BMO Perfect Match

Medals Won

• 🥇 GOLD – Best Use of 1st Party Data
• 🥈 SILVER – Best Use of Email

Campaign Overview

BMO faced a critical challenge: its credit cardholders were silently switching to competitor cards, resulting in a $1 billion annual loss in spending. Traditional retention offers were proving ineffective, so BMO needed a fresh approach to retain top-of-wallet positioning.

The Perfect Match campaign redefined retention by putting the customer first. Using instant progressive profiling, it asked a single question—“Are you happy with your BMO credit card?”—and used the response to drive personalized credit card recommendations. The initiative simplified the switching process, making it seamless and intuitive for customers to find their perfect card match.

Creative Concept

The campaign’s simplicity and customer-centric approach stood out:

• Human Touch: The email’s conversational tone and lack of aggressive sales content built trust and encouraged engagement.
• Dynamic Personalization: Over 400 communication pathways were created based on customer responses, matching users with the most suitable BMO card.
• Effortless Journey: Customers completed the entire process—questionnaire, card recommendation, and card switch—in just three clicks.

Execution Strategy

1. Data Integration: Combined real-time responses with existing customer data to create hyper-personalized journeys.
2. Multi-Touch Communication: Deployed triggered emails, reminders, and a dynamic microsite through Salesforce Marketing Cloud to keep customers engaged.
3. Progressive Profiling: Collected valuable insights to tailor offers, ensuring relevance and higher engagement.

Impact and Results

The campaign set a new benchmark for retention at BMO:

• 15.6% transfer rate, exceeding the target by 8x.
• 50% increase in balances for customers who switched, achieving 10x the objective.
• First email click-through rate of 21%, against an industry benchmark of 2%.
• Adoption of the program as BMO’s primary credit card retention strategy, with expectations for long-term impact on customer satisfaction and retention.

Why It Worked

The BMO Perfect Match campaign prioritized understanding customer needs, leveraging first-party data to deliver relevant and personalized solutions. By combining simplicity with innovation, it transformed a retention challenge into a customer-centric success story, strengthening BMO’s brand loyalty and business outcomes.