• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, December 7, 2021

Inboxes are now being crammed with end-of-year roundups by brands eager to connect. Aren’t they a little like bank statements that you never open? Not according to Year-In-Review Campaigns: A Data-Centric Approach to Communicating Customer Value, a paper by Movable Ink. 

For one thing, they provide such data as usage statistics and loyalty points, building engagement and loyalty. Take the following five campaigns highlighted by Movable Ink, all of which were built on personalized data: 

E*TRADE provided a a hyper-personalized experience for each investor in last year’s campaign. The brand accessed multiple data points to highlight such details as account performance, total contributions, trades, withdrawals, and dividends earned. And it provided a customized checklist of action items to pursue. 

Fanduel didn’t wait for the end of the year — it created a campaign to engage consumers in the fantasy basketball experience during the off-season, using the headline “Fresh Start, Same Season.” It highlighted their members’ successes, their most-used fantasy players, highest single-day scores and money won to date. 

JetBlue sent emails last year that showed the number of miles flown, the number of points earned, and the number of airports visited, while maintaining the look and feel of the brand through customizable content blocks. The email headline was “Now departing:2020.” 

ActBlue is a nonprofit example. The group, which specializing in serving small donors, communicated with them on a 1:1 level in 2020, listing the number of contributions and how many groups the person supported, using headlines like “Your election cycle in review.”

Hello Fresh fulfilled a need for trapped-at-home consumers in 2020. The meal-kit provider apprised customers of how many boxes they ordered, how many meals they cooked and the meals they ordered most often, opening with the headline: “Our Heart Is Full.” And it offered a survey. “Quick Poll What Was the Best Thing you Tried in 2020?” 

In the interest of full disclosure, these campaigns all relied on Movable Ink’s services. 

Movable Ink does not provide campaign results for these efforts. But it notes that the email marketing focus has shifted from aggressive spending and new customer acquisition to reinforcing value with existing customers. 

Consumers are both informed and reassured by end-of-year wrap-ups — it’s almost as if the brand is watching their back. But you need the data and systems. All this is well worth keeping in mind as 2021 wraps up.