Summer Camp Challenge: Week 1 Campfire Kickoff Activity (Early Moments Edition)

Hi I’m Jake and I help run the Lifecycle Marketing at Plex (Free Streaming TV & Movies), we’re a fully remote company but I’m just outside of NYC. Not a fact but it feels like every year if I plant vegetables I will lose about 80% to chipmunks, squirrels, and deer!!

The early customer moment that I’d love to personalize is to show a new customer a show or movie they want to watch during their first time in the product and subsequently send them messaging containing titles that are interesting to that individual that bring them back into the product several times in the first week they create their account. Bonus points if I can get them to add at least 3 titles to their watchlist and leave a review of something they recently watched.

Hi! I’m Alanna Sport, I lead our CRM team based out of Birmingham AL, and my fun fact is i paint watercolor pet portraits on the side!

I work with a veterinary company and as a pet parent myself, I would love to customize our first touchpoint to adjust based on conversations the doctors have just had with the client… ie specific ailment based follow ups or more product recs based on pet need.

Hi, I’m Andy. I’m a junior developer on the Martech team, focused on building technical cadences in Iterable.

Summer fact: I potty trained my 2.5-year-old over Memorial Day weekend. I’m focused on elevating that experience so he’s fully automated.

One early customer moment I’d like to improve is when a user links their first account or connects a service. It’s a key trust point, often treated as just a checkbox.

If there were no blockers, I’d integrate ChatGPT to:

Access and analyze all available user fields to deliver deep, contextual personalization.
Recommend next best actions based on what the user has done and what similar users found valuable.
Intake responses and continuously build on the interaction to evolve the experience in real-time.

The goal would be a dynamic, self-improving onboarding flow that adapts with every interaction.

​@Alanna Smith Hey Alanna, love the idea of customizing follow-ups based on vet conversations. That kind of detail can make a pet parent feel more at ease. Also, pet portraits—very cool!

Hi all! My name is Savannah and I work for HomeExchange (the largest and oldest home-swapping platform in the world) as a Marketing Automation Manager, based out of my home in Maine.

Fun summer fact: I’ll be joining the rest of my team in France this month for a company retreat. I'm the only US-based member of our CRM team.

Lately, I’ve been focused on onboarding new members and helping them find their first exchange with simple, easy-to-follow tips.

If time and tools weren’t a blocker, we’d love to build a dynamic in-app and email experience with checklist items based on the type of exchange someone is looking for. Picture a progress tracker with nudges along the way. We’d include smart suggestions, helpful member tips, and a small celebration to keep the momentum going.

Connie here! Based in San Francisco and I work at MongoDB! 
Fun Fact: I started collecting art prints from vending machines across the US this summer (@inciardi is the artist)! 

I’d love to improve the way we track customer personas from the get go, making it easier to surface relevant content for the right audience.

​@Savannah Renaud so jealous of your upcoming retreat in France! Bon voyage 🇲🇫💃🏻

​@connie.ng thank you!! Also so funny, @inciardi is based in Maine near me and I have a few of her prints! They’re the best :) 

Hi, I’m Deanna, and I work for Extra Space Storage as a Customer Communication Analyst.

Fun Summer Fact: I live in Big Cottonwood Canyon, and last year we went through about 50 lbs of sugar thanks to all the hummingbirds in the area!

One early customer moment I’d love to better personalize or improve:
Improving conversion rates on pre-rental drip campaigns—specifically, how to capture and influence conversions when a customer has shown interest or reserved a unit 5 or more days ahead of their move-in date. I’d like to better understand the customer’s intent to hold without immediately renting, and explore ways to personalize messaging further out from their intended move-in date.

​@Savannah Renaud what a wonderful location for a retreat! #bucketlist

Hi everyone! I’m Angie Pilkington, Sr Lifecycle Marketing Manager at Ooni (the pizza oven people). I’m based in Madrid, Spain, and a fun summer fact about me is that my husband and I once made 35 pizzas in a row for our neighbours during the still-lockdown summer of 2021!
One early customer moment I’d love to elevate is when a new Ooni owner fires up their Ooni for the first time using the digital temperature hub. 

If time, tools, or data were no object, I’d transform that moment into a truly memorable Ooni “first bake” experience. We’d help guide their first cook, show them how to avoid common mistakes, do recipe recommendations using AI by analysing their previous browsing behaviour, and send follow-up emails to gather feedback on that first cook as soon as possible, or even having support reach out if they’re not having a good time.

