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

The Philippines is a nation of contrasts. It is one of the most populous countries in Asia with an average annual family income of US$4,783 but sends more text messages than any other nation on earth. Along with the 88.5 million local inhabitants there are 11 million expatriates spread around the globe. It is also the home to ABS-CBN Corporation, the Philippines largest media and entertainment conglomerate that has embraced sophisticated data analytics to boost the efficiency and effectiveness of its marketing to Filipinos across the world.

“Our lines of business in free-to-air television, cable television, broadband and telecommunications have typically operated marketing campaigns in isolation,’ said 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. Even within each division we followed a one-offer- for-all strategy. We just didn’t have the customer.

The Portrait Customer Analytics solution was implemented initially to focus on churn reduction for the ABS-CBN telecommunications carrier, Bayan. Using customer data including profile, transaction and behavioral data, certain variables were identified as having significant influence on attrition.

‘By modelling 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. Analytic insight allowed us to prioritize effort and delivered an incredibly significant reduction in churn,’ stated Bulaong. Similar analysis of cable subscribers found a strong correlation between likelihood to churn and absence of value-added services. No value-added services meant an extremely high churn rate.

‘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.’ Influences on cross-sales success for the Sky Cable cable television business were also investigated. With 64 channels, ABS-CBN's effort focused on finding the ideal channel mix for each customer and the most successful priority order for offers. Portrait Customer Analytics revealed the best next channel to be offered to each subscriber based on previous purchases and purchase patterns of similar customers, delivering an increase in conversion rate. ‘Propensity modelling was used to assist in cross-sales opportunities across divisions,’ commented Bulaong. ‘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. ‘We were able to replicate the success of the cross-sell propensity model for different divisions, each time providing a target segment that produced more sales for reduced effort,’ said Bulaong.

While the program using Portrait Customer Analytics has been a success, ABS-CBN is continually monitoring models, customer behaviors and possible changes in variable importance over time. ‘Continuous improvement and testing are necessary,’ stated Bulaong. ‘The Portrait solution makes ongoing tweaks and refinement easy. You must keep moving with your customers even if they number in the millions.