It has always been a challenge for VIA Rail, a Crown Corporation, to use and share first-party data from their loyalty program with external partners, especially given the company's concerns about privacy and the multiple internal departments that would need to be involved to share it.

To recover from the pandemic with a limited media budget, VIA Rail wanted to launch a new campaign directed only at existing customers and their most relevant segments.

 We knew that tapping into VIA Rail's first-party data would be critical to reaching their goals. However, the company was understandably reluctant to share its first-party data and the segments were difficult to recreate, as they were based on psychograpic attributes.

To activate this campaign, we needed to completely rethink our audience strategy for this client.

 The first step was to gain access to the client’s CRM data. We needed to show them we were a trustworthy partner and that there was no risk in sharing their data with us. To do this, we developed a strategy where we would share our media data directly in their CRM, as a show of good will to encourage data-sharing between both parties.

 The second step was to recreate the client’s segments from a media standpoint. Though we had previously created audiences for the client, we needed to refine our segments with data not available on major media activation platforms so we could reach a relevant target during the pandemic.

 Finally, we activated both first-party data and relevant segments through our DSPs to make sure we were reaching only people likely to travel by train during the pandemic.