Albert Heijn is a prominent Dutch retailer and supermarket chain, widely recognized for its role in shaping the Dutch grocery industry. Founded in 1887, it has grown into one of the country's largest and most popular supermarket chains, with a vast network of stores across the Netherlands and Belgium.

When you enter an Albert Heijn store, you’ll find everything you need, from daily groceries to fresh produce and household essentials. The brand is known for its emphasis on quality, convenience, and innovation, with services like online shopping and home delivery, which have revolutionized Dutch shopping habits.

As the holiday season approaches, we have embarked on a quest to craft unforgettable Christmas experiences with Albert Heijn.

Challenge

Albert Heijn’s mission is simple: to be the go-to supermarket for all things Christmas. They aim to offer a diverse range of products, an exceptional shopping experience, and a genuine connection with their customers that captures the essence of the season.

To achieve this, and also cater to the customer’s needs, we created a creative and innovative email campaign that combines inspiration, personalization, ease of use, loyalty, and experience design. Our Christmas campaign not only resonated with customers but also earned us a 2023 Marigold award.

We measured website traffic using the click-through rate (CTR), with a target of achieving a 10% higher CTR compared to average campaigns. Additionally, we gauged customer sentiment, aiming for a positivity ratio of at least 70%.

Within the commercial heartbeat of the holiday season at Albert Heijn, we used this campaign to inspire and prepare customers for a magical Christmas. Sending not one, but two Christmas emails, allowed us to engage our customers at various times and through diverse approaches, effectively igniting their Christmas spirit.

Services
Experience and Product Design, Activation, CX Strategy , Engagement & Loyalty

Industry
Retail & Consumer goods

Market
The Netherlands

Approach

Email 1: "Bring the Magic of Christmas Home"

The first email served as an inspiration to the customers, encouraging them to embrace the Christmas spirit. The mail was centered around igniting the Christmas feeling on December 6th, coinciding with the day when Albert Heijn stores underwent the complete Christmas-themed transformation, and their Christmas TV commercial was broadcast. 

This email included:

• A play button: "Turn on Christmas"
• A hotspot: "Christmas ornaments in the Christmas tree“
• Feedback: "Christmas bauble, festive feedback"

View an image of the full email here.

Email 2: "Are You Ready for a Magical Christmas?"

In the second email, our primary focus was on inspiring customers to create exquisite dishes for their Christmas dinner, whether made from scratch or with a little help from Albert Heijn. This email prominently featured the products from Albert Heijn’s Christmas collection and offered creative Christmas recipes, catering to various budgets.

This email included:

• A music element
• A slider with a personalized Christmas menu
• GIF animation

View an image of the full email here.

Results

Our goal was to achieve a positivity ratio of 70%, and we successfully achieved an impressive 73%, surpassing the general average by 20%.

Notably, the older the customer, the more engagement, higher positivity, and lower unsubscribe rates were observed. The overall experience design and interactive features contributed to this higher positivity ratio and stimulated positive feedback.

Email 1: "Bring the Magic of Christmas Home"

This email performed exceptionally well among Albert Heijn’s most loyal customers and surprisingly also resonated with less loyal customers, boasting a high positivity ratio averaging nearly 70%. Customer feedback included comments like “Fun and surprising!” and “Creative!”. Additionally, the email outperformed our expectations in our tertiary customer group.

Email 2: "Are You Ready for a Magical Christmas?"

This email showcased Albert Heijn's delightful Christmas collection and recipes, drawing various customer segments to different sections of the email. Customers in the higher budget segment clicked more on premium products, while those in lower budget segments were more inclined towards other highlighted products. The email performed exceptionally well, with a notable spike in our secondary customer group, where sentiment was 20% higher than the average. Customers expressed their appreciation for the high-quality information and inspiration through their written feedback.

Personalization

As Christmas is a holiday meant for collective celebration, customers had the convenience of adapting the recipes in the email to cater to various categories or preferences. Within this email, we introduced dynamic content tailored for vegetarian readers. The vegetarian prediction model increased engagement and achieved a 40% higher average click rate than in other groups.

This campaign exceeded expectations, emphasizing the value of personalization and technology in enhancing the overall customer experience.