In nine months, Merkle helped Compare the Market transform from a brand-led business into an experience-led one. By rebuilding its customer data foundations and applying AI across decisioning, pricing, and communications, AutoSergei shifted direct channels from 18% to 28% of revenue on launched products, generated more than £27 million in incremental revenue, and achieved more with 25% fewer communications.
Compare the Market had built unique brand recognition but behind that connection sat a much more functional customer experience.
Research showing that a third of consumers found comparing products too much effort highlighted the next competitive battleground must be around convenience. Working with Merkle, Compare the Market set itself nine months to transform its direct customer experience and increase direct channels’ contribution to revenue by 25%.
AutoSergei became that transformation, evolving from a marketing concept into a personalised, AI-powered service.
Rebuilding the Foundations
Compare the Market lacked a single source of customer truth, its legacy campaign management platform limited agility, and fragmented segmentation made it difficult to understand what was driving performance.
Merkle and Compare the Market created a simplified customer data platform, turning 50 million abstract contacts into 38 million identifiable people. Data across Redshift and cloud infrastructure was consolidated into an Actionable Customer View, reducing 2,545 variables to 350.
AI then powered a Customer Diary capable of forecasting individual renewal needs across 10 products. By analysing quote behaviour, cleaning incomplete data, and matching information against sales data, the system could determine which product to prioritise for an individual, and when, with reported accuracy of 99.9%.
Compare the Market could now move from mass campaign execution towards individual customer decisioning at scale.
“A clear and well-articulated narrative around data-driven transformation, with a strong focus on personalisation and its impact on business performance. The objectives are clearly defined.” – Judges’ comments
Transforming Commercial Performance
The impact extended across revenue, cost, customer engagement, and operational efficiency. Key outcomes include:
- Direct channels increased from 18% to 28% of total revenue on launched products.
- More than £27 million in incremental revenue generated within nine months.
- CRM revenue contribution increased by 33% in the first three months, reaching a peak improvement of 55% within nine months.
- Results were achieved with 25% fewer communications, while operating across more channels.
- CRM technology ownership costs reduced by £1 million, equivalent to 25% of total spend.
- App contribution to overall revenue increased by 75%.
- AI personalisation increased car-renewal clicks by 44% and conversion by 31%, generating an additional £2.5 million in annualised revenue.
- SQL coding requirements reduced by 92%, while communication orchestration complexity fell by 64%.
From Campaigns to Adaptive Experiences
Transformation meant redesigning how customer communications were produced. Merkle and Compare the Market reduced 576 rigid templates to 165 AI-powered dynamic templates supported by 28 centralised modules. In car insurance alone, two journeys and 38 templates became one journey and 14 templates, while scripting fell from 750 lines of code to four.
With dynamically adapted copy, imagery, and pricing across email, app, SMS, and web push, combined with the Customer Diary, AI could determine what an individual should receive and how best to communicate it.
Within five months, AutoSergei had taken over customer activity, connecting the personality that made Compare the Market distinctive with a more personalised service experience.
The significance of the transformation is therefore broader than better CRM performance. Data and AI changed the underlying model: fragmented contacts became identifiable customers, rigid campaigns became adaptive experiences, and direct channels became a substantially greater contributor to growth.
AutoSergei demonstrates what AI-driven transformation looks like when technology, data, customer experience, and commercial objectives are redesigned together by turning personalisation from a marketing capability into an engine for performance.
