Building on the success of their first year-in-review campaign, the Financial Times launched their second Personalized Video campaign to recap subscribers’ individual reading journeys over the past year.
They expanded this campaign to include a wider audience. The newspaper also leveraged Idomoo’s advanced interactivity with in-video CTAs for subscription offers and a newsletter sign-up. Key objectives included reaffirming their relationship with readers, increasing subscriptions and high engagement with the video.
Campaign Details and Results
Combining creative from AlphaGrid with Idomoo’s Next Generation Video Platform, the videos merged dynamic scenes with personalized data points, such as the subscriber’s first name and the first article they read last year. Interactivity was spread throughout the video, allowing users to click through to sign up for the newsletter, take advantage of subscription offers and more.
Take a look below.
Subscribers loved their personalized year in review. More than 4 out of 5 viewers finished watching (an 83% video completion rate), and many watched it more than once.
The campaign also saw a 25% increase in CTA engagement compared to their 2020 year in review.
And campaign sentiment was positive across social media. Subscribers shared their Personalized Videos on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with the hashtag #MyYearWithTheFT.
Here are a few top tweets:
- “Still a massive FT fan!”
- “Cool review of what I’ve read this year via the FT.”
- “I love how original these “year in review” things are these days!”
- “Reading 595 FT articles in 2021 makes me (the shame…) only in the top 30% of our readers. But FYI @alexebarker, I read you the most.”
- “Eat your heart out, Spotify.”
Yeah, that last one is our favorite, too.
The videos were truly data-driven, offering valuable insights for subscribers based on their own reading plus suggestions for what to read next.
“We’re excited to work with the Financial Times on a campaign that not only has great creative but also delivered real business value by promoting subscriptions,” said Dotan Ginsbourg, EMEA GM of Idomoo. “We look forward to wowing Financial Times readers again next year.”
The Magic of a Personalized Year in Review
We wrote a whole article about personalized year-in-review videos and why they work, but in a nutshell, this approach is a powerful way to surprise and delight customers.
It shows them things they may not have known, like how many minutes they spent chatting with friends and family (real example from the telco industry) or what game they’re the best at and who they play with the most (real example from gaming).
You can tell them the points they’ve earned in their loyalty program or how close they came to achieving a personal wellness goal. Or like the Financial Times did, you can show how they stack up compared to other customers.
It’s an opportunity to remind your customers why they love you and why they should keep coming back.
These personalized highlight reels are also perfect for social media sharing, further increasing your campaign reach. As you know, the next best customers to the ones you already have are the friends of your current customers.
Keep Reading
Financial Times subscribers will keep reading their excellent news, and we’re already looking forward to their next year-in-review recap.
What about you? Keen to read more about Personalized Video? We have another year-in-review success story from CCP Games. Or if you want to know what we mean by “advanced video interactivity,” our CTO explains.
Rather skip reading and get right to making magic? Now you’re talking. Let’s work together to wow your customers.
