Following a three way pitch, Diametric has won a series of projects with STA Travel UK, to support the development of their customer segmentation and strategy for communication with consumers via e-channels.

With help from Diametric, STA aims to increase both the level of its customer understanding and the sophistication of the communication it sends out to customers. Currently STA Travel communicates with half a million customers through their weekly newsletter and to all customers after booking, pre departure, and on arrival home.

Andy Hibbert at STA Travel said: "We are looking to understand more about the different groups of travellers booking through STA and browsing on our site-and to ensure that we tailor any communication more directly to the travel and holidays that interest them."

Diametric plan to use both transactional data and attitudinal questions to build a more comprehensive understanding of the travellers behaviour, and the opportunities for STA Travel.

Bob Willmott, Director at Diametric Consulting, said: "We will look to bring our expertise from within the Travel & Loyalty sectors- as well as from retailer customer segmentations- to help STA develop their approach. Competition in online travel is intense as we enter 2006, and STA Travel is well placed-with its roots in the youth market-to continue to capture and grow its customer base."

Communication based on the Diametric work will start in Spring 2006.

About STA Travel

• STA Travel are the student and youth travel specialists
• Acknowledged World leader for 25 years
• Core customer base aged 16-30
• STA Travel has 65 retail sites across the UK
• 550,000 unique users and 3.5 million page impressions a month for www.statravel.co.uk
• Weekly newsletter sent to 500,000 customers and registrants.