For a digital-first hospitality brand that seats more than 1.5 billion diners per year, reaching customers with data-driven, tailored, relevant messaging across mobile and desktop is essential for OpenTable, as they maintain their status as an industry leader.
And while they were successful in sending automated personalized messages across email and push, the team knew they could be even more data-driven, personalized, and time efficient. However, like many brands, OpenTable faced several challenges.
The team was sending hundreds of millions of emails and push notifications monthly, but only 10 percent of those were automated. Large datasets led to long, daily data latency and heavy production costs.
That’s when OpenTable turned to MessageGears to help reduce costs and scale its engagement marketing efforts, and saw tremendous results:
50% reduction in MarTech spend
Thanks to a more streamlined tech stack
70% higher conversion rate
With targeted campaigns layered with customizable metadata
80% reduction in campaign production time
Because of better segmentation, templates, and QA processes
0% dependency on daily data syncs
The marketing team gained a lot of autonomy with far less reliance on the tech team
The Challenge
- Four to six hours were spent waiting for data refreshes
- Complicated MarTech required frequent vendor intervention which created inefficiencies and slowed down our email process
- A small team with big goals
The Solution
- Replaced OpenTable’s legacy cloud-based ESP with MessageGears’ hybrid solution
- Installed MessageGears with a direct connection to OpenTable’s Snowflake data warehouse
- Quickly and easily migrated legacy campaigns to MessageGears and launched on the new platform
The Outcome
- With data stored in Snowflake, the OpenTable engagement marketing team builds campaigns and audience segmentation within the MessageGears environment, launching on their own timeline.
- The marketing team can do more on their own, with less dependence on OpenTable’s tech team.
- Clearly defined roles have created better ownership and improved team morale.
- Improved processes helped free up time and resources that were used to put valuable new automations in place.
~ John Tsou, OpenTable’s VP of Marketing
Faster Campaigns
- OpenTable has seen an 80% reduction in production time
- Using new content modules, the team can take OpenTable’s approved design and copy and paste blocks of whatever components they want. There’s no more going back through approvals. When a campaign is redesigned, updated modules roll out anywhere that module touches a template.
- Simplified QA saves valuable time and reduces errors.
Streamlined Tech Stack
- OpenTable reduced MarTech spend by 50%
- Each year during Restaurant Week, OpenTable supports multiple global events featuring communications with dynamic content, different dates, and different price points. Previously, some communications were automated but now, with MessageGears, they’re able to create one dynamic template that runs daily without any team intervention.
- MessageGears provides OpenTable with better metadata in the event export that comes back into Snowflake, enhancing analytic capabilities.
Easier to Communicate Value
- Better access to data insights helped the engagement marketing team identify opportunities.
- The cost savings allowed OpenTable to bring on two new team members to help focus in the areas that their improved data helped identify for improvement.
- With a new team structure, OpenTable is able to better communicate across global teams, helping plan in advance for upcoming campaigns and any extra resources they may need.
~ John Tsou, OpenTable’s VP of Marketing
Making the Most of Small Teams
Learn even more about how OpenTable was able to do more with less using MessageGears. Check out OpenTable’s full presentation at the Email Insider Summit.
