’Hello Me’ - AI has flipped Personalisation

For two decades, personalisation has been something brands did to consumers. AI just flipped that. In this opening episode, Rasmus Houlind (Agillic, Hello $Firstname) and Frans Riemersma (MartechTribe, MartechMap.com) introduce Hello Me — an open, exploratory podcast about what happens to marketing once consumers start using AI to figure out who they want to be, instead of waiting for brands to tell them. We get into: why humans may have already solved for safety and survival without quite noticing; the three types of AI agents reshaping martech; whether wearables are making us healthier or just better monitored; and who should really own the data behind your own AI agent. This is the first episode of an open-ended series — we honestly don't know when the next one drops, or who's in it. That's the format. If you've got a sharp, unusual take on personalisation, AI, or the new rules of marketing — especially if you're not already in our usual orbit — we want to hear from you. Chapters 0:00 – Cold open: why "Hello Me" 1:00 – Who we are, and the show's format 7:00 – The three types of agents: of marketers, for customers, of customers 10:00 – The preference agent: an LLM that asks "what do you want?" 12:00 – From cookies to context: "sound on silent movies" 14:00 – Expressed vs. unexpressed intent: "AI slop is human slop" 15:00 – Humans won the game: scarcity, abundance, and why we haven't noticed 20:00 – A Maslow-based framework for why the same product lands differently 22:00 – How fast are consumers actually adopting this? 27:00 – Borrowing context: a new, revocable way to let brands "see" you 28:00 – Wearables & health tech: fear-driven vs. love-driven data 36:00 – What do marketers do now? Value engineering and guest picks 43:00 – The "conceivability gap," and agents acting in your best interest 46:00 – Data sovereignty: who owns your agent's context 48:00 – The customer has always owned the customer journey 51:00 – Wildcards: voice, robotics, and the impact on society 54:00 – Recap, and how to get involved Links & resources Watch the full video playlist on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJGgw-cJasRw Hello Me — the concept for the show, and every question we're chasing this season: https://omnichannelinstitute.com/hello-me.html Hello $Firstname — a free written abstract of the book this whole show builds on: https://agillic.com/free-ebook-hello-firstname/ Hello $Firstname — the audiobook edition, with a full cast of narrators, on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2zIvs5pSRNTO3YAeFUWZBL?si=zpeTEW_1RnWNHSwZZEAnWA Personalisation Cards — workshop decks for Commerce, Subscription, Banking, and Charity/NGO teams: https://omnichannelinstitute.com/cards.html MartechTribe — Frans Riemersma's research and consultancy on marketing technology: https://www.martechtribe.com MartechMap.com — Frans Riemersma and Scott Brinker's joint map of the global martech landscape: https://martechmap.com Omnichannel Institute — Rasmus's home for frameworks, books, and courses on personalisation: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com

In Chapter 17 of Hello $Firstname, Steen Rasmussen reads ‘Conversion Rate Optimisation and Personalisation’. Steen Rasmussen is co-founder of Brand Leadership Community and IIH Nordic, as well as an international keynote speaker and consultant specialising in the commercial use of web data, optimisation, and personalisation. In this chapter, he reads the final chapter of Part Three, where the book explores the relationship between CRO and personalisation. The chapter begins with a fundamental question: before you personalise every touchpoint, is the general customer experience already working well enough for most of your customers? Conversion rate optimisation helps answer that question. It focuses on improving the baseline experience by removing friction, clarifying communication, and making websites, apps, and campaign pages convert more efficiently. Personalisation, by contrast, focuses on adapting the experience to known customers, specific customer segments, or particular moments of truth. The chapter explains when to prioritise CRO and when to shift towards personalisation. For anonymous website visitors, optimising the general experience often matters most. For owned media campaigns, personalisation can start earlier because even simple self-segmentation, subject-line variants, highlighted offers, or product-feed selection can make a difference. For marketing automation, the boundary between CRO and personalisation becomes especially interesting because a triggered message that removes friction can be both. The chapter also concludes Part Three by returning to the broader question of who personalisation is not for. If your value proposition is weak, your brand is unknown, your first-party data scale is too limited, your content layer is underdeveloped, or your general customer experience is not yet sound, then personalisation may not be the right tactic to double down on yet. In his reflection at the end, Steen adds a timely perspective on agentic commerce, agentic personalisation, and agentic workflows. His point is not that personalisation has suddenly become hyper-individual overnight. Rather, the cost and effort of executing personalisation have dropped quickly. And when execution becomes cheaper for everyone, the competitive bar moves. That is the Red Queen effect: you may need to run simply to stay where you are. The chapter is a useful reminder that personalisation runs deeper than chasing conversions, but that optimisation and personalisation are still closely connected disciplines. