Success Story
A data-based narrative for The Guardian
Tap CXM developed a data-driven methodology and reader-centric model that would enable the Guardian to know its readers and treat them as individuals.
Industry
Media
Date delivered
2017-2018
Length of project
18 months
Solution provided
Understanding Customers, Deliver Personalisation at Scale, Connecting Customer Journeys, Measuring Incrementality, Managing Efficient Operations
The Project
It’s 2017. Newspaper subscriptions are dwindling. Online ad revenue is spread thin. GDPR is coming. While competitors erect paywalls, the Guardian commits to staying “available for everyone, funded by readers,” and they know customer centricity is the way to do it. This is where Tap CXM enters the story, contributing expertise in data strategy, martech, customer intelligence and people organisation to what would become a historic (and profitable) turnaround.
The Challenge
In an era of widespread content consumption and declining ad revenue, The Guardian needed to find new ways to engage readers and secure financial stability. Here’s what they faced in 2017:
- 30+ different sources of customer data.
- Millions of daily hits but no comprehensive data management model.
- Inability to identify and treat visitors as known prospects.
- Existing single customer view solution wasn’t GDPR compliant or scalable.
- Balancing privacy concerns with the need to track user behaviour.
- Monetising content without using paywalls.
Ultimately, the challenge was one of joining the dots. Data, technology architecture, people and processes needed to align, and readers needed to be the centre of everything.
After consulting widely within the Guardian, we developed a comprehensive strategy and implementation roadmap. It covered:
- Reader-centric data strategy
- Target operating models
- Architecture for distributing information to internal teams
- Technology requirements to deliver personalisation at scale
Our work laid out how the Guardian could evolve in the years ahead. It was essentially a playbook for re-organising around the reader, managing the massive amounts of data coming in, monetising good journalism, and deepening audience relationships.
The Guardian had a vision to know every visitor and treat them as individuals. There would be challenges – like cleaning the database to rebuild it post-GDPR – but the team was committed and pragmatic. What they’ve achieved is truly impressive.
Thomas Fordham, Co-Founder & COO, Tap CXM
Our proposed roadmap formed the framework for what would become the Guardian’s revolutionary contribution model. The final edit might look a little different, but our recommendations are there if you read between the lines. And the results are outstanding.
- £10m+ revenue growth in 5 years
- 560k recurring contributions
- 585k one-off contributions
- First profits in 20+ years for the paper’s parent company
Even the BBC called it “one of the most significant turnarounds in recent British media history.” We know that transforming a global organisation like the Guardian involves time, complexity and multiple evolutions. We’re proud to have played our part in the story.
