Purple Square supports Kindred Group’s customer communications with an attrition proof Campaign Delivery service

Responsible use of marketing automation requires dedication in any industry but none more so than the online gambling world. With a commitment to exceed regulatory standards and provide a first-class customer experience, Kindred Group takes its approach to marketing automation very seriously.

Kindred has been using Purple Square as a strategic technology partner since 2017 when they reached out for some urgent specialist technical support. The evolving partnership now sees Purple Square managing Kindred’s daily campaigns via its Campaign Delivery service, which frees the business up to focus more on the big picture strategy; something Audience Management Lead, Robert Dufton describes as essential in their business.

“Our industry requires constant commitment to staying ahead, both in terms of customer needs and regulatory requirements. We needed a partner that we could rely on and trust just as if they were our own team, so we could take a step back and keep things moving in the right direction.”

“Purple Square has come to feel like an extension of our own team.”

Robert Dufton, Audience Management Lead

“Purple Square has come to feel like an extension of our own team. Where they had been excelling at their app support and maintenance function for us since 2017, escalation to deploy a fire team of audience executives was a natural step. They could be relied upon for business-as-usual operations and also during periods of intense outgoing communications like the recent World Cup, Cheltenham and Olympics, offering out of hours support across weekends and holidays.”

“To address internal stakeholder requirements, having an attrition-proof team of audience experts available to us for our daily campaign work is essential. Purple Square provides that.”

Allowing time for strategic thinking

Purple Square have many years of Campaign Delivery experience, and in 2021 launched a dedicated business unit in response to growing demand from clients which allows brands like Kindred to access attrition proof expertise for their marketing technology and ensure campaigns are delivered accurately and consistently, regardless of workload peaks, staffing issues or lack of in-house skills. Currently the Purple Square team build and execute around 80-100 campaigns per month for Kindred.

Robert comments, “When you are constantly caught up in the business of providing a baseline service and all the coordination, delegation, documentation and meta surrounding that, it becomes more difficult to see the big picture around campaign effectiveness, and spending the mandatory amount on reporting, stakeholder relations, feedback collection, tech roadmap and incident management.”

Expert resources on hand

Outsourcing campaign development and execution to Purple Square, along with an existing set of Application Management services means Kindred is able to access expert support all under one roof.

“To address internal stakeholder requirements, having an attrition-proof team of audience experts available to us for our daily campaign work is essential. Purple Square provides that.”

Robert says one of the important elements of the service is the access to the wider set of skills within the Purple Square remit. It’s this knowledge that their campaigns are being backed up by deep expertise that allows the Kindred team to step back and focus on the big picture strategy.

He recalls an evening a call was placed to the Purple Square team due to a high priority issue that would affect a campaign due to run through the night, affecting Kindred’s customers monthly bonuses. The combined use of Purple Square’s Application Management, alongside Campaign Delivery meant the larger issue was investigated and resolved immediately. The campaign ran successfully that evening, saving many hours of rework and avoiding customer complaints. This access to a wider team that can quickly act and resolve critical issues with an end-to-end knowledge of the campaign and its supporting elements help ensure optimal operation of Kindred’s customer communications.

“We know that we have access to the broad set of expertise available within Purple Square; whether that’s architects, consultants or strategic planners and that if there’s a problem with one of our campaigns, that larger set of expertise can be tapped into.”

“Purple Square know our business, they know our systems and our data and that means we can rely on them to flag any potential issues which is very important to us as a business. They run everything through strict quality assurance processes too, which is also key. Our customer data is paramount, so we need to work with partners that share the same ethos.”

“Our customer data is paramount, so we need to work with partners that share the same ethos.”

Agility in marketing

Flexibility is essential for any successful brand to stay relevant and in order to do this, businesses need to be able to adapt quickly even as the world around them changes. The pandemic brought with it a need for agility in customer communications that the marketing world has never seen before, so having a Campaign Delivery team on hand to respond quickly to evolving marketing needs was and will continue to be important to Kindred.

Robert explains that the online gambling industry is punctuated seasonally by international sports events and casino tournaments which stretch marketing planning, setup and resource capabilities to their limits.

“Your tech, partners and operators need to show the confidence, competence and elasticity to be able to help marketers to capitalise at these epochs, because when they are gone, they are gone.”

Speaking of the partnership with Purple Square, he says “We needed a technology partner agile enough to meet our evolving needs and Purple Square were able to meet our tactical goals and provide expertise on tap which made them the obvious decision; their gracefully excelling beyond SLAs for the last 18 months has validated that choice.”

“It must be said, since it cannot be taken for granted, that the team provided by Purple Square are truly prompt, attentive, and eager to expand outside of their written remit to see where else they can make a difference to the complex machine that is our department. And working remotely has not slowed them down one jot.”

“It must be said, since it cannot be taken for granted, that the team provided by Purple Square are truly prompt, attentive, and eager to expand outside of their written remit to see where else they can make a difference to the complex machine that is our department.”