2015 Bronze Best Customer Journey

MRM Meteorite

Guardian News and Media

Evolve or Die

The Team

Maya Bull - Head of CRM Jim Maddock - CRM Marketing Manager Eden Guin - CRM Marketing Manager
Aimee McIntosh - CRM Marketing Manager Celia Wilson - head of Customer Data Analysis
Asia Holroyd - Customer Data Analyst Julia Porter - Director of Consumer Revenues Michael Ruane - Data Scientist
Rachel Robertson-Brown - CRM Marketing Manager Anne Gowan - Head of Direct Gill Crew - Head of Customer Loyalty
Lucy Staves - Head of Acquisitions Kerry Davidson - Head of Customer Loyalty Charlotte Creese - Customer Data Analyst
Andrew Rowe - Head of Data Planning Emma Janson-Smith - Planning Director
Chris Jefferys - Associate Creative Director Sam Bone - Creative Partner

Campaign overview

Newsprint sales, the cornerstone of the Guardian’s revenue, have shrunk 45% in the last four years. Its commitment to ‘open-journalism’ means that, unlike their competition, the Guardian won’t erect pay-walls to compensate this decline. This campaign set out to ensure the future of The Guardian: maximising profitability from current offerings and identifying new revenue streams. The approach that was evolved drove exponential increases in online traffic, improved the quality of those visits and dramatically increased revenue per visitor.

Strategy

Research showed how two or three more customer profile variables increased the value of advertising revenues sevenfold. Furthermore, moving away from one-size-fits-all content in communications could lift incremental revenue by 35%. So the strategy was to capture more data to build deeper profiles, increasing advertising relevance as well as engagement across all Guardian communications. Research and profiling identified ways to drive meaningful connections with customers. The system used either a Personicx append or social sign-in data, plus TGI modelling, to immediately serve products a reader was most likely to engage with, from articles to dating to travel. Signedin readers left digital footprints across a content rich, highly tagged site, with each interaction scored to create a 5-dimensional model that continuously evolved the individual’s journey.

Creativity

The Guardian’s NSA exposé showed freedom of information was a core value for the business. A “Why Your Data Matters” video was put on data-capture pages, alongside social sign-in, greatly increasing data-capture rates by explaining why data is crucial to the Guardian’s future. This data was used to automate who to speak to, when and where, while testing identified three successful content approaches. First, personification: using simple illustrated characters, embodying the The Guardian’s audiences, as flexible graphic assets that boosted engagement. Second, creating content requested by consumers: with easy, personalised ways, like a weekly newsletter, to see what they wanted, rather than prescribed news. Third, hyper-targeted communications based on geolocation, not just profile: such as, sending Guardian Soulmates users good local date locations based on their local weather.

Results

The focus on timely and relevant communication created a more engaged, trusting and valuable customer. New member acquisition targets were beaten and data capture rose 150%. Conversion rose 5.5% in display, 9% in direct mail, 35% in-app, 41% in telemarketing and 100% in press. Email opens went up 124%, opento- click-through rates up 237% and conversion rates up 80%. Signed-in users grew in number by 333%, upped their visits by a factor of ten, doubled their page views and gave 24.5 times more revenue than an anonymous user. The “Why Your Data Matters” video was hailed as exemplary in the industry, as DataIQ stated: “The Guardian sets the standard for corporate data responsibility” – something important to the brand. As well as strong revenue and ROMI, official ABBC results put The Guardian as best-performing national daily for reducing sales decline in the last six months.