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 16 of Hello $Firstname, Keanu Taylor reads ‘The CX Layers: How Data and Content Fuel Personalisation’. Keanu Taylor is Global Head of Research at The MarTech Weekly, a global analyst firm helping enterprise brands turn the complexity of marketing technology into clarity. In this chapter, he reads about the CX Layers framework and how data and content work in parallel to fuel personalisation. The chapter explains why many personalisation projects have historically been too data-centric. Data is essential, but data alone does not create a personalised customer experience. It needs to be matched with content that is structured, governed, scalable, and ready to be activated. The CX Layers framework separates the work into three layers: the data layer, the content layer, and the personalisation layer. The data layer collects, cleans, models, and activates customer insight. The content layer collects, creates, models, and activates the content required for personalised experiences. The personalisation layer is where these two sides come together through experience optimisation, experience decisioning, and experience delivery. The chapter also explores how generative AI changes both sides of the equation. AI can help scale qualitative insight from conversations, reviews, support dialogues, and other unstructured sources. It can also help marketers create, model, repurpose, translate, tag, and activate content in ways that make personalisation more operationally realistic. In his reflection at the end, Keanu connects the CX Layers model to the emerging discipline of context engineering. His point is that enterprises do not only need content. They also need to manage the context around that content: when it is relevant, which use cases it belongs to, when it should no longer be used, and how it should be made available to AI and personalisation systems. The chapter gives marketers and martech teams a clearer way to think about the prerequisites for personalisation: not as a single data project, not as a content production problem, but as a layered system where data, content, and decisioning have to work together. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 15 of Hello $Firstname, Ida Söderbäck reads ‘The Basic Foundations for Personalisation’. Ida Söderbäck is a customer loyalty and CRM marketing expert currently at the Swedish Red Cross. In this chapter, she reads the opening chapter of Part Three, where the book turns from what personalisation is and how it creates value to when personalisation is actually the right tactic to use. The chapter asks three important questions: Do you have the prerequisites to do personalisation? Is it the right thing for your organisation to do? And is it the right thing to do now? It argues that personalisation is a distinct communication tactic, not the answer to every marketing or business challenge. Before investing heavily in personalisation, organisations need a solid core offering, brand trust and demand, access to customer data and insights, and enough content to match those insights with something useful to say. The chapter also makes a pragmatic point that is sometimes overlooked in personalisation projects: if the value proposition is weak, if the customer experience is fundamentally broken, or if no one knows or trusts your brand yet, personalisation is unlikely to fix the problem. In her reflection at the end, Ida connects the chapter to loyalty and CRM. For her, personalisation is central to creating relevant communication, building relationships, and increasing loyalty and revenue. But she also underlines the chapter’s core message: personalisation becomes powerful only when the organisation has the right prerequisites, including individual-level data, the right competencies, and the martech systems to put it all into action. The chapter serves as a useful reality check for any marketing leader facing pressure to personalise before the basics are in place. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 14 of Hello $Firstname, Rasmus Houlind reads ‘Tying It All Up in the Bowtie of Personalization’. Rasmus Houlind is the author of Hello $Firstname and narrates this chapter himself because it brings Part Two together. The chapter revisits all four corners of the Bowtie of Personalization and shows how they come together across campaigns, marketing automation, and inbound platforms. The chapter explains what good looks like from the customer’s point of view. A realistic personalized customer experience is not hyper-personalized at every touchpoint. It is a mix of highly personalized communication, semi-personalized communication, and generic communication, shaped by how much data the brand has and how engaged the customer is. The chapter also goes deep into measurement. It discusses control groups, proxy metrics, statistical significance, customer lifetime value, net promoter score, and the importance of doing the math all the way to the money. It then gathers the maturity levels for campaigns, marketing automation, and inbound platforms into the front end of the Pyramid of Personalization. In his reflection at the end, Rasmus adds a 2026 perspective. AI has made it easier to turn structured and unstructured data into insight, create message variants, localize content, generate images, tag content, and prepare content feeds for activation. But he also warns that more AI-generated content is not automatically better content. Marketers still need judgment, taste, governance, and a clear model for what they are trying to do. The chapter closes Part Two with a clear conclusion: AI does not make the Bowtie obsolete. It makes the Bowtie more useful. The more powerful the technology becomes, the more important it is to understand the customer, the moment, the message, the content, and the value being created. