Global Head of CRM at JustEat, Marie Feliho, shares with us how use of data has evolved throughout her career, the future of email, and how the skills needed to be an effective marketer are changing. *Hosted by Taylor Gibb and PJ Bruno LIVE at LTR 2019*

 

 

 

TRANSCRIPT:

[0:00:19]

PJ Bruno: And we're back again.

 

[0:00:20]

Marie Feliho: Jason. Jason.

 

[0:00:21]

PJ Bruno: Braze for Impact, your MarTech Industry discuss digest. I'm PJ Bruno. So thrilled to be here today with our guest, Marie Feliho, Global Head of CRM at Just Eat. Marie, thanks for being here.

 

[0:00:33]

Marie Feliho: Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Short notice. And to my right, very good friend, confidant, coworker from our success org, Taylor Gibb.

 

[0:00:41]

Taylor Gibb: Happy to be a confidant and very happy to be joining today.

 

[0:00:45]

PJ Bruno: And a friend.

 

[0:00:46]

Taylor Gibb: And a friend. Yeah, that's what comes first I think.

 

[0:00:48]

PJ Bruno: I think so too.

 

[0:00:48]

Taylor Gibb: And then you can confide in me. You know, any of you guys.

 

[0:00:52]

Marie Feliho: I really want to join that love that-

 

[0:00:54]

PJ Bruno: Oh, you're in. You're in.

 

[0:00:55]

Taylor Gibb: You're in.

 

[0:00:56]

PJ Bruno: You're in the bubble. When you're in the booth you're family.

 

[0:01:00]

Taylor Gibb: When you're in the booth you're a confidant. And so we're here-

 

[0:01:00]

Marie Feliho: Okay, good.

 

[0:01:00]

Taylor Gibb: Is that Olive Garden?

 

[0:01:02]

PJ Bruno: Shh. No. She doesn't know Olive Garden commercials. She's not from this country.

 

[0:01:06]

Taylor Gibb: Oh shoot. Oh that's right. I forgot.

 

[0:01:07]

Marie Feliho: Okay. I see.

 

[0:01:09]

Taylor Gibb: That's totally original.

 

[0:01:10]

PJ Bruno: So this is another episode from our humanity series. And as part of the humanity series, we're just here to talk about what makes your automation, your MarTech stack, whatever you may call it, your personalization, what makes it human. We decided to not do much structuring with this. So we're just going to freewheel and deal it. What do you think Taylor?

 

[0:01:30]

Taylor Gibb: I think that's great.

 

[0:01:32]

PJ Bruno: Marie, what do you think?

 

[0:01:33]

Marie Feliho: I think that's a perfect plan.

 

[0:01:34]

PJ Bruno: That sounds like the most human thing to me.

 

[0:01:36]

Taylor Gibb: The best plan is no plan.

 

[0:01:38]

PJ Bruno: Well, let's hear first about your journey that brought you to Just Eat, Marie. Was it always marketing technology prior to or have you coasted around?

 

[0:01:47]

Marie Feliho: For most of my career really I've been working with data and creativity. So sort of started, I started in advertising, a little bit of media. And then I sort of discovered database marketing, which sort of sounds a little bit dry like that, but actually you can be super creative with that and really sort of think about the ways of turning data into useful stuff for people.

 

[0:02:18]

PJ Bruno: Was it like that when you came to the game? Just because now data and creativity, like you need them to coexist, but I feel like there was a time when they were separate houses.

 

[0:02:29]

Marie Feliho: Feels like it was a long time ago now, back in 2005.

 

[0:02:31]

PJ Bruno: We need to say, okay you did it.

 

[0:02:34]

Taylor Gibb: When red flag-

 

[0:02:35]

Marie Feliho: Back in 2005, so I sort of really got into it when I joined a global company called AIMIA. They used to have the Nectar card. The Nectar card is a loyalty program. It's a coalition program that brings together a whole lot of retailers, physical retailers, but also [inaudible] and you earn points every time you buy something.

 

[0:02:58]

PJ Bruno: Gotcha.

 

[0:02:58]

Taylor Gibb: It's still around, right?

 

[0:03:00]

Marie Feliho: Yeah, it's still around. Yeah. Yeah.

 

[0:03:02]

Taylor Gibb: Ah, I had that when I was still in London. I am not the only one who hasn't been to London here. I was [crosstalk]

 

[0:03:06]

Marie Feliho: Yeah, yeah. And back then it was a, now you find a lot of those cards but back then was quite pioneering. And I suppose it was very much leveraging all the data that we got from customers. Can you imagine with like, I think we had about 20 different retailers, half of the UK households had the card. So a lot of data to play with. And at Nectar, it was already the way things were, as in you had to think about how to use your data in a way that was personalized and that could really make a difference in driving incremental revenue for the partners who were a part of it.

