Scotch & Soda personalises ads, achieving five-fold incremental return on investment

Scotch & Soda’s transition from one-off ad campaigns to data-driven, personalised and always-on-media has generated revenue growth and increased customer lifetime value

Scotch & Soda, a premium omni-channel fashion retailer, has boosted its incremental return on ad spend to £5.50 for every £1 invested (5.5:1), thanks to a major overhaul in its digital advertising strategy.

The retailer is stocked in 8,000 outlets globally and worn by famous actors and musicians such as Eddie Redmayne and Justin Timberlake, but the team knew that there was much more they could do to keep the brand top of mind amongst unpredictable fashion consumers. As part of a strategic review, the team adopted Conversant’s CRM Media solution, which enabled one-to-one communications through highly personalised messages.

“We try to build memory structures in everything we do – everything should be aligned. Conversant allowed us to create individual communication stories on a continuous basis efficiently - right person, right product and right look and feel for Scotch & Soda,” explains the fashion brand’s Media Manager, Leon Wharton.

“The trends that govern the fashion industry mean many advertising campaigns only penetrate consumers’ short-term memory, which means the brand may not be recalled at a later date. Scotch & Soda’s new strategy enables them to cement their place in customer’ long-term memory, as the go-to for premium, stylish clothing and accessories,” explains Elliott Clayton, Senior Vice President of Media at Conversant. “The results achieved so far clearly show the personalisation approach is working for Scotch & Soda, and many other companies across industry already benefit from a similar strategy.”

In its most recent review, the Scotch & Soda team examined incremental ROI – that is, returns compared to baseline brand performance without advertising. When compared to this group, Scotch & Soda generated sales 25 percent more often when using Conversant’s personalisation technology, while also increasing the lifetime value of customers that it messaged by 23 percent. The solution tracks over 120 million online and offline daily purchases, building profiles across more than 7,000 dimensions, enabling personalised conversations with Scotch & Soda’s customers across multiple devices.

“Conversant is driving new incremental demand from our mid-funnel, and I don’t think we serviced that properly before, or that the tools to do that existed previously,” continued Wharton.

A major boon for Wharton and his team is the added benefit of seeing how advertising efforts contribute to Scotch & Soda’s overall media mix, as well as learning more about its customers, their buying habits and advertising preferences.

"The audience insights we get are really helpful. Not only are we delivering measurable revenue into the business, but we’re able to better understand our audience and leverage that internally – for example, the data helps us build a case for creative strategies across other media."

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About Scotch & Soda

Scotch & Soda are inspired by the world and curated by Amsterdam. A team of passionate discoverers and collectors, scouring the globe for that painting, poem, vintage piece, ruin, or artefact that sparks our never-ending curiosity. Treasures uncovered on worldly wanders are poured into collections and signature looks that clash eras, classics, places of inspiration, meshing unexpected fabrics and patterns. Men’s, women’s, and children’s collections all start life at our Canal-side design studio in a former church in the heart of Amsterdam. Scotch & Soda has over 160 stores, and can be found in over 8000 doors including the best global department-stores & independents, and in our webstore online.

About Conversant

Conversant is the leader in personalised digital marketing, transforming the industry through cutting-edge technology, bold creative and a staggering amount of data. Its roster of 4,000 clients includes 400+ blue chip brands and 65 of the Internet Retailer Top 100. Coupled with the world's largest affiliate marketing network, CJ Affiliate, they drive incremental sales better than anyone. Conversant is a division of Epsilon, the global leader in creating customer connections that build brand and business equity.