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalization, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalization Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalization into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 13 of Hello $Firstname, Mark Robertson reads ‘Personalization on Inbound Platforms’. Mark Robertson is Partnerships Director at Mastercard Dynamic Yield and has spent around 25 years working across marketing, technology, sales, partnerships, and tools for both outbound and inbound marketing. In this chapter, he reads about personalization on websites, apps, and other inbound platforms. The chapter explains that visitors arrive on inbound platforms with some kind of intention. If campaigns and marketing automation have done their job, the brand may even have helped spark that intention. The question then becomes how websites and apps can respond with the right content, functionality, messages, and feeds. The chapter argues that the core customer experience must come before personalization. A website or app must first work well as a self-service experience. Only then should marketers add dynamic personalization, starting with ‘My’ pages, then content feeds, then personalized messages based on intent, and eventually the hiding of irrelevant content that creates unnecessary friction. In his reflection at the end, Mark draws a clear distinction between testing, conversion rate optimization, and true personalization. He also points to the importance of operability across CDPs, loyalty systems, CMSs, digital asset management systems, ecommerce platforms, and analytics tools. His view is that AI will push inbound personalization beyond single-page testing towards more journey-based optimization. The chapter reminds marketers that inbound personalization is not just about changing the homepage banner. It is about understanding customer intent in near real time and designing the whole platform experience around what the customer is trying to do. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalization, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalization Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalization into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 12 of Hello $Firstname, Maria Moreau reads ‘Content, Part 2: Content Feeds’. Maria Moreau is CRM Director at Boozt.com, where she works with CRM for millions of users. In this chapter, she reads about the second content corner of the Bowtie of Personalization: content feeds. The chapter opens with HBO Max and the challenge of personalizing which movies, series, and episodes are shown to each user. It explains how content feeds differ from messages: they are often fed from existing sources such as product information systems, article databases, application databases, or ecommerce platforms rather than being written from scratch by marketers. The chapter covers how content feeds can be grouped, sorted, ranked, filtered, and marked. It explains why the right feed can matter more than the ranking within it, how feeds can support both relevance and inspiration, and why marketers must be careful not to create narrow echo chambers when recommendation logic becomes too rigid. Maria’s framing at the beginning makes the practical stakes clear: for teams managing CRM at scale, content feeds are vital to making personalization operational. They are what allow brands to activate large bodies of products, articles, offers, shows, events, or recommendations in ways that feel useful to each customer. The chapter shows why personalization on inbound platforms is often less about writing a perfect message and more about choosing the right shelf, the right feed, and the right context. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalization, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalization Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalization into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 11 of Hello $Firstname, Jordie van Rijn reads ‘Personalization in Marketing Automation’. Jordie van Rijn is an email marketing and martech specialist who guides businesses in selecting marketing software through emailvendorselection.com. In this chapter, he reads about personalization in marketing automation and customer lifecycle communication. The chapter explains why marketing automation is different from campaigns. Instead of deciding that it is Thursday and sending a newsletter, automation waits for customers to reach specific moments of truth and then responds with a relevant message. This makes timing one of the strongest drivers of perceived relevance. The chapter explores value creation