Category: Cookieless Future
Perx Capitec

Transforming Digital Banking: A Success Story & Our New Partnership

Perx Capitec

Transforming Digital Banking: A Success Story & Our New Partnership

Anna Gong

CEO & Founder | Feb 15, 2024


Exciting news as we wrapped up last year! The largest digital bank from South Africa, renowned for its innovative customer engagement and vast digital footprint, visited our Singapore headquarters in December.

  • This dynamic financial leader has redefined banking in South Africa
  • Holds the title of the largest digital bank in the region
  • Serves over 20 million active customers
  • Expands through 700+ branches, boasting the most ATMs nationwide
  • Earned global acclaim for its customer-centric and innovative banking solutions
  • Committed to financial inclusivity, witnessing a remarkable 17% growth in earnings despite challenging economic conditions

Their most impressive feat? Transforming their loyalty rewards program, #LiveBetter, into a thriving profit center in under 3 years – a rarity in today’s market where most loyalty programs struggle to achieve this milestone.

#LiveBetter: A Case Study in Innovative Loyalty Strategy

* Launched in June 2021, swiftly grew to over 18.5 million members
* Achieved profitability in less than 3 years, defying traditional earn/burn points models
* Promotes savings and financial growth, with 13.5 million clients leveraging their unique automated savings tools
* Partners strategically with merchants, avoiding traditional reward subsidization

The bank’s approach is far from ordinary. It’s not just about banking; it’s about creating sustainable value and enriching customer experiences. Their success story is a testament to the power of innovative thinking outside the traditional banking and loyalty program frameworks.

As we embark on this partnership, our focus is on elevating their engagement strategy further, ensuring their customers enjoy even more meaningful experiences and lasting relationships.

Stay tune by hearing their success story live…

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Global businesses have driven over 5 billion customer-brand interactions on Perx.

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Beyond the Cart Strategies for Customer Retention in Every Retail Channel

Beyond the Cart: Strategies for Customer Retention in Every Retail Channel

Beyond the Cart Strategies for Customer Retention in Every Retail Channel

Beyond the Cart: Strategies for Customer Retention in Every Retail Channel

Craft compelling retail experiences across all platforms – online, offline, and hybrid

Gillian Setiawan

CX Consultant | Feb 06, 2024


With the rise of e-commerce, the retail industry’s landscape has undergone a profound transformation. The traditional image of Black Friday, for example, once synonymous with lengthy queues and crowded stores, has given way to a new paradigm centered around the realm of online shopping. This shift underscores the critical need for businesses to adapt their strategies, recognizing the need to sustain engagement across entirely digital, exclusively physical, or blended retail channels.

The Changes in Retail

As retail e-commerce sales worldwide reached up to US $6.31 trillion this year, it is clear that customers are increasingly turning to digital avenues for their shopping needs, relishing the ease of browsing and making purchases from the comfort of their homes – an unprecedented level of convenience.

Despite the surge in online activity, it’s crucial to acknowledge that some customers still yearn for in-person experiences, especially when it comes to more substantial purchases. The tangible engagement, personalized service, and immediate product availability offered by brick-and-mortar stores continue to be compelling factors that attract consumers to such physical locations.

One notable example of maintaining customer interest in a physical store is the success of J.C. Penney’s “mystery coupons” strategy. Offering customers an element of surprise and the potential for significant discounts creates a sense of excitement and urgency. This concept can also be seamlessly translated into the online realm by leveraging rewards through gamification to keep customers engaged. With this, retailers must adeptly adapt to meet the evolving needs of their customers, ensuring not only customer satisfaction but also sustainable growth.

Best Practices for Fully Online, Fully Offline, and Hybrid Retail

1. Fully Online

For fully online stores, their primary asset is their website. To ensure customers fully enjoy their experience, it is crucial to optimize the website’s speed, navigation, and content for all devices – mobile, desktop, tablet, and so forth.

Additionally, the site’s features should be compelling enough to attract and retain customer attention.

For example, exploring gamification strategies, such as virtual “scratch-offs” or loyalty point systems that reward and incentivize online shoppers, as well as offering personalized promotions and targeted discounts to pique consumer interest, can be highly effective methods for sustaining customer engagement.

2. Fully Offline

For fully offline stores, the primary objective is to attract customers to the physical store and encourage them to explore the available products.

Utilizing geolocation services to send exclusive in-store promotions to nearby customers and establishing loyalty programs that reward frequent in-person visits can be effective strategies to do so.

