• by Nina Lentini  @Nina_Lentini, May 11, 2020

Imagine going through life with the same name as a celebrity, no matter how how undeserved. Such is the fate of Caesars Entertainment's VP of digital operations and strategy, who -- okay, is a guy -- introduced himself at our Email Insider Summit as "the other Chris Jenner," adding somewhat huffily, "I've had the name longer than her."

Yet it pays to make 'em laugh as we found out throughout his presentation on data-driven email strategy because the audience was paying attention. How do we know? Jenner stopped to ask questions.

When he joined Caesars, they were sending out only 250 emails a month, showing examples on a slide. "It was vomit on the page," he said. "There was nothing cool about it."

Jenner then turned to the volumes of data every casino has on its customers because each one has to show identification in order to get a playing card. And every time that card is dipped, the casino knows where the user is, what they're doing and what they're buying. "Then we reverse-engineered all emails."

He asked the audience if they thought the most important part of the email was the subject line and most hands went up. 

"Put your hands down, that was a trick question," he said, to everyone's amusement. "I thought we were all professionals here." No, it's the From: line, where lives a brand's reputation.

But Caesars had a problem because it has dozens of casinos with names like Flamingo, Harrah's, and Horseshoe, to name a few. With a new design, the brand is now able to use property codes to define each aspect of every email.

"Pop quiz," said Jenner, after speaking in detail about how his team used data to personalize the From: line. "Other than Caesar's Palace, can you name another Caesar's Entertainment brand?"

He popped off the stage with a handful of authentic Flamingo playing cards and tossed them to those who came up with the right answers.

Back up on stage, Jenner noted how out of breath he was because the event was taking place in Park City, Utah, which is 7,000 feet above sea level. He had one more pop quiz in him, though.

"When I started at Caesar's how many email campaigns were we sending each month?" He then tossed his remaining decks of cards to the winners and said, "Now, who's hosting the poker games tonight?"