Dentsu CXM Performance Overview: Prioritising personalisation, increasing transparency

As we conclude another year, it is essential to reflect on the key developments, challenges, and achievements that have shaped different sectors throughout the past 12 months. The year 2024 has been marked by dynamic shifts, rapid innovation, and the continued adaptation to both external factors and emerging trends.

Adgully’s annual feature – REWIND – revisits different sectors and identifies the key developments as well gauges the long-term impacts of those developments. We speak to a cross-section of industry leaders to bring a 360-degree view of the industry landscape, the growth trends, financial performance, disruptions, innovations, challenges and more.

In this Rewind 2024 article, Aksha Sachdev, Chief Experience Officer, Fractal Ink India; Ambarish Shendre, Vice President - Tech Strategy, CXM, dentsu India; and Amol Arekar, VP - CRM Campaigns, Merkle India, highlight the major trends and developments that shaped Customer Experience, Tech Strategy, Marketing Automation during the year...

Aksha Sachdev, Chief Experience Officer, Fractal Ink India

The Industry and Indian economy as a whole

This year, Experience Design brought users further closer to the products. It was a year of fostering inclusion, prioritising personalisation, increasing transparency and true product innovations beyond regular digitisation. Being the fastest growing economy, we also committed to delivering experiences faster than ever before, from quick commerce to ultra optimised financial services journeys. The primary aim was to do it faster and to remove frictions at every stage of the customer’s experience.

Customer Experience sector

Customer Experience or CX is defined as the experience an organization provides its customer at every touchpoint of interaction, throughout the customer’s journey and the lifecycle of the business relationship. And this, is what we specialise in helping our clients do – from defining and planning their entire CX roadmap, to designing and executing each intervention as a best-in-class experience.

Deep research, honed processes, a mind-set oriented towards innovation and very hard work combined with bursts of inspiration have enabled us to deliver compelling solutions consistently – some of which have become gold standards in industry.

Hot updates by industry

Retail & Consumer Products:

Commerce became truly quicker across categories.
The growing focus on Phygital and Omnichannel experiences has made brand simplify customer identification and mobilise an interrupted one customer experience.
Rewards and offers are no longer the only differentiator driving loyalty. Factors contributing to repeat usage include experience consistency across touchpoints, brands public image and values, focus on sustainability and speediness to resolve issues.
Increased uptake in AI led journeys which improved the product visualisation through virtual and augmented experiences.

BFSI:

The Neo banking way found its way into traditional banks. Streamlining the self- assisted user flows took priority, lowering dependency on human assistance.
Business and workbench transformations took focus, leading to further optimisation to the end customer journeys
Branches saw a face and experience uplift too with addition of interactive tools that further reduced the load on the tellers
WhatsApp integrations in financial services were a game changer for customer servicing and bot led journeys
Predictive personalised up and cross sell nudges became smarter and more accurate

Performance during 2024

The slow first half of the year was more than compensated by a buzzing second half. Innovation and upskilling were the two keywords of this year. We found ourselves challenged by complex user and business problems, which we helped solve with grace. Some of the noteworthy work:
Worked with a larger pharmaceutical in India to design a disease management mobile application with a connected device to administer at home treatments to oneself. A fully loaded experience that helped the user manage their disease, their diet, consultations, moods and improvement trajectory with utmost ease.
Collaborated with the Google and a make-up & skin care giant in India to bring their AI enabled skin assistant to life. Chat based journeys that helped users plan their skincare routines and find make up products shades most suited to their needs.
Worked closely with a government body in the Middle East to help transform services across municipal corporations’ purview to help businesses and citizens get ease of access to government facilities.
Partnered with a large NBFC is India in their endeavour to help optimise their customer journeys and enrich the self-assisted mobile experience from application to account management.
Helped build the interface for a generative AI tool that works as a task assistant to employees across various roles.

