Ochsner Sport’s Personalization Journey: Bridging Creativity & Conversion

We're gonna kick today off by talking about how to can bridge a gap. Between creativity on the one hand, something marketers we love, we we love dearly, and commerce to drive conversion. Which is once again, those business requirements that we talked about earlier. And we're going to have a fantastic case study that's going to be delivered in tandem by dynamic yield, and they are an hour of mutual customer, Oxford Sports, and joining us to lead this session, our young Calic, who's a team lead at Oxford, which is if you weren't aware, the largest sports retail in Switzerland. John's gonna be joined by Emma Ferlon, who's the director of product marketing at dynamic yield. And they have some exciting insights to share with us. So with that, I'm delighted to pass things over to Emma to kick us off. Thank you so much, Sarah, for the introduction. We're really excited to have the opportunity to speak with you all today want to first go through a little bit of agenda of what we'll be talking about. So to start off, Jan is going to share a little bit of a background on Oxford Sport. Which will lead us into the tension that many of you as marketers on the call may feel between the on and offline experience. And that tension really sets a nice scene for a gap that needs bridging that we're going to go into detail. So there's really three main gaps One is between management and conversion, one between creative vision and conversion goals, and lastly between management's agenda and serving the customer's needs. So we'll go through all of those. We'll share some real examples from Oxner, and then we'll finish up with some key takeaways. So with that, Yon, I will pass it over to you to share a little bit more on Oscar. Thanks a lot, Emma. So as we've heard already, we're Switzerland biggest sports retailers. And our claim is, despite systems of sport, blood speech in English means, Switzerland is our playground. We actually wanna empower all all Swiss people, all our customers to explore our beautiful country doing sports. Why do we want to do that? Well, we're the biggest retailer in Switzerland. And if you're not from Switzerland, you probably have heard of the Dijtman Group. Which we are part of as well. They had a big skew retailer in Europe. So we've got a powerful big company backing us up as well. We are partnered also with Olympics, so our National Olympic Committee, and we're a sponsor of several top athletes including the Olympic downhill champions the last winter games. And of course, as you obviously know, because I'm here, we have a web shop plus we have eighty offline stores. At Oxford, we have a Focus Sports mindset. What does that mean? Our whole year actually wraps around four sports. That's as you see here on the pictures that's running, that's biking, outdoor, which basically means hiking and winter sports with a focus extra on alpine skiing. If you imagine entering a physical sports store, you'll probably notice several highlighted products, screens with video spots on it, offline stores, posters, etcetera, and a lot more. And all those media you see will be highlighted with that specific sport we have on in the season. Why do we do that? It's mainly to put a focus on everything. So have a better plans created from management, make it easier for visual merchandising who actually kind of set up the whole look of a offline store. And kind of get the whole company together on one goal. But, obviously, there is one big problem about that. Well, we have eighty stores, which have existed for quite a long time, but obviously the online shopper is really different. So we do have stuff that works. It's the same as an offline stores, but there is a lot different. A customer who comes to our shop online wants to have all the products available everywhere in any time. And, obviously, we have a lot of data to measure and more important data use. So, yeah, and thank you for walking us through that background. So kind of just to summarize, there's a really specific static, and kind of theming throughout the year that is in the offline in store experience. But because the online shopper is so different, there a lot more that you can do for them. So can you kind of walk us through being on the conversion team, you know, doing personalization? How do the customers' needs vary across the journey, and how do you address that? Yeah. So let's once again go back in time a bit and kind of still have them, but historically, they were there first with our offline stores. When you come in there, you're obviously influenced by all the stuff you see. And, you can go to the customers. You can help them. You can, avoid services and everything else, but it's much more of inspiration than actually personalization. And that's why we really do have those advantages online. Even if you're coming to our shop, the first time we can already kind of help you with personalized content of personalized products with, real side time, with behavior, with context. So where did you come from? Which products to click on, etcetera. And the more you know about you, maybe you have shopped with us before, maybe you have the account, we get more and more data, and we can And you made July see your journey in our shop even better? So, Yon, is it fair to say that despite the fact that there's a lot more that you can do for that first time, even a first time online visitor and even more so when they're a known online customer, that management creative often stuck in that in store mindset? You could definitely say that. As we as we so be forward with that focus boards, focus we have. Everyone is fixed on those four. Sports, but obviously there are some people who might be running in winter or go biking in in spring when we actually are showing running products a lot in our stores. So you need to do something there. And, the same convoys create with creatives who really want to, use the assets they have for offline use them online as well. And we try to kind of combine that. So, Jan, I would love to take a moment to talk a little bit more about your background because, you know, you actually have a unique perspective that you've kind of seen both side. So can you share a little bit about that and also how now with your focus on conversion, how you approach customer experience differently? Yeah. Sure. So I've been with Oxford Sport for a bit more than four years, and the first two years of that I spent in online marketing. So I really know the world of those focusing on specific sports, focusing on assets, on