in marketing automation across increased top-line sales, churn reduction, and cost savings. It discusses abandoned baskets, onboarding flows, welcome programs, subscription upgrades, win-back tactics, next best action, next best experience, and the importance of measuring automation over a longer time horizon than campaigns. In his reflection at the end, Jordi brings the chapter back to practical marketing work. He describes marketing automation as data set in motion and encourages listeners to find one additional valuable data point or trigger that could make an automation more relevant. His point is that creativity and data belong together. The chapter reminds marketers not to let perfect become the enemy of good. A triggered message that exists and reaches the customer in the right moment will often create more value than a beautifully segmented message that never gets built. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalization, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalization Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalization into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 10 of Hello $Firstname, Morten Suhr Hansen reads ‘Insights, Part 2: Moments of Truth’. Morten Suhr Hansen is founder and senior partner at Subscrybe, where he works extensively with subscription businesses. In this chapter, he reads about the second insight corner of the Bowtie of Personalization: moments of truth. The chapter opens with FT.com and a usage digest designed to reduce churn before subscription renewal. It explains how the timing of a message can make the difference between relevance and irrelevance, especially when customers are close to making a decision that affects their relationship with a brand. The chapter defines a moment of truth as a moment in time where a customer or potential customer is, or should be, making up their mind about a decision that involves your company. It covers the difference between discovering intent and creating intent, how dynamic data can indicate a moment of truth, how absence of data can also be meaningful, and why marketers must be careful not to assume too much. In his reflection at the end, Morten explains why this chapter is particularly important for subscription businesses. Moments of truth are central to retention, renewal, churn reduction, and long-term customer value, which is why they are also essential when working with the Personalization Cards in consulting and strategy work. The chapter sets up the next discussion on marketing automation by showing why timing is often the most powerful personalization lever of all. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalization, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalization Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalization into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 9 of Hello $Firstname, Peter Anders Franch reads ‘Personalization in Campaigns’. Peter Anders Franch is Head of CRM, CLV, and Customer Insight at Matas in Denmark, where he works with Club Matas, one of Scandinavia’s largest loyalty programs. In this chapter, he reads about how personalization creates value in campaigns. The chapter defines what a campaign is and distinguishes campaign communication from customer lifecycle communication. It explains how personalization in campaigns can increase sales, improve efficiency, reduce unnecessary media spend, avoid customer dissatisfaction, and even create new revenue streams through retail media. The chapter ties together the upper part of the Bowtie of Personalization: segments and messages. It shows why customer segments matter so much when marketers decide which message variants to create, which audiences to target, which customers to exclude, and where paid media budget should be spent. In his reflection at the end, Peter brings the chapter into the current AI moment. He argues that ecommerce, CRM, and personalization are changing fast, but that technology is only as good as the thinking behind it. AI can help brands reach relevance at greater scale, but judgment, empathy, and an understanding of what the customer actually needs still have to come from marketers. The chapter is a practical reminder that personalized campaigns are not about doing more for the sake of doing more. They are about improving relevance, efficiency, and business value without becoming creepy, lazy, or wasteful. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalization, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalization Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalization into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 8 of Hello $Firstname, Ana Mourão reads ‘Content, Part 1: Messages’. Ana Mourão is a global martech and customer data leader, originally from Brazil and now based in the Miami area. In this chapter, she reads about the first content corner of the Bowtie of Personalization: messages. The chapter opens with FC Copenhagen and its season pass renewal campaign. It shows how a brand can use customer segments, first-party data, paid media, owned media, and message variants to make outbound communication feel more relevant to different types of fans. The chapter explains what a message is, how brand-led and customer-led messages differ, and why the same core message often needs to be adapted across channels, segments, cultures, and local markets. It also covers parametrization, personalized video, category entry points, customer value, and the danger of using personalization tricks without delivering actual relevance. In her reflection at the end, Ana points to the practical power of the chapter: data, localization, the FC Copenhagen case, and the Personalization Cards as a resource for ideation, training, and turning a Bowtie strategy into something teams can actually use. The chapter reminds marketers that outbound communication is an interruption. If you want people to stop what they are doing and pay attention, the message had better feel relevant. