Tabcorp wanted to increase their online customer engagement through a new Data Analytics strategy that would help the company deliver better experiences for customers amid rising competition in the wagering industry. Versor helped them achieve this and more through ‘Project Marty’.
About the Customer
Tabcorp is a world-class diversified gambling entertainment group, returning billions of dollars to the Australian community, the racing industry and venue partners including newsagents, hotels, clubs, and TAB agents. In 2018, Tabcorp wanted to increase their online customer engagement and provide better customer experiences through a new Data Analytics strategy that would help them in the face of rising competition within the wagering industry. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, this focus became more important than ever before and highlighted the need of having an effective Data Analytics strategy in this highly digitised world.
The Challenge
In 2018, the wagering market in Australia faced a substantial increase in competition, and aggressive marketing strategies, within the wagering industry. The new players were attracting customers away from Tabcorp’s traditional retail channels. The customer experience delivered by Tabcorp’s digital wagering offering (website, mobile apps) needed upgrading. The limitations of Tabcorp’s data platform to surface their customers’ prior behaviour hindered the ability to initiate up-sell or cross-sell opportunities. Their product promotions were the same for everyone, not personalised, and their Marketing Technology systems lacked connection and a holistic strategy to align them. Furthermore, the Tabcorp customer experience was inconsistent across online and mobile applications.
Faced with a fast paced and competitive market, Tabcorp recognised that there was a need to close the gap between themselves and their online competitors as a matter of priority. Doing so would allow them to compete effectively and be more successful in the future online market. The decision was made to engage Versor, who had significant capability and track record in the Data Analytics space.
The Approach and Solution
Versor and Tabcorp worked on an approach that would see Tabcorp adopt advanced analytics, adapt its business models, and establish specialist data science teams that would allow them to outpace the competition.
This work laid the foundation for ‘Project Marty’: A vehicle that would increase market share and drive medium to long term revenue creation opportunities. The outcomes of Project Marty were to be achieved by Tabcorp investing in new Data Analytics and Marketing Technology platforms. These new platforms would enable Tabcorp to capture customer data in a unified ecosystem and use advanced analytics to drive their marketing. As a result, Tabcorp would be able to personalise customer communications and go to market propositions, a successful and widely used strategy in the industry. Significantly, this shift would grant Tabcorp new ways of working to achieve speed and personalisation.
Once Tabcorp had accepted the Data Analytics strategy, Versor was engaged to deliver Project Marty. Within six months Tabcorp was already running its first personalised digital marketing campaign on their new platform.
The new platform consisted of a Customer Data Lake (AWS S3), a Data Science Platform (Databricks) as well as Single Customer View and Realtime Customer View cloud databases which underpinned the new Campaign Management Software (Adobe Campaign Manager).
In the two years since this initial launch, Versor and Tabcorp have continued to drive Project Marty with more sophisticated campaigns, proliferation of data science models, decommissioning of legacy marketing systems and extension of Digital Marketing capabilities. The extension of Digital Marketing capability included Australia’s first implementation of Adobe Experience Platform.
Versor helped ensure that Project Marty not only delivered a comprehensive, robust, cloud-based analytics and digital personalisation platform. Versor also advised on a new operating model and helped Tabcorp’s Wagering Leadership Team implement a culture that enabled Tabcorp to maximise the benefits afforded by the platform. Tabcorp Wagering’s marketing operating model is now based around cross functional squads with a customer-centric focus that requires continual use of customer data and data science to maximise return on marketing investment.
Versor played a key role in delivering our market leading, data science driven, personalised digital marketing capability.
Luke Waldron, EGM Customer, Marketing, VIP & Product
The Outcomes
Tabcorp’s move in 2018 towards a new Data Analytics strategy and the development of Project Marty was a pivotal move and highly important for creating greater business resilience, as two years later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit Australian shores. Traditional retail channel revenue was impacted, at the same time as online wagering demand grew as people who usually would place bets in person, looked toward alternative ways to engage in wagering during restrictions.
Project Marty was completed in June 2021. At that time, the project was credited with the generation of a material monthly incremental revenue as a direct result of the more personalised marketing offers and experience Tabcorp is now providing customers.
This revenue uplift is expected to only climb higher as machine learning data science models improve and data analytics shows Tabcorp new opportunities to optimise personalised customer journeys.
This new marketing capability has contributed largely to Tabcorp’s successful growth of its digital customer base. Tabcorp’s digital customer base grew by 15,000 (net) within the first year after initial launch, and an additional 26,000 (net) in the second year.
The new Data Analytics and Marketing Technology platforms developed by Versor helped Tabcorp to remain competitive and sustain this competitiveness through growth and the continual improvement of the platforms.
Versor provided technical expertise and leadership as well as helping to embed a culture of continuous learning and self-assessment. This maximised the return on investment in our Data Analytics Platform as we transitioned into new and enhanced ways of working.
Kirsty MacCulloch, GM of Customer and Digital
