Shoe retailer Dune London has proved that a personalised ad strategy based on advanced data analysis and insights can add sparkle to any company’s bottom line after witnessing a 7:1 ROI on its marketing spend and a £4.4m increase in incremental revenue since 2016.
The company, which opened for business in 1992 with a concession on London’s Oxford Street, now sells online and through 40 UK stores, 175 concessions, and 64 franchised stores and concessions in 10 countries.
At a time when retail has been in decline and the UK high street has seen one in 12 shops close in the last five years, Dune has partnered with Publicis-owned Conversant and installed a programme that uses both historical and realtime data to drive customer lifecycle messaging and increased purchased rate.
Based on insight from Conversant and Dune’s data team, customers and prospects were targeted with over 26,000 display creatives – personalised to each individual recipient.
Test and control groups were implemented to gauge the value created from these personalised ads, measuring performance against the baseline activity of a customer group that does not receive any Dune ads. This test and control methodology has revealed the activity generated £4.4m in incremental revenue.
Dune head of performance marketing Mark Blenkinsop explained: “We’ve got four years of live historical data, plus all of the data we imported to the campaign.
“We know our customers and our customers’ buying habits. And Conversant has remembered who they are, and it team stays communicating with them. Over time, you win that person, and you gain market share.
“If we can get a consumer to come back and buy just one more category, we’ve just doubled the number of purchases this person has made. One additional purchase may not sound a lot, but if you start to do this at scale, and the whole process is automated, then you really do start moving the dial. As any marketer knows, it’s much more expensive to keep marketing to new customers.”
Conversant senior vice-president Elliott Clayton added: “Grabbing and keeping attention has never been harder for marketers. And yet, as traditional retailers are tested more and more, it’s never been more important.
“Dune has proven that truly understanding individual customer behaviour and browsing and buying habits is an effective way of fighting the challenges facing retail.”
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