Predictive audiences elevate Royal Brunei Airlines’ digital marketing via Merkle Singapore

Royal Brunei Airlines has partnered with dentsu Singapore’s CXM agency, Merkle Singapore, to unlock the full potential of the flag carrier’s digital marketing strategy and drive smarter, privacy-safe audience insights.

In the competitive world of digital aviation marketing, every click tells a story, but only if one can connect the dots. With data spread across platforms, Royal Brunei Airlines set out to gain a unified view of what truly inspired travellers to book and fly.

Merkle Singapore developed a future-ready data architecture, powered by Google, to deliver precision tracking, smarter attribution, and predictive audience intelligence across platforms. Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Enhanced Conversions ensured that Royal Brunei Airlines’ audience could be consistently recognised across sessions and devices while maintaining data privacy. In other words, ads could now reach the right people, for the right reasons, with data privacy intact.

With the tracking framework in place, Merkle Singapore activated Google Analytics 4 (GA4) Predictive Audiences, using machine learning to identify users most likely to convert, and integrate these audiences directly into Google Ads campaigns.

The results outperformed traditional segments, achieving a 5.87% conversion rate, 37% higher click-through rates (CTR), and the lowest cost per conversion for the airlines across all audiences tested.

Susan Shim Siew San, Vice President, Digital and Marketing, Royal Brunei Airlines, said: “Partnering with Merkle Singapore has allowed us to truly understand our customers’ journeys in a way we couldn’t before. The ability to recognise and engage the same user across platforms has transformed how we plan and optimise campaigns. With predictive audiences as part of our strategy now, we are not just reaching travellers – we are anticipating their needs. This data-led approach ensures we stay agile, relevant, and connected in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.”

Terrence Quah, General Manager, Merkle Singapore and dentsu X Singapore, commented, “Our collaboration with Royal Brunei Airlines showcases how data-driven transformation can deliver both precision and performance. By strengthening their measurement framework and activating predictive audiences through GA4, we were able to turn fragmented insights into a unified, future-ready system. This partnership reflects our shared vision of using technology and human understanding to build smarter, more efficient connections between brands and travellers.”

Beyond the numbers, the collaboration delivered strategic value that extended beyond the campaign period. With the GTM-based architecture in place, Royal Brunei Airlines can now consistently recognise and track the same user across sessions, platforms, and devices, enabling a long-term uplift in attribution accuracy.

This campaign was recognised for marketing excellence with a Bronze award for Best Use of Data Analytics and Insights Platform at MARKETECH APAC’s Marketing Technology Awards 2025.

With Merkle Singapore’s expertise, Royal Brunei Airlines has transformed its digital marketing foundation and will be able to launch future campaigns faster, with full tracking readiness and clear visibility from the first impression to the final booking.