Ambarish Shendre, Vice President - Tech Strategy, CXM, dentsu India

The Industry and Indian economy as a whole

Strong digital transformation trends in the Financial Services Industry and FinTech primarily led by the adoption of mobile banking.
E-Commerce and Retail - robust growth in 2024, driven by increasing internet penetration, smartphone usage, and changing consumer behaviour. Online retail, particularly in fashion, electronics, and groceries saw sustained growth.
Digital transformation and cloud adoption remain key drivers, as demand for tech services continues to increase.
AI, machine learning, automation, and cybersecurity solutions and innovations across fintech, health, quick/e-commerce and enterprise solutions

Tech Strategy

Data & Analytics – Led by Customer Data Platforms that capture, organize, and analyse customer data across multiple touchpoints (website, social media, email, etc.), this is the most in-demand tech stack from the majority of customers.
Real-Time Analytics & Dashboards – Complimenting CDP from above, to track and measure key performance indicators (KPIs) like customer satisfaction (CSAT), net promoter score (NPS), Cost per acquisition (CPA), and customer lifetime value (CLV), etc. in real-time
AI & Machine Learning for Personalization – AI-driven personalization engines that use algorithms to predict customer preferences and behaviours, ensuring that the right content is delivered at the right time. Example models include creating segments/audiences, predicting future purchases or value, and determining brand/product affinity for conversions.
Omnichannel Marketing & Integration – Customers interact with brands across many touchpoints, from mobile apps to social media, to email, and in-store experiences. So, creating a cohesive omnichannel strategy that ensures a consistent and personalized experience across all platforms.
Chatbots & Conversational Marketing – AI-driven chatbots, WhatsApp bots, and conversational marketing platforms that handle basic customer queries, recommend products, and even complete transactions.

Key trends and developments

Real-Time Data Analytics & Customer Insights - is crucial for understanding customer behaviour, tracking interactions, and optimizing experiences in real time. Brands are using customer insights from various sources (web analytics, social media, customer feedback) to adjust their CX strategies quickly and effectively. These insights allow decisions about product offerings, promotions, and customer interactions, allowing for dynamic and real-time adjustments. Example: A company uses real-time analytics to determine that a certain promotional campaign is performing poorly, and adjusts it within hours to improve engagement, leading to a better customer experience and increased ROI.
Hyper-Personalization through AI & Machine Learning - The shift from broad-based marketing (segments, many, few) to hyper-targeted, individual-level (1:1) personalization continues to grow. AI-driven algorithms power real-time personalization across all touchpoints —websites, apps, emails, and even in-store. From personalized product recommendations to dynamic pricing models, the focus is on providing relevant content at precisely the right moment. Example: E-commerce websites using AI to display customized product suggestions based on browsing history, location, and purchasing patterns, making the shopping experience smoother and more relevant.
Omnichannel Marketing & Integration - Seamless integration of customer touchpoints across online and offline channels is a critical CXM trend Omnichannel marketing continues to evolve as businesses strive to offer a consistent, integrated experience across mobile apps, websites, social media, physical stores, and more. A shift is happening toward integrated platforms that allow businesses to collect data across all touchpoints in real time and engage with customers on multiple channels in a unified way. Example: A customer shopping online may seamlessly move to in-store shopping, with their preferences and cart items already available to the sales associate, thanks to integrated data and communication platforms.
Chatbots & Conversational Marketing - AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants are playing a larger role than just customer support. These tools are becoming smarter, handling more complex inquiries, and offering personalized assistance at scale. Chatbots and conversational AI are not just for answering basic FAQs anymore – they are assisting in complex transactions, troubleshooting, and even offering product recommendations. Example: A customer initiating a support query via a chatbot receives personalized recommendations based on their purchase history, and the chatbot seamlessly transfers the conversation to a live agent in real-time.

Performance during 2024

Merkle Sokrati has strategized multiple projects in the above domains/ areas, enhancing our client’s business goals and directly improving their own customer experiences.

