Leading retailers use AI-powered campaigns to engage their most valuable customers
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 3:55 am
The evolution of holiday shopping from a 5-day extravaganza to a multi-seasonal event is reshaping the strategy of retailers around the world. While attracting early traffic is important, capturing quality traffic should be the top priority for brands looking to increase their profits.
But as channels continue to proliferate and blend, this can be a challenge. In response, many industry leaders are increasing their investment in AI-powered campaigns to engage high-spending consumers as they move across touchpoints.
One of them is Leon Wharton Hallen, singapore phone number material director of media and advertising at Dutch retailer Scotch & Soda. As he explains, “The 2022 holiday season had its challenges on a macro level. We see a shift in consumer sentiment, shoppers are looking for value early in the season, and customer acquisition costs are rising. Because not all traffic is created equal, we had to dig deeper to find the right customers across all channels and cut through the noise. AI helps us identify and reach shoppers who are ready to buy rather than those who are just browsing.”
Michelle Hernandez, Director of Omnichannel Digital Marketing at Deckers Brands, also relied on AI during the holiday season. According to Hernandez, “Awareness, consideration, and purchase are merging. Consumers are demanding that point of need and point of sale come together as part of their daily navigation across digital and physical channels. We doubled down on AI-powered campaigns to engage the biggest spenders no matter where they are.”
Hallen and Hernandez’s success is backed by recent McKinsey research , which confirms that the bottom-line value gained from AI remains strong and largely consistent. To unlock its full potential, however, companies must reimagine their business models and disrupt the way work is done. This can leave retailers at a crossroads: they are being asked to experiment with new and emerging ways to drive business value, while continuing to maintain stable profitability.
Fortunately, this shift doesn’t have to happen all at once. To break it down step by step, Google asked 12 industry leaders to explain how they gradually tested AI-powered campaigns to prepare for a successful holiday season.
These conversations helped identify four distinct phases, as well as gather key tips and strategies for success.
Step 1: Explore
The best way to get started with AI-powered campaigns is to commit to a starting point. Here are some proven ways to make room for experimentation.
Start testing new strategies early
In early 2022, French delivery service Chronopost decided to carefully test AI-powered campaigns just before the holiday season, when its B2B clients ship higher volumes of packages. This forward-thinking mindset paved the way to its success.
As explained by the brand's digital manager, Eva Bossy, "we multiplied our sales revenue by 85% and improved our profitability despite an uncertain economic scenario."
A line graph shows an 85% increase in sales revenue using AI-powered campaigns.
Don’t settle for “good enough”
Online retailer advertising through successful and profitable standard shopping campaigns, so the marketing team was initially hesitant to let AI help shape how its luxury brands appeared across channels. “But due to economic headwinds and increased competition, we knew AI-powered ads could give us an edge,” says CMO Michael Nadboy.
“A focus on pre- and post-analysis informed our decision to migrate key campaigns ahead of Cyber Five, and our strategy paid off. We were able to increase revenue by 40%.”
Base your hypotheses on prior learnings
To attract valuable customers in real time, North American retailer Michael's historically relied on proven solutions like broad match keywords, Smart Bidding , and responsive search ads . It learned lessons from these that it could use as a basis for future experimentation.
Kathleen Moler, Director of Media and Digital Marketing, says: “We were eager to experiment with multi-channel campaigns as the next iteration of AI-powered ads. Since our clients find inspiration across all digital channels, it makes sense for us to evolve with them and efficiently drive revenue.”
Step 2: Experiment
Rapid learning enables innovation. Here's how to foster a test-and-learn culture.
Find ways to fail safely and learn quickly
Scotch & Soda believes that experimenting with innovation is the best way to succeed and differentiate in a competitive environment. According to Hallen, “We tested new approaches in a controlled environment to quickly learn from failures and double down on what works, staying focused on the metrics that matter.” For example, when the primary success metric was revenue, “our experiments initially showed traffic was declining, but we let the test run, knowing that AI is about finding quality customers. In the end, we realized we were generating more revenue more efficiently.”
