, each on its own
Teams operate in silos; no specialist skill set
No model behind a send; 7,074 customers reached, nobody held back
EfficientBuilding capability+£115k net a year, modelled; ships Q4
“You know my stage, and what I just did”
Right message, right group
Email and push through Braze; Campaign Monitor, the app’s code-sent pushes and its own marketing cards still send on their own
Specialist skills hired; a cross-functional team, processes starting to form
Life-stage segments, personas and recency-frequency-value scoring; a 5% global holdout reads all marketing over time
EffectiveScaling efficiently+£164k net a year, modelled; churn prevention live
“You knew before I did”
Right message, right customer, at the right moment
Every channel on one platform, the in-app cards included: real-time orchestration and personalisation across email, push and in-app
Established process and turnaround times; end-to-end delivery run with AI agents
Churn-risk score live, propensity-to-return score Q4; every journey read against a 20% control group, the holdout
AgenticOne decision per customer, learning from every resultNot yet sized
“My personal travel agent”
Right experience: one conversation across every touchpoint
AI orchestration across every channel
End-to-end automation of the process and the ways of working
Real-time data and machine learning; the AI 1-to-1 decisioning engine, built in-house (needed)
THE FOUNDATIONSTen journeys stand on six foundations: four built in one quarter, two land in Q4What the ten journeys run on, from knowing the customer to reading the lift, built in-house, with our own status and numbers on every one.Build and deliver is the new one: a journey brief goes in, a finished email comes out, and a person approves every step.1Know the customerBuilt804sends audited, 68 still live,across three systems4leaks found in the funnel,read from the warehouse60moments in the customer’s life,each with its numberWeeklycustomer feedback read:reviews, support and surveys2Decide who gets whatBuilt; the second score in Q4Nightlychurn risk scored on everyactive customerQ4return propensity, the secondscore, from AnalyticsLife stagesegments and personas,one job for each1.4mcustomers we can reach,60% of 2.3m accounts3Ten journeys in four programmesDefend, Recover, Activate, GrowTen designed, one live, six by December, three in Q1 20274The right messageand offerDecember to Q1 2027The moment’s job and thecustomer’s own words setthe message.Win-back offers wait on thereturn propensity score, Q4.5Build and deliverCampaign Studio: a journey brief goes in, a finished email comes outLive since 7 SeptemberBUILT AGENTICALLYBriefCopyWireframesImagesCoded emailA person approves at every circle. Images come from our own library, and the email modules are rebuilt in October.THEN A PERSONbuilds the journey inthe platform, behind itsholdout, and sends it.THE CHANNELS THE JOURNEYS RUN ACROSSEmailLive, on one platformPushLive, on one platformIn-app cardsJoin in Q4, and bring real-time sends6Read the liftFirst reads in November20%held back on every journey,one measure each5%held back across all marketing,read over the yearNovemberthe first measured readscome backDecemberthe revenue model re-sizedon what they say The brief says who gets what; the agents write the content and build the emailWHAT CUSTOMERS DO, EVERY SEND AND EVERY HOLDWHAT IT EARNED, BACK INTO THE NEXT DECISION, FROM NOVEMBERBuilt or liveShips in Q4Waits on a model or a dateBuilt agentically, a person approves every stepMoving lines run today; the amber loop starts in November.Sends, funnel, moments and holdouts: Marketing’s own record and the warehouse, August 2026, confirmed. The 1.4m we can reach is Marketing’s warehouse read, for Analytics to confirm.Campaign Studio: kick-off 20 August, live 7 September, a week ahead of plan, confirmed. Journey, score and channel dates are the Q4 roadmap, planned. The offer engine and the first measured reads are not built.

How the journeys were built

60 moments and ten journeys, mapped and designed in-house in one quarter

Agencies sell this map, and the Booking.com version below is one. Ours was built here, so the capability stays in the team.

The moment map, all 13 stages of the customer's life
Ours · 60 moments across the customer’s life, built in-house in a quarter from the live record.
Booking.com experience map, VML
The agency version · the same map, built for Booking.com by VML.

One journey in depth · churn prevention, live from 22 September

Before this journey, a customer could go quiet for 49 days before anything happened, and then it was a timer, not a signal

Nothing at allDays 1 to 49

For the first 49 days of a slip nothing watches the customer and nothing is sent.

The slip is invisible to us while it is still cheap to fix

The same push to everyoneDay 50, on a calendar

09:41
Seatfrog nowGot a trip coming up soon?