Real-Time Data Analytics & Customer Insights – A large online commerce customer integrated its multiple brand data sources using batch and real-time streaming on the cloud data warehouse. Based on feature engineering and using cloud models, the customer could better understand their customer behaviour, and affinity towards certain products & brands resulting in 85% conversion accuracy and a 40% reduction in Cost per acquisition.
Hyper-Personalization through AI & Machine Learning – A health insurance company website is to use AI along with real-time CDP/CRM data to display individualized policy suggestions and offers, based on browsing history, location, and user behaviour patterns, besting the industry benchmark of website conversions.
Omnichannel Marketing & Integration – A jewellery retail chain allows its users to discover products and accessories online on its website and then convert its high-value users with a premium in-store experience. Conversely driving low-value customers from in-store to a pure digital-to-customer journey conversion. It’s also re-activating its dormant customer base by analysing past channels' performance, and drop-off reasons, and re-target customers with a propensity model for re-purchasing with their preferred channel/ product.
Chatbots & Conversational Marketing – An automotive major by using a combination of strategic QR codes and WhatsApp bot user journey converted almost 1 million user records from unknown users to known users. This further improved downstream processes like campaign marketing and conversions by taking into consideration the known users’ preferences while planning these campaigns.

Amol Arekar, VP - CRM Campaigns, Merkle India

The Industry and Indian economy as a whole

In 2024, AI and machine learning (ML) have played a pivotal role in marketing automation in India. These technologies enable businesses to analyze large volumes of data, segment audiences, predict customer behaviour, and deliver highly personalized marketing content. The use of AI-driven chatbots for customer service and lead nurturing is rapidly growing, with companies utilizing these tools for both reactive support and proactive sales engagement.

Marketing automation is no longer confined to large enterprises or e-commerce giants. Even smaller businesses in sectors like real estate, travel, education, healthcare, and financial services are adopting marketing automation solutions. These tools help businesses of all sizes streamline their operations, improve customer engagement, and optimize marketing strategies, driving growth across various industries in India.

Marketing Automation

In 2024, hyper-personalization became a key trend in marketing automation, driven by AI, big data, and real-time analytics. Businesses leveraged these technologies to deliver highly tailored experiences, from dynamic product recommendations on e-commerce sites to personalised email marketing campaigns. Dynamic content delivery allowed offers and content to be adjusted based on individual preferences, browsing history, and engagement patterns. Email campaigns saw increased customisation, with subject lines, content, and offers tailored to each recipient. However, challenges remained:

Data Privacy Concerns: Stricter regulations like India’s Personal Data Protection Bill (PDPB) and GDPR require businesses to ensure compliance when handling customer data.
Complex Integrations: Companies with legacy systems faced difficulties integrating new automation tools, resulting in longer implementation times and higher costs.

Despite these challenges, the growth of marketing automation continues to empower businesses to provide more personalized, proactive, and seamless customer experiences, shaping the future of marketing and driving more effective and efficient business operations.

Key trends and developments

The integration of marketing automation with Customer Experience (CX) tools became more widespread in 2024, as businesses realized the importance of creating a seamless connection between marketing, sales, and customer support.

Unified Customer Data: By integrating CRM and customer service tools with marketing automation, businesses could gain a unified view of each customer’s interactions, preferences, and purchase history, leading to more tailored and proactive marketing efforts.
CX-Driven Campaigns: Marketing automation platforms are increasingly integrated with CX tools to help brands improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention through personalised experiences.

Performance during 2024

AI-powered tools to map out customer journeys and recommend tailored marketing strategies at each stage of the customer lifecycle, helping brands stay ahead of the competition.
Enhanced Compliance Features: Rolling out compliance tools within the platform to help businesses manage customer consent, track data usage, and ensure transparency in data collection practices.
Data Encryption and Security: Implementing advanced security protocols for customer data, ensuring that marketing automation campaigns were not only effective but also safe and compliant with legal frameworks.
Generative AI for Creative Content: Introducing AI-driven tools that generate creative assets for marketing campaigns, including images, videos, and written copy, allowing businesses to quickly produce highly personalized content.

Also Read: Digital, hyper-personalization drove CXM Engineering in Dentsu in 2024