PROJECT JAMES – YOUR DIGITAL BUTLER

The Times provides news content from behind a paywall, therefore driving value from the subscription is key. Content consumption forms a key part of the engagement strategy and this brief was to use AI-driven models to build engagement from the newsletters, thus building out customer value, and reducing churn.

Project James – Your Digital Butler sees the use of AI technology to process current customer behaviour in order to predict the optimum content, frequency, format and time of send for 80,000 subscribers to the Times content emails.

Branding the initiative internally allowed different teams within News UK to join forces with Google, Twipe and Merkle in order to run the campaign. A clear proposition – James delivers tailored news content, at the right time, in the right format, with the right frequency – ensured approval with the Board.

Over the 34-week period of the project, engagement (opens and clicks) increased by 21%. However click through rate alone increased by 200%. Ultimately this led to a 49% reduction in churn.