A calendar timer, not a signal: it fires whether they slipped or not

The same email to everyoneDay 50, the same day

Today’s day-50 email, the same to everyone

The same to everyone, and the weekly seasonal email lands the same week

1 in 4 active buyers goes quiet every month, 40,276 in August, and until this journey the slip went unnoticed for 49 days.

Churn prevention, live from 22 September · one personalised save the day after the score rises, one reminder if unseen, then silence to day 60

What ships next · turning losing bidders into returning bidders, November

Today every losing bidder meets the same four things, whoever they are and however they lost

The pushesIn the auction

17:41
Seatfrog nowYou’ve been outbid.
Seatfrog nowJust a few minutes left to bid.
Seatfrog nowBidding has ended.

Three fixed pushes, built into the app before Braze, the same words whatever they bid

The lost screenAt the close

The app today after a lost auction

One closed screen, the same for everyone: a buy-now price, and no reason to bid again

The recovery email30 minutes after

Today’s first-auction-loser email

One message, whoever lost and however they lost

The campaignOn a schedule

Today’s Outbidophobia campaign email

Sent to everyone on a calendar, unrelated to the loss

Losing reads as a dead end: 81% of customers do not bid again after one loss*, and the one recovery email reached about 20 of the 14,800 who lose an auction each month, because its entry rule let almost nobody in.

Losing bidders into returning bidders, from November · a straight account of the close and one reason to bid again, from their own history

What ships when

The first of ten journeys is live and carries about £39k of the £64k the Q4 launches drive, £43k of it landing inside Q4; the first seasonal wave has been sent; six more journeys ship in November and December; sized at benchmark lift rates

Live Ships Waits on a model or a date

Upgrades only; incremental over a 20% holdout; nothing measured yet.

October
November
December
Q1 2027
ActivateDrive the First Win: turn intent into a first transaction
Turn losing bidders into returning bidders
Prompt the first purchase
Recover the abandoned upgrade
GrowBuild the Habit Loop: turn one win into a habit
Turn the first win into a second
Deliver the First Class experience, and referrals: sizing with Analytics
DefendReactivation: catch the first slip while a save is cheap
Churn prevention: catch the first slip
RecoverReactivation: win back the lapsed
Seasonal reactivation: the never-bought wave, sent
Seasonal reactivation: the buyers’ wave
Win back lapsed customers: offers wait on the propensity-to-return score
AcquireScale Efficient Acquisition: capture the demand that exists, then create it
Search and AI visibility on the current site, 31 October
App store page
Boosted organic social: £2,500 a month
Rebuilt website, phase 1, 19 December
Partner launch go-to-market, Trip.com first
What the engine needsBuild the Lifecycle Engine: who builds each piece, and what it makes possible
Churn-risk score: live, scores nightly (Analytics)
Propensity-to-return score: sizes the win-back offers (Analytics, Q4)
Live data feed, warehouse to Braze: real-time triggers
AI 1-to-1 decisioning engine, built in-house
Net revenue driven: £64k in Q4, £43k landing inside itby month of launch, modelled
£13.7k
£20.3k
£29.7k
the rest lands in 2027

The marketing funnel

29,665 sign-ups in August, all organic; the gap is the middle of the funnel, where people decide to try us, and nothing of ours works it yet

AwarenessUPPER FUNNELConsiderationMID FUNNEL · THE GAPTHE GAPConversionLOWER FUNNELLoyalty loopTHE CUSTOMERS WE HAVE
The plan
Awareness
Not in the plan
Consideration
Boosted organic social from November: a boost budget of about £2,500 a month behind the posts that already travel, ours and creators’; a creator programme paid per referral, proposed after the first read
Conversion
Search and AI visibility in October, the app store page in November, the rebuilt website on 19 December
Loyalty loop
The full lifecycle engine live by the end of December, every journey behind a 20% holdout

What customers already post about us, unpaid

@holidayexpert on Instagram
752,000 playsMay 2024 · @holidayexpert on InstagramA creator with 660,000 followers on our Secret Fares with TransPennine Express: “I’ve found another secret train hack”
204,300 playsMay 2025 · a customer on TikTokA customer’s first-class upgrade, filmed for her followers, with her own Seatfrog referral code in the caption, unprompted
63,500 playsOctober 2023 · a customer on TikTok“The only way I want to travel from now on. It made my trip so much better”

Appendix

Appendix: from today to the north star
← → to move, N for notes, F for full screen
Draft 40, 22 September 2026, for review
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