And the Award Goes To… Compare the Market’s CRM Blockbuster Success

The Challenge
Compare the Market’s talking meerkats were a cultural phenomenon, driving brand fame and attention. But in a fiercely competitive market, brand love alone wasn’t enough—the challenge was turning awareness into lasting customer value. Customers were shopping around, using multiple aggregators, and failing to return at renewal—critical for sustained business growth. Worse still, many weren’t engaging with the Movies and Toys loyalty programme, despite clear data showing that engaged members were more likely to return, spend more, and hold multiple products.
My task? Convert more customers into loyal ones to deliver a tangible business impact.

The Approach
Working alongside a brilliant team of data strategists, I created and executed a CRM programme that was as creative as it was commercially effective. This included:
- Creating and deploying multiple customer journeys across different segments, ensuring tailored communications at every stage.
- Using a multi-channel approach—including app, website, social, email, DM, toy packaging, and events—to drive engagement with products and rewards.
- Defining KPIs and business rules to measure impact, alongside a structured test-and-learn programme.
- Developing creative briefs for key campaigns, such as the Beauty and the Beast cinema partnership, and the in-life programme, where we used Moveable Ink to personalise film recommendations to Lifestage.
- Uncovering new insights into disengaged loyalty members (‘Not Activated, Not Redeeming’) and designing targeted communications to remove their barriers to engagement.

The Results
By embedding CRM into the heart of the business, we proved its value—both to customers and the bottom line:
- £22m incremental revenue driven by CRM, including £14m in additional sales.
- Return rate uplift from 8.6% to 9.2%.
- 351k additional Meerkat Movie activations.
- 638k additional quotes generated.
- ‘Meerkat Movies Presents’ email campaign boosted redemptions by 71.9%.
- A direct mail piece targeting Non-Redeemers increased redemptions by 12.65% versus control.
By focusing on the right audiences with the right messaging at the right time, we transformed engagement, proving that CRM wasn’t just a retention tool—it was a revenue driver.