Best practice to integrate both online and offline strategies

These initiatives not only provide tangible incentives but also foster a sense of community and familiarity, further enhancing the in-store experience.

3. Hybrid

As a hybrid store, it’s best practice to integrate both online and offline strategies.

By offering online shoppers the option to redeem digital rewards in-store, and creating seamless omnichannel experiences that cater to the preferences of a diverse customer base enhances the overall customer experience.

Conclusion

Whether fully online, entirely offline, or navigating the middle ground with a hybrid approach, the implementation of effective gamification strategies and reward systems can keep customers engaged and excited. Businesses that embrace these strategies can not only navigate but thrive in the dynamic retail landscape of the digital age.

Empowering retailers with a formidable tool to capture and retain consumer attention in the digital era, Perx is ready to optimize your business for every retail channel. Book a demo today and propel your business into a new era of growth and competitiveness within the dynamic marketplace!

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Global businesses have driven over 5 billion customer-brand interactions on Perx.

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Cookieless 2024

The Cookieless Future: Strategies for Brands to Flourish After 2024

Cookieless 2024

Navigating the Cookieless Future: A Guide for Brands to Thrive in 2024 and Beyond

Amrith G.

SVP, Marketing & Customer Analytics | Nov 29, 2023


Introduction

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing, cookies have long been the cornerstone for advertisers to understand and reach their audiences. However, with Google’s announcement to phase out third-party cookies by 2024, the marketing world stands on the brink of a significant transformation. This change heralds a new era, one where privacy takes precedence and old tactics give way to innovative strategies. This blog delves into the implications of a cookieless future and offers insights for brands to reimagine their customer engagement strategies effectively.

Understanding the Cookieless Future

The cookieless future refers to a digital environment where third-party cookies, the small data files used to track users’ online behavior, are no longer a part of the advertising toolkit. The push towards eliminating these cookies stems from growing privacy concerns and regulatory changes such as GDPR and CCPA. As these tiny trackers fade into obscurity, marketers face the daunting task of reinventing strategies that have depended on them for decades.

Impact on Brands and Digital Marketing

The removal of third-party cookies disrupts the traditional methods of targeted advertising, customer tracking, and personalization that brands have relied on. Without these insights, the effectiveness of ads may decrease, making it challenging for marketers to measure campaign success and understand customer preferences as intimately as before.

Alternative Strategies for Customer Engagement

In this new landscape, brands need to pivot towards more sustainable and privacy-compliant methods of engaging with customers:

First-Party Data Collection: The focus shifts to first-party data, gathered directly from customers. Encouraging users to engage through newsletters, membership programs, and direct feedback can be instrumental. This direct line of communication ensures data accuracy and builds a trustworthy relationship between the brand and its customers. Skip to a real-life success story on First-Party Data Collection and Acquisition.

Contextual Advertising: Contextual advertising, which places ads based on the content of the website rather than user behavior, is making a comeback. This strategy aligns ads with relevant content, ensuring they reach an interested audience without infringing on personal privacy.

Tools like Google AdSense, Criteo, and Taboola offer sophisticated algorithms and machine learning technologies to align ads with website content, ensuring relevance without relying on user behavior tracking.

AI and Machine Learning: AI tools can analyze large datasets to predict customer preferences and personalize experiences. By leveraging AI, brands can navigate the post-cookie era effectively, delivering relevant content without relying on individual tracking.

Salesforce Einstein, Adobe Sensei, and IBM Watson Marketing are powerful tools that leverage AI for predictive analytics, customer journey analytics, and automated task management.

Privacy-First Approach: Transparency in data use and a robust privacy policy become crucial. A brand that respects consumer privacy and communicates its practices clearly will build trust and loyalty among its audience.

Partnerships and Collaborations: Forming partnerships can allow access to broader, aggregated datasets. Collaborations with platforms and publishers that align with the brand’s values and audience can be a strategic move in a world without cookies.

First-party Data Collection – A Real-World Success Story

Transforming Customer Acquisition in the cookieless future: A Digital Bank’s Success story

In a dynamic shift towards customer acquisition, a leading digital bank in Asia embarked on a groundbreaking social media campaign. Powered by gamification and instant-gratification, this pioneering approach reshaped the landscape of engaging with potential consumers.

Focusing on fostering connections and offering immediate rewards, the bank strategically designed a campaign to entice new consumers. By leveraging gamified elements, the bank made the process of sharing first-party data an engaging and rewarding experience. This unique approach not only facilitated data acquisition but also initiated a rewarding journey for the newly acquired customers.

