Citi case study

Cutting campaign costs by 10% while boosting response rates

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How effective data management helped Citi unlock more effective campaigns and reduce costs by 10%

The challenge

How effective data management helped Citi unlock more effective campaigns and reduce costs by 10%.

Our response

Acxiom removed obsolete data, used past responses to inform future campaigns and modelled customers to target UK’s first pre-approved credit card offering.

The impact

More effective campaigns cut costs by 10% and attracted 20% more customers; > 90% of respondents to pre-approved offer were accepted.

Introduction

10%

decrease in direct costs with Acxiom running Citi’s direct mail campaigns.
20%

increase in new customer acquisition rates.

Acxiom’s solutions also enabled Citi to become the first UK bank to market ‘pre-approved’ credit cards, enhancing its brand and attracting valuable new business.

In 2005, Citi’s direct mail campaigns were attracting a low response rate, low approvals and incurring excess costs. Together, these made the average price of acquiring each new customer far too high.

Lower costs, more customers

Acxiom first used its proprietary name-matching software to remove duplicate and obsolete data, cutting costs and complaints. To attract more customers, Acxiom analysed respondents to previous campaigns. This identified the consumer types most likely to respond in future and become profitable customers. By applying this model, Citi’s subsequent campaigns became 20% more effective.

For a new credit card launch, Acxiom applied stricter criteria to create a ‘pre-approved’ list of customers likely to be approved. The subsequent launch of the UK’s first ‘pre-approved’ credit card gave Citi a competitive advantage and achieved an acceptance rate of more than 90% from preselected individuals who became good, long term profitable customers for Citi.