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All the clubs in one bag

All the clubs in one bag

How Acxiom built a single customer view for Golf Digest

If you play the sport of golf, you have more than likely interacted with Golf Digest, which launched its print publication in 1950. The glossy cover has featured legends of the links like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods. For decades, Golf Digest has provided an authoritative perspective on the game of golf and the superstars of the PGA. 

Since 1950, golfers have vigorously adopted new technologies and equipment to improve their game. Golf Digest has also evolved with the times, becoming an innovative online and mobile brand. Today, what was once a popular newsstand magazine now reaches millions of golf fans with everything associated with the game, including instructional videos, equipment advice, course rankings, travel destinations, online bookings and more.

The Golf Digest team faced the challenge of continuing to deliver the highest quality content in print and digital platforms while also building new revenue streams. In addition, Golf Digest wanted to make the understanding of its audience more actionable through data enhancement, identity consolidation, and applicability with multiple partners and platforms connected to the data warehouse.

Fortunately, Golf Digest had Acxiom for their trusted data caddy, building a single view of the customer and an industry-first ability to communicate with (and delight) the golf audience. 

We started with our own version of the Master’s

Golf Digest needed to put all of its clubs into one bag. Acxiom and the Golf Digest team built a Master Data Warehouse (MDW) to replace the existing data environment. The MDW is now a cloud-based solution with Acxiom managing the ongoing support for the MDW under a managed services agreement. 

Source systems and application integrations now work with the MDW. As part of the solution Acxiom also provided data quality and hygiene services to clean, standardize, and complete customer personas to ensure accuracy to elevate engagement, deliver consistent experiences across channels, reduce waste, and improve deliverability. 

A solution in three strokes

  • We enriched Golf Digest’s first-party data with descriptive and predictive data to better understand the needs, wants and preferences of the subscriber base and prospect audience.
  • Acxiom’s Real Identity™ resolved consumer data points and gained insights about the customer journey and activated those insights across channels to deliver a truly customer-centric experience.
  • Acxiom’s enterprise data management framework created an omnichannel view for Golf Digest strategists and marketers to connect the martech and adtech ecosystems. It leveraged cutting-edge cloud architecture to solve for how the company wanted to acquire, engage, and retain customers — and measure the incremental results of its marketing campaigns. 

Turning in the scorecard 

At the launch of this project, Chris Reynolds, senior vice president and general manager for Golf Digest, searched for a partner to build a solution that fit budget constraints, provided enhanced capabilities, and was able to manage multiple sources  of data and provide a best-in-class understanding of the golf audience. He found that in Acxiom.

“This has truly elevated Golf Digest’s business,” says Chris. “The evolution of our data strategy, in partnership with Acxiom, has taken a huge step forward compared to where we were 15 or 20 years ago when our data infrastructure was established. The enhancements Acxiom has made to our platforms is helping us delight our audiences no matter where they interact with our brand.

“A single view of the customer and the ability to integrate the data across platforms gives us a competitive advantage that will help bring the brand to a new level. This seamless ability to build, execute, evaluate, and optimize our business lets us get products into the market faster and with better results than we could have possibly expected in the past. It also puts the insight and understanding in the hands of the team members, allowing them to better deliver the products and experiences our customers demand and deserve.” 

Want to learn more? Read our recent case study to see how it can help you gain valuable insights.