 

[0:03:38]

PJ Bruno: Gotcha.

 

[0:03:39]

Marie Feliho: And what it didn't want to see was what they could do. You had to be creative with the way you were using it.

 

[0:03:44]

PJ Bruno: And back then it was a little more analog, right?

 

[0:03:46]

Marie Feliho: Yes.

 

[0:03:46]

PJ Bruno: Because today it's all stitched together-

 

[0:03:48]

Marie Feliho: Yes. Absolutely.

 

[0:03:48]

PJ Bruno: ... It's triggered. You were like looking at data and trying to make decisions.

 

[0:03:52]

Marie Feliho: Exactly. And it was a lot more sort of DM based, like paper-based. Yeah. That was the big difference back then. It was definitely less images, sort of action trigger. It wasn't based on all these people buy these and this is what they like. And so-

 

[0:04:06]

PJ Bruno: Time to value was just a different game back then.

 

[0:04:08]

Marie Feliho: Yeah. Yeah, it was a completely. So I would say that this is probably the biggest difference to a few years ago when I started.

 

[0:04:14]

PJ Bruno: And so you've been at Just Eat for?

 

[0:04:16]

Marie Feliho: So I've been at Just Eat a year. And when I look back at all the stuff we've done, it already feels like I've been there for like five really. My role there at Just Eat is very much around the transformation in our customer engagement strategy. So with all these data we wanted to make sure that we were just moving away from just doing email marketing and a little bit of push because that is not what customer engagement is. The guys were already doing quite a lot of personalization but it wasn't really, it was about taking to the next level, bringing it to a multichannel, ensuring that there was a cohesion between what we're doing when we're sending comes to customers and what they were experiencing when they came to the product. So it's been about breaking down the way we're used to working and bringing people together. And when I look at how much we have done in such a short period of time, yeah, I'm very impressed. And it sort of goes to show that once you start bringing humanity and people at the center of what you do, everything sort of falls into place.

 

[0:05:12]

Taylor Gibb: And I'd actually be curious too, so you started back when things were a little more analog. You said even paper-based.

 

[0:05:18]

Marie Feliho: Yeah. Yeah.

 

[0:05:18]

Taylor Gibb: Did bringing any of that wisdom into a company that's using, it sounds like top of the line stack, obviously you've got Braze involved. Were you able to bring any of the wisdom and the things that you'd learned previously into all of this new technology?

 

[0:05:30]

Marie Feliho: Yeah. I think you do. I mean especially when you work for a business that has got so much data. I think that was really the main thing, how best to use the data to turn them into something that's useful for customers, and that's what we're doing. Back then the channels were slightly different. The timing were a bit different. But for me, when I look back, this was probably the best school to sort of learn your craft. Because, again, it was all around customers, customers' behavior, buying behavior, visiting behavior, how they behave when they went to a pub, and all of that coming together meant that you could easily get lost into so much data. But instead what we were doing back then, already, was putting the right bits of information to create a bit of a story for the customer. So I would say that this is the sort of thing of that I brought with me along the years. [crosstalk]

 

[0:06:27]

Taylor Gibb: Yeah, you're classically trained. And that's where that creativity comes in too, it sounds like it's finding those bits of data that are going to be the most, I don't know, impactful and then bringing them into that user profile.

 

[0:06:35]

PJ Bruno: And that passion that you have around it, that lights me up. That lights a fire in me seriously.

 

[0:06:41]

Taylor Gibb: Totally. What could be more human?

 

[0:06:42]

PJ Bruno: And you were just on a panel with Andrew Barrett.

 

[0:06:44]

Marie Feliho: Yeah. We were talking about the future of email marketing. And it is a super interesting sphere to look into because things are changing so fast. Our customers are ever more savvy. You get so many emails through your inbox. For us, it's very much about how do we stand out, how do we build that relationship that's going to make them feel like they want to open your email over somebody else's? Right. And for me it's again bringing that humanity that sort of like, you get me, I get you. I want to have that conversation. And so that's the sort of thing to where we were talking about, we are still using emails a lot. But in the way that we are now approaching it, it is one element of the entire journey as opposed to sort of looking at it in isolation.

 

[0:07:32]

Taylor Gibb: Totally.

 

[0:07:32]

Marie Feliho: So yeah, there's a lot of super exciting stuff to be done around around the emails. I know for sure that we've had a lot of fun in bringing all that personalization through, with understanding what customers like to eat, what they're most likely to order next, et cetera, et cetera. [inaudible]

 

[0:07:53]

PJ Bruno: Yeah, Andrew likes to talk about, his big thing that I've heard him say time and time again. It's like, "Email hasn't changed a lot. It's still one of the top channels. IP warming has been a thing for a while." And all this. Right? But I got to argue that email has changed a lot in the past.

