Sotheby’s transformed customer engagement, driving digital growth and a 69% boost in social reach with Twilio Segment

Results

As a venerable institution in the global art and luxury commerce sector dating back to 1744, Sotheby’s faced a complex challenge in modernizing its services. This journey involved navigating issues ranging from technology integration to preserving its esteemed brand identity. 

Fragmented customer data hindered personalized engagement, while inefficiencies in data management impacted strategic decision-making. Scaling personalized experiences for clientele also became difficult, highlighting the need for a balance between scalability and personalization.

Sotheby’s implemented Segment with the guidance of Gangverk, their digital transformation partner, to centralize the auction house’s customer data, offering a complete view of its diverse consumer base, providing deeper insights into customer needs, preferences, and behaviors, and enabling personalized engagement strategies that resonated with Sotheby's exclusive clientele.

Fragmented data and inefficient data management led to missed opportunities to craft customized customer interactions

Sotheby’s technological issues were deeply at odds with the core of Sotheby's brand identity. Disjointed data led to an incomplete understanding of customer preferences and behaviors. This fragmentation resulted in missed opportunities for personalized engagement and tailored service offerings, crucial in the high-stakes world of art commerce. 

Furthermore, the lack of a streamlined process for data activation impacted Sotheby's ability to leverage insights for strategic decision-making. This inefficiency affected marketing efforts, customer service, and ultimately, the ability to innovate and stay competitive. In addition, maintaining the exclusive, personalized experience that Sotheby's clientele expected became increasingly challenging. The era of technology demands scalability without sacrificing the personal touch – a balance hard to strike with siloed data and outdated systems.

Data unification led to deeper customer insights and greater personalization

Sotheby’s implementation of Segment addressed these challenges head-on. By centralizing customer data, Segment provided a singular, reliable view of Sotheby's diverse, global customer base. This unification allowed for deeper insights into customer needs, preferences, and behaviors, enabling personalized engagement strategies that resonated with Sotheby's clientele. Segment's integration streamlined the data management process, enhancing operational efficiency and ultimately improving their bottom line. 

This improvement facilitated a quicker, more agile response to market trends and customer demands, ensuring Sotheby's could adapt its offerings in real time to meet the high expectations of its clients. As a result,  Sotheby's was better able to deliver personalized customer experiences at scale. Through the detailed insights provided by Segment, Sotheby's could craft customized interactions for each customer, ensuring the brand's hallmark service and personal touch were maintained across digital platforms.

Sotheby’s strategic integration of Segment yielded remarkable results

Sotheby’s has seen profound success across the board by enhancing digital engagement, expanding its platform, and improving the overall customer experience. Integrating various data sources into a single platform has provided a clearer and more actionable understanding of customer behaviors, paving the way for streamlined data governance and ensuring compliance and data integrity.

The focus on digital transformation has allowed Sotheby’s to develop targeted engagement strategies informed by deep insights into customer preferences, leading to a significant increase in user interactions. This is evidenced by a notable rise in bids through its website and app, reflecting increased customer participation and engagement in auctions.

Since 2017, Sotheby's social media presence has grown by 69%, reaching over 2.8 million followers, a testament to the effectiveness of using unified customer data to bolster digital media strategies and engage audiences. Leveraging a comprehensive understanding of audience preferences and behaviors, Sotheby’s successfully integrated first-party customer data with its expertise in sales and consignment categories. This strategic approach allowed them to target and market to more precisely qualified audiences, significantly enhancing their fanbase growth on social media platforms.

Additionally, the increase in onsite registrations by 15%, driven by engagement with editorial content, underscores the value of personalized content in converting interest into action. Email registrants alone have contributed over $1 billion in annual spending, demonstrating the substantial financial impact of targeted, data-driven email marketing.

The art of understanding and engaging with customers

The successful deployment of Segment, facilitated by Gangverk’s services, signifies a milestone in Sotheby's journey towards digital excellence, affirming the critical role of a unified customer data platform in dismantling data silos and achieving comprehensive customer insights. 

This transformation highlights the direct correlation between personalized, data-driven customer engagement strategies and measurable improvements in digital and platform growth. 

By effectively breaking down data silos and unifying customer data, Sotheby's placed a winning bid on personalized customer experience, elevating the brand to new heights.