The rewards were meticulously tailored to align with daily lifestyle needs, offering enticing perks such as ride-hailing and grocery vouchers. This strategic alignment ensured that the rewards were not just appealing but also highly relevant to the consumers’ everyday lives.

The results were nothing short of extraordinary. The campaign witnessed a surge in consumer willingness to share their first-party data, fostering a stronger connection between the brand and its prospective customers. The allure of daily lifestyle-oriented rewards proved to be a game-changer, resulting in a remarkable double-digit increase in customer acquisition.

What sets this success story apart is not just the surge in new customers but the incredibly low Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) achieved by the bank. This achievement marked a historic milestone in the bank’s history, showcasing the efficacy of the innovative approach.

The integration of Perx-powered gamified mechanics played a pivotal role in transforming the bank’s traditional customer acquisition strategies. By infusing elements of gamification and instant-gratification into the campaign, the bank redefined the customer acquisition landscape, setting a new standard for engagement and acquisition in the digital banking sector.

In essence, this success story epitomizes the power of strategic innovation and customer-centric approaches. By prioritizing engaging experiences, aligning rewards with daily needs, and leveraging gamified mechanics, the bank not only acquired a substantial customer base but also set a benchmark for cost-effective and impactful customer acquisition strategies in the industry.

Preparing for the Transition

As 2024 approaches, brands must prepare for the transition:

  • Audit current data practices to understand the reliance on third-party cookies.
  • Invest in technology solutions that support first-party data collection and analysis.
  • Train marketing teams in new strategies and tools to adapt to the cookieless world.
  • Start testing alternative advertising methods now to understand what works best for your brand.

In Conclusion

The phase-out of third-party cookies is not just a challenge but an opportunity for brands to innovate and engage with their customers more genuinely and transparently. By embracing alternative strategies and focusing on building direct relationships with consumers, brands can not only adapt but thrive in the cookieless future. The time to start reimagining customer engagement is now, preparing for a world where privacy and personalization go hand in hand.

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Global businesses have driven over 5 billion customer-brand interactions on Perx.

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The Cookieless Future - and how to tackle it

Hansel and Gretel can stay on, but their cookies will have to go next year

The Cookieless Future - and how to tackle it

Hansel and Gretel can stay on, but their cookies will have to go next year

And the cookie crumbles – Brands need a new compass to navigate the cookieless future

SVP, Marketing & Customer Analytics | May 18, 2023


A quick 101 before we start: For those who are still wondering why there is no reference to Hansel, Gretel, Disney or chocolate chip cookies in the rest of this blog – these are not cookies that you eat but your computer does. Dubbed the magic cookie, HTTP cookie, a web cookie, an Internet cookie, or a browser cookie, this cookie is filled with information. Information about you, where you’ve been, your preferences, etc. Brands target these cookies to bet on where you would be next. So again, not Chips Ahoy! from Walmart.

Google set to phase out cookies by 2024

So, earlier this year, the father, the son, and the holy spirit of our present-day digital lives, Google took a ‘proactive’ step to get on the right side of you, me, and the 5 billion others who use it or the 500 million who yell ‘hey google’ at a device every month.

Here is my attempt at translating Google’s move: “Hola people of the world, it’s time we stop taking you and your data for granted, so here goes – Before the politicians figure out what we do for a living and before we get called for another congressional hearing, we’ve decided to let go of a key carrier of your personal information – ‘the cookie’ – We did say we will put it to rest this year. But, since we’ve not figured out a way to live without it, we’ve decided to extend it to 2024.

What? No Tracking? In a way, yeah. 

So, does this mean…

…out go those display ads that follow you so loyally to every nook and corner of the web, the text ads that think they are personalized and follow you into your Gmail Inbox, and the rest of the gamut?

Well, not quite.

This act on the cookies may be a step in the right direction as a good samaritan but they are not saints. With the smartphone being the single common denominator in the connected world, consumers thrive on hyper-personalization. Be it ads, promotions, or finding the right pair of ‘Nike Air Force 1s’ for the weekend, we live in an instant gratification world. So, no, we don’t expect them to be saints either.

As an alternative, Google is trialing a ‘less intrusive’ slightly more acceptable version of the cookie. It’s called Federated Learning of Cohorts. In perfect valley fashion, they’ve given it an acronym – FLoC. FLoC is supposed to run locally and analyzes your browsing behavior to group you into a cohort of like-minded people with similar interests (and doesn’t share your browsing history with Google). Don’t fret, your browsing history is still safe; just don’t forget to clear them once in a while if you visit questionable URLs though. That cohort is specific enough to allow advertisers to do their thing and show you relevant ads, but without being so specific as to allow marketers to identify you personally.