If they registered an oven but we register no cooking data, we could reach out via SMS with weather-related prompts like “It’s sunny tomorrow, ready for a pizza party?”

The moment someone users their Ooni oven for the first time is when excitement peaks, so by layering in real-time personalisation we could dial it up into a joyful, hands-on experience that feels truly human and spark-filled.

​@Jake Bodmer I loved your idea of nudging people to add at least three titles to their watchlist and leave a review. For Ooni, I can imagine doing something similar: suggesting a “first pizza recipe” video right when someone opens the app, then following up with reminders to save that recipe or rate it once they’ve tried it. It’s a great way to build that habit of engagement early on, thanks for the inspiration.

Hey! Adele here. I’m leading a Marketing Automation team, and residing in Canada. 

Sumer fact: did you know that humans are scientifically proven to be happier in the summer?

Customer moment:  ha, dream big, well then, I wish all data synced was actually real time for everyone, for every platform connected. Imagine no sync delays, no delayed events, no errors. First communications sent at pinpoint time, right on the exact minute! Where customers can receive what they need via SMS or email right when they request it!

​@Deanna Stevenson how many hummingbirds do you get? We get a few here, they’re adorable.

Hi, I’m Brittany and I run Lifecycle for a direct-to-consumer medical company. We’re fully remote, but I’m based in Virginia. My fun summer fact is that my extended family has been going on a joint beach trip to the Outer Banks since I was born, and it’s always so special to get that time together with aunts/uncles/cousins.

My connection moment is [🩺 A patient schedules their first appointment]. We have welcome journeys and confirmations now, but I love the idea of making an extra big deal out of their first visit, as well as optimizing our other touch points.

​@andy.mcinally, I laughed really hard at your automation comments about your toddler’s potty training 😂

​@AdeleB Too many. 😂 Just kidding—they’re magnificent little creatures! It’s hard to tell how many come and go, but the feeders are typically empty twice a day by evening during the busier times. We have three feeders up now. One year, we had eight, but that was a lot of maintenance!

Hi! My name is Abbie and I’m a lifecycle marketing lead at Opendoor. I’m based in Fort Myers, FL and although it feels like summer year round, I’m actually really excited for extra hot days, less traffic during the “low season” and more beach days. 
 

We are currently experimenting with outbound calls to a customer right after they complete onboarding so we can better understand their situation, timeline and reasons to sell, motivators, etc. I’m super curious to learn how we can better personalize the customer journey based on data we collect during the phone call, so that we can integrate it into follow up email and SMS. I believe it’s important to test into these additional touch points to not deter the customer and have them unsubscribe and ultimately lose our ability to reengage them. 

​@Alanna Smith that’s such a cool hobby! Do you have a shop online 👀 we have a golden retriever that’s the center of our world and love the idea of a special portrait like this. 

Hello! Madison Dornath here. I am the Director of Growth Marketing Platforms at Dotdash Meredith (DDM). I’m based in Des Moines, Iowa but DDM has locations all over! I’m most excited for Summer Fridays, which gives us some flexible time off during the summer to take advantage of kids activities, pool time, and bike rides!

When thinking about early customer moments, a big opportunity that comes to mind for DDM are enhanced welcome/lifecycle flows. We do have them right now but we support around 35 different brands across the DDM ecosystem and of those, users could be coming in from hundreds of different sources. Our dream has always been to better target these messages depending on the sources where users are coming from but it has been difficult at scale. We do now have all of our registration sources living in a catalog and with the new power of Nova and better journey tracking I think this is our moment to shine and start implementing even better, personalized language and content to our users.

​@Abbie Rechsteiner OD I do! Its here:https://ascustomart.square.site/

On another note, love the idea of crossing over phone outreach with personalized follow up messaging, do you have a tech stack that integrates for this? Seems like it would be a powerful engine!

Hi! I’m Maggie Bear, located out of Des Moines, Iowa. I work at Dotdash Meredith as the Associate Director of Email Production. This summer I’ll be gardening and spending time with my boston terrier, Birdie.

Based on a user’s click activity onsite, I’d love for a personalized message to be sent to them with related articles they’d be interested in. 