 

[0:08:12]

Marie Feliho: I think emails have changed a lot. [crosstalk 00:08:12].

 

[0:08:12]

PJ Bruno: Right? And now we're in the world of interactive emails and is that on your radar? Are you guys-

 

[0:08:17]

Marie Feliho: Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, we are in the game to be the best, but not just for vanity sake, but for the sake of our customers. We want to make sure that they feel like we've got what they need whenever they need it. So, yes, it has changed. I mean I look back at even even a few years ago you would just get batch and blast, like the same emails over and over again.

 

[0:08:40]

PJ Bruno: Yeah. Yeah.

 

[0:08:40]

Taylor Gibb: Yeah.

 

[0:08:40]

Marie Feliho: And you can see that brands are changing. They're putting more emphasis on understanding their data and making things more personalized. So I would even say that customers are expecting that level of personalization.

 

[0:08:53]

Taylor Gibb: Absolutely.

 

[0:08:55]

Marie Feliho: And it's very much a question of sort of be relevant or be gone.

 

[0:08:59]

PJ Bruno: Oh, yeah.

 

[0:09:00]

Marie Feliho: That's the way, that's the way it is.

 

[0:09:01]

Taylor Gibb: I like that.

 

[0:09:01]

Marie Feliho: So that's what me and my team are working on, sort of pushing that relevance. How do we harness machine learning AI to get more of that in, like be there at the right time through the right channel. And I feel like machine learning is sort of our gateway towards getting a bit closer to that sort of Holy grail of [crosstalk 00:09:25].

 

[0:09:25]

PJ Bruno: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

 

[0:09:26]

Marie Feliho: ... Right time, right content [crosstalk 00:09:27].

 

[0:09:27]

PJ Bruno: And it all ends with Terminator 3, as we all know.

 

[0:09:30]

Taylor Gibb: That's right.

 

[0:09:31]

PJ Bruno: The robots taking over.

 

[0:09:32]

Taylor Gibb: That's the step three, robot overlords.

 

[0:09:33]

Marie Feliho: I don't believe that, you see. I really don't believe that because I think you will still need a human at the backend of all that, because you're still talking about emotions and also ideas. But it's just that our jobs will change likely.

 

[0:09:50]

Taylor Gibb: Sure.

 

[0:09:50]

Marie Feliho: Likely a lot, it'd be more about, we'll be spending more time trying to think about how to perfect things, how to get the machine to understand the human emotions a bit more.

 

[0:10:01]

PJ Bruno: I wish we had more time now. This is just, this is my [crosstalk 00:10:03].

 

[0:10:05]

Taylor Gibb: Yeah.

 

[0:10:05]

PJ Bruno: But in the token, I'm going to ask your question back to you. Like how can we look to the future, right? What are some of the either big bets or things that you're like really stoked about? That you guys are investing in? Don't need to give away any secret sauce.

 

[0:10:18]

Marie Feliho: Yeah.

 

[0:10:19]

PJ Bruno: [crosstalk] You're like "uh".

 

[0:10:21]

Marie Feliho: We're on a quest of being more relevant, more conversational with our customers. So anything that sort of helps with bringing the ingredients together to create this amazing sort of meal for, of personalization-

 

[0:10:37]

Taylor Gibb: Very apt metaphor for Just Eat.

 

[0:10:38]

PJ Bruno: Hey, don't get comfortable basically. Right?

 

[0:10:38]

Marie Feliho: Yeah, exactly. But we're super excited about things like content card, we've got some grand plans with that. We already started our journey towards using it and yeah, it's going to be super, super exciting. Watch that space.

 

[0:10:54]

PJ Bruno: Great. Watch that space. I love it, Marie, thanks so much for being here.

 

[0:10:58]

Marie Feliho: Thanks for having me. It's been a blast.

 

[0:11:00]

Taylor Gibb: Glad to have you here.

 

[0:11:00]

Marie Feliho: Thank you.

 

[0:11:00]

PJ Bruno: Taylor, thanks for joining me.

 

[0:11:01]

Taylor Gibb: It was so much fun meeting you, talking with you, and now I'm hungry.

 

[0:11:04]

Marie Feliho: Well, unfortunately we don't have Just Eat here. You're going to have to come to London.

 

[0:11:09]

Taylor Gibb: I think I could do that.

 

[0:11:10]

Marie Feliho: Yeah?

 

[0:11:10]

PJ Bruno: [crosstalk]

 

[0:11:10]

Taylor Gibb: I mean if you say so. That's it.

 

[0:11:13]

PJ Bruno: That's a work trip. We can expense that.

 

[0:11:15]

Taylor Gibb: That's a work trip. Thank you very much.

 

[0:11:15]

PJ Bruno: Thanks everyone at home listening or wherever you are. You heard it here. Disrupt or be disrupted. Take care.

[0:11:22]