Here is another perspective: What do brands, conglomerates, governments, ethical hackers, and even your next-door neighbor have in common? 

We are defined by our preferences and choices.

Answer: They know more about you than you think they do. So take a moment of pause as consumers and deal with that fact. On the other hand, data points such as your favorite laundry detergent, cosmetics, food, brands that meet your needs, and brands that meet your wants are those we anyways flaunt on social media for the world to judge. Our preferences and choices are what make us complete.

These data points form an integral part of the mobile-first, instant-gratification world we all live in. We are so used to something that we like a pop-up on our screen trying to nudge a purchase action from us.

When I browse for information, I still want it to be crisp, and I still want it to be tailored to my tastes. I don’t want to see what the Kardashians are up to on my 10 minutes browse of Flipboard on a Monday morning metro ride to work (or when I am working from home), no that would be for my weekends. 

The answer is a tested and proven YES. It’s called First-party Direct-to-Customer Data Collection. Typically, brands use a way or two to collect this from the horse’s mouth – the customer. To start with, an agency conducts a survey. Or the same agency launches a bespoke interactive campaign built for this purpose and dangles an incentive at the end of the survey. Such activities require a lot of gray matter to come together, taking months to plan and weeks to launch. By the time it’s launched, the campaign or the data set required to collect loses strategic relevance – because, you know, we live in a world of the 8-second attention span and every 10th piece of information we consume is a video of a human or a cat that does something unbelievable.

You may wonder, ‘Hey, you said yes earlier and gave a discouraging and time-consuming  solution to prove it. Is there a way to combat the cookie-less future?’

Sorry for driving you nuts with the last 100 words. Yes, there is a solution. Depending on how you wield it, it has the potential to become the sharpest tool in your B2C marketing arsenal. On the back of this solution, some of the largest global brands in the banking, telecom, insurance, and retail industry have collectively driven over 3,000,000,000 customer-brand interactions till date. For those who are still counting the zeros – it’s a billion.

Brands improve their CAC, drive in-app transactions, boost revenue per active user, and ultimately reduce churn by keeping customers coming back for more. All by transforming their digital customer engagement strategy with the help of concepts such as game theory, pleasure principle, and instant gratification that reward customers for their every action.

Collectively driving over $400M in incremental revenue, the solution of choice for 3 of the top banks, telcos, and even some of the well-established marketing agencies in Asia is the Perx autonomous loyalty and engagement platform.

The fusion of Perx and Open AI is the captivating recipe simmering in our product kitchen. With intelligent campaign recommendations, predictive rewards inventory management, and ChatGPT’s automatic idea generation, we’re propelling customer engagement and loyalty into an autonomous realm fueled by AI and data. Connect with us to find out how you can beat the cookie-less future by simply re-engaging your existing customers and engaging the new ones better.

In a nutshell, the decision by Google to phase out cookies has thrown the industry into a frenzy. While it may mean an end to the tracking that has become so ubiquitous, it also presents an opportunity for brands to rethink their customer engagement strategy, the percentage of marketing budget towards net-new customers vs existing customers, and their ROAS (Return On Ad Spend).

In today’s 8-second attention span world, brands can create a personalized customer experience, increase customer acquisition, and preserve privacy by focusing on building meaningful, long-lasting relationships with their customers. Rather than sustaining transient, transactional relationships, it’s time to foster deeper connections with the millions your business is serving.

The cookieless future brings unprecedented challenges to the entire brand servicing industry and not just B2C brands they serve. Agencies of all sizes are facing a daunting brick wall, hindering their ability to target the right audience, measure and attribute ad spend, manage ad inventory and pricing, and navigate privacy and compliance concerns. This leaves them in a perilous position.

To remain relevant in this changing landscape, the $592 billion global advertising industry must embrace a marketing technology stack that empowers first-party data collection. Additionally, agencies need to leverage innovative approaches such as gamification, AI, data, and analytics at a campaign level. By adopting these strategies, agencies can adapt to the cookieless era, ensuring their continued success in an evolving digital advertising ecosystem.

It’s time to seriously think about how to stay relevant in the cookieless future

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Global businesses have driven over 5 billion customer-brand interactions on Perx.

Ready to join them?