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalization, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalization Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalization into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 7 of Hello $Firstname, Jens Hård reads ‘Insights, Part 1: Segments’. Jens Hård has around 20 years of experience in data-driven marketing and is CEO of Root Digital Group. In this chapter, he reads about the first insight corner of the Bowtie of Personalization: customer segments. The chapter uses the Canadian bank Groupe Desjardins as its opening case and explores how segments can help an organization understand the different needs, desires, behaviours, and life situations of its customers. It explains how segments are built, how they can be turned into personas, and why demographic, behavioural, and value-based segmentation each serve different purposes. The chapter also offers an important warning: segments help marketers get it less wrong, but they do not give perfect knowledge about individual people. That distinction matters when deciding whether to communicate explicitly or implicitly, especially when the topic is sensitive or the underlying data is probabilistic. In his reflection at the end, Jens distils the chapter into a simple but powerful point: segmentation is not about categorizing people. It is about understanding what customers need at different moments in their lives and using that understanding to create more relevant experiences. The chapter helps marketers see segmentation not as an outdated alternative to personalization, but as one of the core insight tools that makes better personalization possible. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalization, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalization Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalization into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 6 of Hello $Firstname, Tom Peace reads ‘The Bowtie of Personalization’. Tom Peace is CEO and founder of Sway Outcomes, a global customer strategy consultancy focused on loyalty and CRM. In this chapter, he introduces the central model of Part Two: the Bowtie of Personalization. The chapter explains how meaningful personalization is created by combining two kinds of customer insight, segments and moments of truth, with two kinds of content, messages and content feeds. Through the Viva Gym case, the chapter shows how a fitness brand can use onboarding, inactivity signals, customer segments, message variants, and recommended classes to create a more relevant experience and reduce churn. The chapter also makes an important point: true personalization magic happens before the channels. The marketer’s job is not simply to send an email, push notification, ad, or website banner. The job is to decide who should receive which message, in which moment, and with which supporting content, before adapting that experience to each channel. In his reflection at the end, Tom connects the Bowtie to loyalty and CRM strategy. He highlights the importance of moments of truth in a congested marketplace, the growing need for first-party and zero-party data, and the opportunity to move beyond earn rules and reward value by creating emotional connection through relevant, timely, and personal communication. The chapter opens Part Two by giving marketers a shared model for understanding what personalization really consists of. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalization, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalization Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalization into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 5 of Hello $Firstname, Kim Jong Andersen reads ‘Marketing Without Personalisation’. Kim Jong Andersen is Managing Partner at the Danish agency WDP. In this chapter, he reads a deliberately difficult exploration of what marketing would look like if we removed personalisation from the equation. The answer helps clarify what personalisation can and cannot do. Personalisation is a powerful communication tactic, but it cannot compensate for a weak value proposition, boring creative work, poor reach, or a badly designed customer experience. The chapter introduces the personalisation-value equation and explains how marketing value depends on proposition, format, reach, and personalisation. It discusses the balance between performance marketing and branding, the importance of creativity, the role of friction, and the danger of becoming so narrow with hyper-personalisation that reach disappears. In his reflection at the end, Kim emphasises two important reminders from a brand-building perspective: the power of fame, and the danger of focusing only on customers who are already in-market. His point is that segmentation and personalisation matter, but they do not remove the need to build broader brand value and reach. The chapter closes Part One by reminding marketers that personalisation creates extra value only when the fundamentals of marketing are already working. