Customer Story
Challenge: Engage customers and promote back-to-school offerings in a fun, memorable way
Solution: Create a gamified Rich SMS campaign with Sinch
Results: Significantly increased engagement and website traffic
“Sinch helped us create fun and interactive animation which enabled us to achieve our goal of recognition and image among a family-oriented target audience”
Estelle Boufrioua
Relationship Marketing Project Manager, Crédit Mutuel Arkéa
Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, a French cooperative banking group, wanted to elevate their back-to-school campaign beyond standard promotional messages. Estelle Boufrioua, Relationship Marketing Project Manager at Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, saw an opportunity to combine two powerful trends: gamification and mobile messaging.
“Our role is to support our members and customers at every moment of their lives. Our back-to-school operation is part of this approach: an operation to activate the relationship, aiming to equip our customers with suitable products and services,” explains Estelle.
The concept was simple yet engaging: customers received a Rich SMS inviting them to play a digital game where they had to find and drag three hidden school supplies into a virtual school bag as quickly as possible.
Players had a chance to win a €30 voucher from Kadeos Edenred, a popular gift card program in Europe that allows recipients to shop at a wide variety of retailers.
“As households face significant expenses during this period, we also want to support our customers through this ‘helping hand’ campaign by allowing them to try to win a gift voucher,” says Estelle.
As players engaged with the game, they were shown relevant offerings such as comprehensive school insurance and family life insurance, with special deals for existing customers.
The choice to use Rich SMS was critical to the campaign’s success. Unlike traditional SMS, Rich SMS allowed the bank to embed interactive elements and images directly in the message.
The Rich SMS achieved a 30% click-through rate – four times higher than the market average for similar campaigns. Once on the game page, 93% of customers participated.
Crédit Mutuel Arkéa saw a 48.5% increase in traffic to their products, services, and consultation pages. This meant that the fun, gamified experience successfully translated into genuine interest in what the bank had to offer.
This wasn’t a one-time success. Crédit Mutuel Arkéa has run this campaign for three years, refining it each time with Sinch’s help.
“It is important to emphasize that this performance is made possible thanks to the optimization and innovation offered each year by the Sinch team,” notes Estelle.
For Crédit Mutuel Arkéa, the Rich SMS campaign shows how banks can use creativity and technology to connect with customers in meaningful ways. It’s not just about sending a message—it’s about creating an experience that resonates.
