The news: American Express rolled out special London-based perks and offerings as a part of its Adventures with Amex series.
- Perks will coincide with the Formula 1 Qatar Airways British Grand Prix 2025 and The Championship, Wimbledon.
- Amex will also sponsor BST Hyde Park Festival, the Somerset House Series, and Billie Eilish’s HIT ME HARD AND SOFT Pop-Up.
Amex will integrate offerings for cardholders on site for these events, like 5% cashback opportunities, lounge access, and exclusive merch.
Amex’s strategy: Amex is targeting cardholders’ wanderlust to score high volume payments like airline tickets and other vacation-related spend.
The company’s Q4 earnings were supported by travel and leisure spend, a trend Amex is keen to incentivize. While cardholders are in the city, Amex stands to gain more travel spend from bookings through its Hotel Collection and recently acquired reservation booking platform, Tock.
On the money marketing: Millennials and Gen Zers want exclusive access to of-the-moment brands and experiences. Similar to Amex’s popular White Lotus promotion, aligning with London events like Formula 1 and Wimbledon and the enduring popularity of Grammy-winning artist Billie Eilish taps into the vein of what’s hip now.
Our take: Sixty percent of respondents to Amex’s Global Travel Trend Report planned on taking at least one trip for a sporting event this year. Hitching its London adventure rollout to both F1 and Wimbledon can get those travelers to book through Amex’s platform instead of a competitor’s.
Given that 75% of millennials and Gen Zers believe booking travel with points feels like a reward, Amex can snag more spend from consumers during their trips who feel like they have more to spend after having “saved” through points booking.