Nov 29 • Mary Green

Award Winning Customer Advocacy Engagement Campaigns

Unlocking Success through Advocacy and AI Strategies

How Leaders in Customer Advocacy Create Effective Campaigns and Use AI for Remarkable Results by CAP Awards (Captivate Collective)

In episode #86 of the **CMAweekly** podcast, Bianca from Captivate Collective welcomed guests Kate Zugru, Brynn Heynam, and Rob Eyre to explore how companies are innovating in customer advocacy and engagement. 

A Campaign That Connected:
High-Value Engagement through Thoughtful Gifting

Fostering Trust in AI
Kate Sugrue launched Intercom’s FIN 5000 campaign to promote their AI chatbot, Fin. The campaign aimed to build trust in the technology by encouraging customers to share positive experiences on social media, creating buzz and advocacy through engagement.

Over six months, social media interaction was incentivized with valuable gifts from gifting company &Open, ensuring inclusivity and functionality. For instance, coasters were designed to avoid seasonal or gender biases, demonstrating how thoughtful details can enhance inclusivity. Additionally, personalized certificates signed by the CEO provided a unique touch that resonated with recipients.

Intercom post on LinkedIn showing posts from Customers about their AI tool.


Detailed and Strategic Planning

The campaign featured weekly rollouts and engaging social media content. Despite initial concerns about costs and executive involvement, careful planning led to success, with clear objectives, target audience identification, and relevant metrics.


Success Measured
The campaign achieved impressive results, boasting a 46% redemption rate and 77% email open rates, far exceeding expectations. With 94% of participants providing positive feedback and 8% sharing their excitement on social media—reaching over 31,000 people—this confirmed the effectiveness of personal engagement strategies.

AI in Customer Support: "The people who are embracing it most were seeing large numbers of resolutions, freeing up their support team to, a, not have a massive backlog, and, b, work on more meaningful tasks."
Kate Sugrue
Building Trust Through Innovation: "When you're talking about building trust, the company, your sales, your marketing, they're not the people that the market trusts. It's it's their own peers. It's it's people who are in their shoes and and are unbiased."
Kate Sugrue

Customer Stories and Video Campaigns:
Building Trust and Demonstrating Value

Brynn Heynam from Amplitude shared insights into their successful customer advocacy campaign, which has transformed customers into brand storytellers. Launched two years ago, this initiative utilized compelling video testimonials to demonstrate the tangible impact of Amplitude's digital analytics platform and drive customer engagement.

The campaign involved meticulous planning, including workshops and a two-day filming session in Oakland, in collaboration with the San Francisco agency, TEEK. Key elements of the campaign included short, engaging social media videos, a dedicated landing page featuring 12 customer stories, and a detailed ebook that provided valuable insights for users.

Strategic distribution efforts incorporated both organic and paid social media advertising, as well as retargeting through Google Ads, leading to impressive engagement results. The ebook emerged as a top lead generator, and the campaign fostered a sense of community among customers, positioning them as thought leaders.

Brynn also emphasized the importance of internal communication in overcoming challenges, such as securing customer approval for ROI metrics in videos. By ensuring sales teams were well-informed, Amplitude streamlined operations and enhanced campaign effectiveness.

In summary, Brynn's approach illustrates the power of storytelling in marketing, showcasing how well-executed campaigns can build trust and turn customers into enthusiastic advocates.
Power of Customer Stories: "I previously worked at a company called Medallia, and we had by the end, an ebook with 70 customer stories in it that our sales team loved, and we would actually print it. They would take it on-site. So I do think there's value in, like, having a really substantial customer story ebook that you're constantly adding to, just to have a really, you know, beautiful big set of customer stories."
Brynn Heynam

Recognition and Community Building: The Workleap Strategy

Utilizing Employee Engagement Data
Rob Eyre at Workleap implemented an innovative "employee experience leader program" that recognized top-performing customers through engagement scores. The initiative combined technology and strategic communication to build customer advocacy and showcase success stories.

Using SlapFive, the campaign streamlined content collection and consent management. The program exceeded expectations with 20 out of 60 customers participating (33% engagement rate), resulting in over 20 comprehensive case studies. The "rolling thunder" approach maintained continuous momentum through regular recognition and content distribution.

Key elements included:
  • Social media materials and PR templates
  • Recognition badges for top performers
  • Efficient legal approval process via email
  • Customer-driven content sharing on social platforms
  • Internal collaboration across teams

The campaign's success led to unexpected voluntary customer participation and established a foundation for an annual program. Without requiring external agency support, the initiative demonstrated the effectiveness of combining structured recognition with strategic storytelling to build brand advocacy.

The program's achievements highlighted the value of clear communication, aligned goals, and systematic customer engagement in building a strong advocacy community.
From Template to Case Study: "All I really need to do was, like, take those story responses and plop them into this template, to just find the person's headshot if they usually would send me their headshot anyways, and then we would have a case study built."
Rob Ayre

Key Takeaways: Lessons in Advocacy and Campaign Planning

Setting Clear Goals and Metrics
All of our guests agreed on the necessity of defining clear goals and metrics.

Brynn stressed the importance of revisiting the campaign brief (example) to ensure alignment with objectives and eliminate unnecessary ideas.

Rob emphasized using data and templates effectively, allowing for the creation of numerous case studies without relying on external help.

Engagement Inside and Out
Engagement isn't just external; internal communication is equally important. Brynn underscored the need to share campaign details with the whole team to ensure everyone aligns on the definition of success.
Final Thoughts
Bianca Del Vecchio (Captivate Collective) wrapped up the session by acknowledging the effective campaigns from Intercom, Amplitude, and Workweek. The conversations highlighted that investing in personalized, thoughtful engagement can yield exceptional results. As more companies recognize the value of AI and structured advocacy efforts, the future of customer service and engagement looks bright.

As demonstrated by Bianca, Kate, Brynn, and Rob, the key lies in strategic planning, execution, and the human element, enabling companies to not only meet but exceed customer expectations and build a new era of trust and loyalty in the age of AI.

Interested in more insights on innovative customer advocacy strategies? Be sure to tune in to the next episode of CMAweekly!
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