video spots, and campaigns, and everything. And, I really know those both worlds. So the the first world and the the conversion world only my mindset has shifted over the time of it from. Just using creativity to a much more data driven mindset. And on the screen now, you kind of see our goal, which we have as a conversion team. Really want to create that seamless side experience, which, we all try to optimize for every customer. And finally, as the Big goal, we have deliver personalization across the entire journey and across the entire web shop. Of course, you need to achieve and measure that with with the goals you probably all be aware of. So that kind of brings us to this gap that needs bridging that we talked about earlier. So Yon, walk us through the three conflicting goals and where they're kind of merging. Yes. So we have to each goal, we have kind of the the group of people in the company. First, you have the management, who have the really mindset of those folks sports, we think about the offline stores, visual merchandising. Then you have the creative team who try to create a three hundred sixty degree experience. We have we've heard quickly something about it before already as well. So they wanna make sure that every customer who comes to our online store. Noticees that it's the same store as the offline one and the other way around. So they wanna use the same visuals they have offline use them online. And lastly, us as a conversion team really want to drive revenue and do what the customers actually want to see. Exactly. So, how do we bridge that gap beyond? What are kind of three practical tips that you've been using success fully to bring those three kind of conflicting perspectives together. Yes. So we really try to make justice for each of the groups and each of the goals, and we'll go through those separately afterwards. So we first wanted to prove value to management with quick wins, then balance creative vision with data. And lastly, but it's kind of the most important thing put to summer first. Awesome. So we'll dive into each one. So starting with the first gap, this is between management and conversion. As Yon mentioned, proving value to management with quick wins. Yang, can you share an example of how you've done that? Yes. Of course, you can't start fixed right away. So you gotta start easy. And what we did was kind of put in Nikki quick win campaigns to, get buy in from the management to do more complicated stuff. Lots of things what we did were small campaigns. For example, product recommendations, we put below default all around page. So that might be on the home page. It might be in listings, which wouldn't look big, but it gave us a lot of good data, a lot of revenue kind of, convince management to give us more time and more money and resources for for bigger campaigns. Yeah. I really love that approach because, you know, if it's below the fold management, it might not see it. So there's a little bit more you can get away with, but being able to prove out the value of what you're doing with that immediate revenue impact is amazing. So, Jan, that really enabled you and your team to take on a bigger project Can you walk us through what that was? Yes. It was the big change from from just general side personalization to APA campaigns, and you see on the left what we had before, and you'll just see what we had after. Wow. Yeah. Looks amazing. Right? So you see that for the custom itself, if you look at the page, nothing much has changed or basically nothing has changed. And, to just keep it really simple, what we did here is to kind of minimize the data that gets transferred between Diamond Hill in our webshop. To make the site way more fast and stable and just a smooth experience for for the customers. Yeah. Absolutely. I think it's, you know, a lot of companies are switching to a more headless architecture moving to API first. And, it can be difficult to get buy in for those types of projects when there isn't that, visual impact, but it does make such a difference for the So it's amazing that you were able to get those quick wins with those initial sneaky campaigns to prove that revenue impact and then get buy in for management. For this larger project that you know as a conversion team will really make a long term impact. So moving to the next bridge that we have to gap It's between creative and conversion. This is the one that you really are an expert in and know both sides. Can you talk us through how you've balanced creative vision with data? Yes. So what was it here? Twice a year, we have the club days for loyalty customers, which is like the biggest promotion we have. We have a Doxone support. And we really wanted to see what visual works best, gets the best revenue. And kind of still pays in at the company's company's focus or company strategy we have. Awesome. So I'm actually going to turn this over to the audience. So we're gonna launch a poll in a minute. So take a look at these three options because once I launch it, you won't be able to go back. So I'd love to hear from all of you. Which of these three options for the homepage Hero banner do you think one? So the options will be one, two, and three. So I'll give you all a minute to take a look at these and kind of decide ahead of time before I launch the poll since you won't be able to see them. So which do you think one? Option one, option two, or option three. I will launch the poll now. And I'll give everyone a moment to submit their answers. Okay. That I'm hoping that's enough time. Really curious to see kind of where everyone landed here. So let's see the result. So we have this is interesting nineteen percent thought creative one, one, fifty percent thought creative two one, and twenty nine point five percent creative three one. So the majority thought creative two. This is really interesting. So I'm gonna reveal what actually one It was Creative three. So, the majority of you actually were thinking more like maybe management in the Creative team, but the customer a different preference. So, John, do you kind of want to walk us through, why you think this was the wedding variation and, what you were able to do with this insight? Yes. I think it was really eye opening for marketing to to see that, I really love our campaigns we have. I love our TV sports, our visuals because with all the great scenery we have here. It's so cool to promote sports, but to see that actually kind of a plain red background work best for the main teaser on the home page during our most important days was, kind of, kind of exciting. Yes. And so I think