But as channels continue to proliferate and blend, this can be a challenge. In response, many industry leaders are increasing their investment in AI-powered campaigns to engage high-spending consumers as they move across touchpoints.
One of them is Leon Wharton Hallen, singapore phone number material director of media and advertising at Dutch retailer Scotch & Soda. As he explains, “The 2022 holiday season had its challenges on a macro level. We see a shift in consumer sentiment, shoppers are looking for value early in the season, and customer acquisition costs are rising. Because not all traffic is created equal, we had to dig deeper to find the right customers across all channels and cut through the noise. AI helps us identify and reach shoppers who are ready to buy rather than those who are just browsing.”
Michelle Hernandez, Director of Omnichannel Digital Marketing at Deckers Brands, also relied on AI during the holiday season. According to Hernandez, “Awareness, consideration, and purchase are merging. Consumers are demanding that point of need and point of sale come together as part of their daily navigation across digital and physical channels. We doubled down on AI-powered campaigns to engage the biggest spenders no matter where they are.”
Hallen and Hernandez’s success is backed by recent McKinsey research , which confirms that the bottom-line value gained from AI remains strong and largely consistent. To unlock its full potential, however, companies must reimagine their business models and disrupt the way work is done. This can leave retailers at a crossroads: they are being asked to experiment with new and emerging ways to drive business value, while continuing to maintain stable profitability.
Fortunately, this shift doesn’t have to happen all at once. To break it down step by step, Google asked 12 industry leaders to explain how they gradually tested AI-powered campaigns to prepare for a successful holiday season.
These conversations helped identify four distinct phases, as well as gather key tips and strategies for success.
Step 1: Explore
The best way to get started with AI-powered campaigns is to commit to a starting point. Here are some proven ways to make room for experimentation.
Start testing new strategies early
In early 2022, French delivery service Chronopost decided to carefully test AI-powered campaigns just before the holiday season, when its B2B clients ship higher volumes of packages. This forward-thinking mindset paved the way to its success.
As explained by the brand's digital manager, Eva Bossy, "we multiplied our sales revenue by 85% and improved our profitability despite an uncertain economic scenario."
A line graph shows an 85% increase in sales revenue using AI-powered campaigns.
Don’t settle for “good enough”
Online retailer advertising through successful and profitable standard shopping campaigns, so the marketing team was initially hesitant to let AI help shape how its luxury brands appeared across channels. “But due to economic headwinds and increased competition, we knew AI-powered ads could give us an edge,” says CMO Michael Nadboy.
“A focus on pre- and post-analysis informed our decision to migrate key campaigns ahead of Cyber Five, and our strategy paid off. We were able to increase revenue by 40%.”
Base your hypotheses on prior learnings
To attract valuable customers in real time, North American retailer Michael's historically relied on proven solutions like broad match keywords, Smart Bidding , and responsive search ads . It learned lessons from these that it could use as a basis for future experimentation.
Kathleen Moler, Director of Media and Digital Marketing, says: “We were eager to experiment with multi-channel campaigns as the next iteration of AI-powered ads. Since our clients find inspiration across all digital channels, it makes sense for us to evolve with them and efficiently drive revenue.”
Step 2: Experiment
Rapid learning enables innovation. Here's how to foster a test-and-learn culture.
Find ways to fail safely and learn quickly
Scotch & Soda believes that experimenting with innovation is the best way to succeed and differentiate in a competitive environment. According to Hallen, “We tested new approaches in a controlled environment to quickly learn from failures and double down on what works, staying focused on the metrics that matter.” For example, when the primary success metric was revenue, “our experiments initially showed traffic was declining, but we let the test run, knowing that AI is about finding quality customers. In the end, we realized we were generating more revenue more efficiently.”