In a world where customers’ inboxes are bombarded by an onslaught of generic, one-size-fits-all loan offers, no one offer is particularly compelling. Worse yet, every offer is a new chance to be rejected. But Barclays had a little-known point of difference. They could tell every one of their customers exactly how much they’d be able to borrow, before even applying. But to spread the word about this highly personal offer, and put Barclays at the top of customers’ consideration list, we would need to find a completely new way to showcase these loans.

A loan is an extremely personal decision, and this project was a revelation for Barclays. It was the first to combine data, insights and video technology to achieve such a level personalisation as part of their promise. From drawing together individual customer insights, to creating over 180,000 unique videos offering specific loan levels for individuals, to sending out each video in a customized mobile site- the programme was a campaign of firsts that operated just as planned. In the finance sector, this was a real breakthrough in personalising communications for customers, and Barclays been delighted with the engagement results.

Our challenge was to reach a mass audience facing a constant barrage of loan messages in a uniquely engaging way. We developed 180,000 videos in total, each tied into an individual email address for distribution. Post launch, Barclays tracked 493 Barclay loans directly attributable to the campaign. We were all thrilled with the results:

• Emails had an 106% uplift in open rates compared to regular emails about lending

• There was an 1,100% uplift in-click through rates

o In the over-50s segment, we saw unique open rates (UOR) of 22.2% (an increase of 255%) and unique click-through rates (UCR) of 4.6%, a 1,533% uplift

o For the under 50s, UOR was 14.2% (up 63%) and UCR 2% (up 666%)

• The click-to-open rate (CTO) achieved a 593% uplift on our benchmark

• 6,401 customers watched their personalized video, with an average viewing time of 58.5 seconds for a 60 second video – a nearly perfect performance.