​@Savannah Renaud Your idea of a progress tracker immediately brough to mind the Dominos Pizza tracker app experience haha, not the same but related maybe! I like your idea of prompting users, especially first time users, through the funnel. 

Hi everyone! I’m Raj, a Senior Engineer at Carvana based in the Bay Area. Fun summer fact is that I love hiking The Narrows every year and it’s been a tradition for me.

One early customer moment I’m excited to personalize is when a shopper signs up and starts browsing. Using AI combined with their IP location, we could look up real-time weather conditions in their area and send personalized vehicle suggestions tailored to their environment, like recommending all-wheel-drive SUVs for rainy regions or fuel-efficient cars for hotter climates. This kind of context-aware personalization would make the experience feel genuinely helpful and human.

Hey y’all! My name is Erica Tipton and I am the Email Marketing Manager at Adam & Eve (yes, that one! ;) iykyk). We’re based in central NC (between Durham and Chapel Hill) and I LOVE that our state offers the best of both worlds - Mountains and Beaches. This summer I plan to spend as much time as I can with my family by the ocean.

At Adam & Eve, we are currently exploring many options to elevate the customer experience - including, a Loyalty Program. This will be so crucial to new customers (as well as our veterans), but our biggest hurdle roadblock for now is truly understanding all the rich customer information we already have. Really nailing down the LTV of our average customer as well as looking at them as silo’d customers (ie LTV once they sign up for email, LTV if they come through paid search, etc) would help us prove out the long-term need/value of the program. That’s my goal and big project on the horizon!

​@andy.mcinally - Great use of the long weekend! The day we finally got both out of diapers was a celebration - for our minds and wallets!!!

Hi everyone! I’m Tim 👋
I lead User Engagement and CRM strategy out of New Jersey at Updater. We are an invite only platform that helps people move into their apartment/home. Think things like making internet set up easy, forwarding your mail, getting renters insurance, etc all in one app! 

Fun summer fact: I just got back from Japan and brought home… a suitcase full of Japanese snacks and some serious respect for their bullet train 🚅 🍱

✨ Customer moment I’d love to personalize more:

• For some internet plans the customer has to contact the call center to complete the order.  How the flow works is that the user would “reserve” an internet plan then in order to complete the order they must call a number shown in the product and that’s also referenced in an email sent out at the moment of reservation. 
• Most people (including myself) don’t want to have to call someone to complete an order. A few things we’d love to try and do are:
  • add a chat functionality 
  • be able to communicate via sms
  • make tap to call easy from the email (you have to long press for apple mail for example)
• Anything we can do to make this process easier! 

​@Raj Singh Love it! If you can’t always rely on the users IP location maybe you can optimize the sign up experience to be able to capture that information based on what they fill out? I’m not sure what the Carvana sign up experience is like. 

What’s up Iterable fam! My name is Jacob Defren, I am a Marketing Specialist primarily focused on  email, mobile and SMS at Life Time (the Athletic Coutnry Clubs). If you’ve ever had a chance to check one out in your area or when traveling, highly suggest it! If you’re a member already, you know what’s up. My job is to provide current members with information on new products, promotions, places, classes and information on your wellness journey. 

My fun summer fact is that I am training for a full marathon this winter!

An early customer momemt that really helped me along my journey has been using Iterable’s segmentation tools to narrow down on sending comms to customers that have completed a workout class. It’s so cool to be able to target those members with promos for a discounted shake or products. Then going into a class myself and seeing it first hand! If I could elevate that moment, taking into account more moments-based marketing to gamify in-club experiences such as completing workout sessions and earning badges, to even being able to sync your devide WITH the workout equipement to learn weights, reps and frequencies over time! How cool would that be?

​@Tim Pouliot  - Japan? That’s awesome, what was your favorite type of snack? Viritual fist bump for the ability to reserve the plan. We’re working on some SMS responses currently, and that would be my go-to function for responding. Quick, easy, and convienent. Great ideas!

Hi everyone! I’m Erin and am the Email Marketing Manager at Purple Wave Auction (think eBay for construction equipment, ag equipment, semi truck/trailer, and government equipment). 

I started with Purple Wave about 2 years ago and created our welcome sequence shortly after. I would love to revamp that, set up further A/B testing, and update the content and videos in that sequence and others. It’s focused mostly on site usage, trying to get people to add items to watchlists, save searches, and sign up for SMS auction ending reminders.