It’s increasingly difficult to keep personal information about ourselves personal.

Trying to decipher Facebook’s security settings to protect your personal details is like attempting to solve a Rubik’s Cube.

Fly Buys appears to monitor my spending habits to the point I receive “personal” letters from my local supermarket tempting me to buy groceries I’m actually not interested in.

Credit card companies bombard me with letters advising I’m one of the chosen few, as do publishers, insurance companies and real estate agents.

Most of these marketing ploys are, at best, an annoyance.  It’s patently obvious none of these companies are actually interested in me at all.  It’s my potential discretionary spend they want.

And I’m left wishing I wasn’t on their database, along with who knows what information about me.

On Saturday morning I received a letter from Air New Zealand and my first thought was, here we go again, another annoying direct marketing ploy from a company that pretends to care about me.

How wrong I was.

A hand-written card, purportedly from the airline’s Head of Customer Loyalty, advised me how special my recent 50th birthday was, and that I was being gifted a year’s free Gold status under the airline’s frequent flyer programme.

This is a superb piece of marketing.  Rob Fyfe, give marketing man Simon Pomeroy a day off!

Sure, I was already at Silver Status, and a Koru member.  But this unexpected treat – which provides me with two international seat upgrades, and allows me to bring a guest into Koru lounges, among other benefits – has that feel good factor that is missing from so many marketing initiatives.

At little actual cost, Air New Zealand has converted a frequent customer into a loyal customer, who will be an unpaid advocate singing their praises for months to come.

Air New Zealand, you rock.  And you’re welcome to keep my personal details on file!

Note: Air New Zealand is not a client of Ideas Shop.