the big goal here was to really create an understanding, you know, Mark in department for data, just so to see that, not everything that looks great, I don't know, on TV or in our stores would actually work online. Yeah. Absolutely. Really powerful story here, especially given that many of the audience also felt similarly to the to the internal teams, but it just really shows that, you know, it's it's so crucial to follow the customer's needs first, which leads us to our last gap that needs bridging. Which is the gap between what management's higher level vision is and what the customer really needs and wants and really trying to be customer centric and put the customer first. So, Yon, walk us through how you're doing that today. So, obviously, with the results, we just saw we've already poll, you really need to embrace compromise here because you have the clash of the easiest conversion on one side and those beautiful pictures on the other side. And, of course, we won't show, like, a plain red background with a simple claim on it for most important days because we still wanna show beautiful assets. But you kind of can combine that with the personalization we want. So we looked at what we can do to combine those two. And what we have in our online job is actually kind of increasing personalization, the lower you get in the funnel. So on different pages or a different page times, you see you see different personalization recommendation sliders, for example. We talked about, fitting products on the on the home page for you see here. So we're still using we're still using the campaign teaser, but we're showing that the product's really fitting to that. And, combining that with data we have from the customer. Another thing is for other page times, for example, the empty cart page where we're showing recently viewed articles or you have, view together products, for example, on the PDP. And with the PDP to finish, that's actually the most personalized page we have in our shop. Because if you get to that page, you have or chosen that article, so you're really interested in that. And then afterwards, below, you really get the chance to see alternatives, to see products that fit to that article you've chosen to see what other spots together with that. Yeah. Absolutely. I think it's really powerful, you know, working with your teams embracing a collaborative mindset, but also really pushing to increase the level of personalization as the Mark continues to interact with the brand. And I know there was a question in there have been some questions to chat about KPIs. We do have a slide that we're gonna talk about that a little bit. So before we get into that, I just wanna wrap up what we've talked about here with some key takeaways. So, Yon, you know, if you want everyone who attended this session to learn any What would be the four key things you would tell them? So number one for me personally, obviously, let's nothing that might be in that order for you or all of that full work for you, but for for me and my team, it worked really well. And what I noticed that might not just be for, kind of, business life, but everything is to really try to over communicate. So your working relationships will benefit if you try to communicate with the other teams you might have, even conflict. So, what I noticed through COVID as well as that kind of contact is really crucial to to get by and to get understanding. And really try to get a personal contact to, to someone else to a colleague. If you don't work in the same office, then try to get a team Skype zoom, whatever call. And then, lastly, at least try to write a message, but always try to get the personal contact first and really try to improve your your relationships you have in the company. And secondly, use your data you have and evangelize your work with that because that will really get you buy in from the management afterwards to follow your long term vision you have. Then the next thing is still support creative. So support to creative team use the assets you have, but still think about, the data you have, maybe try, try to help them with the data, try to analyze it and see what you can do in the borders or in the rules you have inside your company. And lastly, that might just be because we're a Swiss company, but, being neutral, but try to be willing to compromise because you won't get your preferred solutions straight away. And if you just try to push it through, you'll probably not be as successful. Thank you so much, Yon. So I know we're we're at time. So just wanna quickly wrap up and especially if there was a question in the chat. Yon, how are you you know, what are the question specifically was, what is your primary KPI for on-site personalization? Is it conversion rate or additional revenue? I think this slide already speaks that, but can you just walk us through quickly? You know, the types of things you're measuring and how that can lead to great results if you follow kind of the plan you've outlined here today? Yes. So we do have different KPIs that we're really, really looking at. And I think, the conversion rate is something very important in our team. When we're trying to to seed it over the whole shop and not just for a tool itself. So we're definitely monitoring that and trying to improve it. But it's not something we look at specific personalization or, the campaigns we do with dynamic yields here definitely kind of the additional while you get we get four specific campaigns we're looking at. And, don't wanna go too much in detail into numbers. I think they speak for themselves, but, what I kind of wanna share with you is to kind of, stick to your plan, start easy and, think big afterwards because if you kind of try to follow those small, small steps you really get there in the end. Amazing. Well, thank you so much everyone for the time. And thank you very much Emma and Yens. I think that was a really insightful, session. I loved how you the poll and how you got everybody to go with wonder when you're you two, if you really reveal something that nobody was, I think, expecting and everybody can learn a lot from. We're all marketers. Right? We all have to think about And if we were talking about art, the art of marketing and the art of science, I think your session brought those two together beautifully. So thank you very much. I hope everybody's enthusiasm as I am. If you didn't get a chance to ask your questions, and you'd like to reach out directly to our fantastic presenters, you can find their contact details on the screen. I know they would be delighted to hear from you