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 4 of Hello $Firstname, Dr Matt Johnson reads ‘Why Does Personalisation Work?’ Matt is the author of Blindsight and Branding That Means Business, and he hosts the blog neuroscienceof.com. In this chapter, he brings the listener into the psychology behind personalisation. Why do people respond better to messages and content that feel relevant to them? The answer is connected to evolutionary psychology and the fundamental motives framework, including motives such as avoiding harm, avoiding disease, making friends, attaining status, acquiring a mate, and caring for family. The chapter also tackles the darker side of personalisation: when it becomes creepy. It explains how personalisation can backfire when brands appear to stalk customers with repetitive ads, use data customers did not realise they had shared, or address topics that feel too sensitive or intimate. Finally, the chapter explores the difference between being personalised and being personal, and why brands should be careful not to pretend they have a closer relationship with customers than they really do. In his reflection at the end, Matt connects the chapter to the age of generative AI. His key point is that brands will not win merely by doing more personalisation, but by deciding how they personalise, and how well they express their unique brand personality in those personalised experiences. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 3 of Hello $Firstname, Mhari Coxon reads ‘Defining Personalisation’. Mhari is a marketer from the United Kingdom, and in this chapter she takes the listener into one of the book’s central missions: creating a practical definition of personalisation that marketers can actually use. The chapter distinguishes personalisation from customisation, actual personalisation from perceived personalisation, and explicit personalisation from implicit personalisation. It also explores the blurry boundary between segmentation, targeting, and personalisation, arguing that personalisation is not a simple either-or question, but a matter of degrees. The chapter focuses specifically on personalised communication, meaning communication initiated by companies through marketing or communications teams. It builds towards a practitioner-friendly understanding that can unite different marketing disciplines and make personalisation easier to discuss, plan, and execute. In her personal reflection at the end, Mhari expands on the idea of value creation. Drawing on her experience in B2B and B2B2C, she introduces the idea of a ‘triple win’: value for the company, value for the customer organisation, and value for the end user. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 2 of Hello $Firstname, Dr Jason Pallant reads ‘What Is the Problem with Personalisation?’ Jason is Director of the Marketing Technology Lab at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. He has also used some of the frameworks from Hello $Firstname in the marketing technology curriculum at RMIT. This chapter explores why personalisation is such a difficult topic to align around. Marketers often use the same word while meaning very different things. UX and website teams may think about dynamic content and recommendations. Media and advertising teams may think about targeting and audiences. CRM and direct marketing teams may think about customer data, triggers, journeys, and owned channels. The chapter also asks whether personalisation is worth the effort. It covers the operational complexity, the cost of technology and content production, the scepticism from parts of the branding community, and the risk of investing in personalisation without a shared definition. In his reflection at the end, Jason highlights how different marketing backgrounds shape different interpretations of personalisation. He also points to the importance of shared definitions, especially if marketers want to build credible business cases, case studies, and use cases for personalisation. The key point is that marketers need a clearer and more common understanding of personalisation before they can expect senior leaders to invest in it properly. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

In Chapter 1 of Hello $Firstname, Kim Motroen reads ‘The Hype of Personalisation’. Kim is one of the founders of Publicis Foundry and has spent more than 20 years working with marketing, technology, and customer experience. This chapter traces the roots of personalisation hype back to The One to One Future by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, and explores why the idea of individualised communication has remained so powerful for marketers, brands, and technology vendors. The chapter looks at the commercial promise of personalisation, from higher customer lifetime value to better omnichannel performance, while also questioning whether the technology has truly matured. It discusses martech growth, Gartner’s hype cycles, personalisation engines, multichannel marketing hubs, and the arrival of generative AI. In his reflection at the end, Kim points out that even though we have moved from one-to-one marketing in the 1990s to AI and real-time personalisation today, many organisations still struggle with the fundamentals: data quality, ownership, execution, and actually getting things live. The conclusion is clear: personalisation can create major value, but it is not magic, and it is not always plug-and-play. To avoid misunderstandings, bad investments, and broken promises, marketers need more clarity. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

