Treating millions of customers as individuals: ABS-CBN Group of Companies embraces Customer Analytics

The Philippines is a land of contrasts, where modernity and tradition blend seamlessly. It’s one of the most populous countries in Asia, with an average annual family income of just $4,783, yet it holds the distinction of sending more text messages than any other nation in the world. With a population of over 88.5 million people, and an additional 11 million Filipinos living abroad, this dynamic country presents a unique challenge for businesses looking to engage with its highly diverse audience. The solution? Customer analytics is a sophisticated tool that has transformed how ABS-CBN interacts with Filipinos, both locally and globally.

For ABS-CBN Corporation, the Philippines' largest media and entertainment conglomerate, this challenge was multiplied by its vast reach. Operating across multiple platforms including free-to-air television, cable TV, broadband, and telecommunications, the company needed to find new ways to engage and retain its vast audience. 

The Need for Unified Marketing Across Divisions

“Our lines of business in free-to-air television, cable television, broadband, and telecommunications have typically operated marketing campaigns in isolation,” explains Ichay Bulaong, Head of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) at ABS-CBN. “The same customers were getting multiple marketing offers from different ABS-CBN divisions, but there was no centralized orchestration.”

The issue was clear: despite having a massive customer base, ABS-CBN’s marketing efforts were fragmented. Each division operated in silos, sending out offers to the same customers, often without any cohesion or personalization. To add to the complexity, each division followed a “one-offer-for-all” strategy, meaning they treated their entire audience as a homogenous group, neglecting the individual preferences and behaviors of their subscribers.

It was clear that ABS-CBN needed a more streamlined and personalized approach to marketing—and that’s where customer analytics came in.

How Customer Analytics Transformed ABS-CBN’s Marketing Strategy

ABS-CBN decided to implement the Portrait Customer Analytics solution, a powerful tool allowing them to tap into their rich customer data and deliver personalized marketing campaigns. The initial focus was on churn reduction for ABS-CBN’s telecommunications division, Bayan, where customer attrition was a major issue.

By analyzing customer data—such as profiles, transaction history, and behavioral patterns—the team was able to identify key variables that influenced attrition. These insights allowed ABS-CBN to create a churn prediction model, assigning a score to each customer based on their likelihood of leaving the service.

“By modeling those variables for every phone customer and assigning a score for each, we were able to proactively engage those most likely to churn with relevant marketing action,” said Bulaong. “The analytic insight allowed us to prioritize efforts and delivered an incredibly significant reduction in churn.”

In short, customer analytics provided ABS-CBN with a roadmap to prioritize its marketing efforts, targeting at-risk customers with personalized campaigns designed to retain their business. This approach not only reduced churn but also made their marketing efforts more efficient.

The Power of Value-Added Services in Retention

While the initial focus was on the telecommunications division, ABS-CBN quickly realized that the insights gained from customer analytics could be applied across all their business units. One of the key findings was a strong correlation between churn and the absence of value-added services.

“Even among those who churn, those with value-added services stayed significantly longer,” commented Bulaong. “It became obvious that strategies to encourage adoption of value-added services would have a hugely positive effect on churn.”

With this insight, ABS-CBN began to promote value-added services across their divisions, encouraging customers to subscribe to premium channels, exclusive content, or bundled services. The result was a significant reduction in churn across all platforms, as customers who engaged with value-added services were far less likely to leave.

Cross-Selling Opportunities: Optimizing the Channel Mix

Beyond retention, customer analytics also opened new doors for cross-selling opportunities, particularly for ABS-CBN’s cable television business, Sky Cable. With over 64 channels to offer, the challenge was to find the ideal channel mix for each customer and the most effective priority order for offering new channels.

Using Portrait Customer Analytics, ABS-CBN was able to identify the “next best channel” to offer each subscriber based on their viewing habits and the purchase patterns of similar customers. This data-driven approach led to a marked increase in conversion rates, as customers were offered channels that truly matched their interests.

“Propensity modeling was used to assist in cross-sales opportunities across divisions,” Bulaong added. “The model provided insight into the likelihood of subscribers to buy a second product and identified a target segment six times more likely to purchase.”

This predictive modeling approach was replicated across multiple divisions, consistently identifying high-probability target segments and leading to more sales with less effort. In essence, customer analytics turned cross-selling into a science, allowing ABS-CBN to offer the right product to the right customer at the right time.

Continuous Optimization: The Key to Long-Term Success

While ABS-CBN has seen impressive results from its customer analytics efforts, the company understands that this is not a “set it and forget it” strategy. Customer behaviors evolve over time, and the variables that influence churn, cross-sales, and engagement can change as well.

“Continuous improvement and testing are necessary,” Bulaong emphasized. “The Portrait solution makes ongoing tweaks and refinement easy. You must keep moving with your customers, even if they number in the millions.”

ABS-CBN is committed to continually monitoring and adjusting its models to ensure that its marketing efforts remain as effective as possible. This proactive approach to customer analytics ensures that the company stays ahead of the curve, responding to changing customer behaviors and market trends in real-time.

Conclusion: The Future of Customer Engagement with Analytics

The journey of ABS-CBN illustrates the transformative power of customer analytics in shaping modern marketing strategies. By leveraging advanced data analytics, the company has successfully streamlined its marketing efforts, reduced churn, increased cross-sales, and improved customer engagement across its diverse platforms.

In a world where customer preferences are constantly changing, the ability to understand and anticipate these shifts is invaluable. With customer analytics at the core of its strategy, ABS-CBN is well-positioned to continue delivering personalized, relevant, and timely marketing to millions of Filipinos around the world.

As businesses increasingly look to data-driven solutions to enhance their marketing efforts, ABS-CBN’s success offers a powerful case study on the impact of customer analytics. Whether it’s reducing churn, optimizing cross-sell opportunities, or continually adapting to customer behavior, the future of customer engagement lies in the ability to harness the power of data and analytics.

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