Welcome to the audiobook edition of Hello $Firstname, the AI edition. In this opening episode, Rasmus Houlind reads the introduction to the updated edition of the book and explains why personalisation has changed so dramatically since the first edition. Generative AI has made the content challenge easier to solve, but it has also made the need for clear frameworks, shared language, and practical execution even more urgent. At the end of the introduction, Rasmus adds a short reflection on how agentic commerce, agentic personalisation, and agentic workflows are already changing how personalisation is perceived. You will also hear the forewords read by Scott Brinker, longtime martech analyst and editor of the Chief Martec blog, and Rupali Jain, Chief Product Officer at Optimizely. Together, they frame the book from the perspectives of martech, AI, customer experience, data, content, and digital experience management. This episode sets the stage for the full audiobook and introduces the core ambition of Hello $Firstname: to help marketers create more profitable, scalable, and meaningful personalised customer experiences. More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for 'Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition' on your local Amazon store. You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards

What has actually changed in personalization now that generative AI is everywhere? In this digital launch recording for the AI Edition of Hello $Firstname, Rasmus Houlind is joined by co-author Frans Riemersma and Maria Moreau from Boozt. Together, they explore how AI affects personalization, why the Content Layer has become increasingly important, how the Bowtie of Personalization still helps marketers create shared language, and what Boozt’s practical CRM approach can teach us about making personalization work in the real world. Consider watching the video-edition of this episode on youtube: https://youtu.be/_GgTJagrBT0?si=nUtoSsLMup6zaR6f The conversation covers the Bowtie of Personalization, the CX Layers, the growing importance of the Content Layer, the difference between data and content as prerequisites for personalization, and Boozt’s practical approach to CRM and email personalization. This is not just a conversation about AI hype. It is a discussion about what it takes to make personalization work in practice, across teams, channels, customer journeys, and commercial priorities. In the episode, you will hear about: • Why Hello $Firstname needed an AI Edition • What generative AI changes in personalization • Why the core logic of personalization has not changed • The Bowtie of Personalization • The CX Layers: Data Layer, Content Layer, and Personalization Layer • Why content has become a critical bottleneck • How AI changes the economics of content variation • Why more content does not automatically mean more relevance • Boozt’s approach to CRM and email personalization • How personalization becomes an operating discipline, not just a strategy slide • The Personalization Cards and how they help teams move from abstract ambition to concrete use cases Resources: The episode on youtube (including models and visuals) https://youtu.be/_GgTJagrBT0?si=nUtoSsLMup6zaR6f Buy Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalization, AI Edition https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT Explore the Personalization Cards https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards or https://youtu.be/-sBQCySi180?si=LUzj_hRSmhd1r4Ns Download the free abstract of Hello $Firstname, AI Edition https://bit.ly/HFNAI-ABS Explore the Beyond Hello $Firstname: Personalization Practitioner course https://omnichannelinstitute.learnworlds.com/course/personalization-practitioner 00:00 Welcome and intro 01:34 Meet Rasmus Houlind 01:48 Meet Frans Riemersma 03:03 Meet Maria Moreau from Boozt 05:13 Agenda for the session 06:34 Why create a new AI Edition of Hello $Firstname? 10:02 What has not changed in personalization 11:40 The Bowtie of Personalization 13:12 Which types of personalization are most affected by generative AI? 15:32 Frans Riemersma on AI, martech, and the content challenge 17:13 The content crisis in personalization 18:35 The Data Layer explained 19:48 The Content Layer explained 21:35 The Personalization Layer explained 24:49 Brand LLMs, canonical content, and AI-generated variants 26:40 Using generative AI for campaign production 27:42 People, skills, technology, and governance 30:32 Maria Moreau introduces Boozt’s approach 31:02 AI as a hot topic inside Boozt 32:03 What is Boozt? 34:23 Boozt’s Nordic department store strategy 35:51 Why personalization is the heart of CRM 37:18 Boozt’s email personalization results 38:38 Three CRM jobs at Boozt 40:17 Scaling email personalization across 1.2 billion emails 41:59 Boozt’s email framework and prioritization logic 57:14 Personalization Cards, Canvas, and course 58:04 Final resources and closing