A birthday greeting with a bigger commercial impact
Norsk Rikstoto’s personalised birthday programme generated 3.4x the betting spend per recipient of its previous birthday email. The purchase rate reached 3.9x the previous level, while the click rate climbed to 21x.
The team replaced a standard email with a film made for each customer, delivered by SMS on their birthday. Created in-house in Seen Studio using footage from the racetrack, the new programme brought customers closer to the sport and more than tripled the betting spend generated per recipient.
The Challenge
Norsk Rikstoto had already seen the commercial impact of personalised video in its onboarding programme: around 37% increase in revenue per play, 37% more players playing again within 28 days and 33% more players still active after six months. Its birthday programme was simpler: active customers received an email with five fun facts about horses and a link to the day’s betting offer.
The greeting was friendly, but click-through was limited. Norsk Rikstoto wanted to make the occasion feel personal and give customers a stronger connection to horse racing.
The Solution
The marketing team turned the birthday greeting into a report from Bjerke racetrack. The film opens with the customer’s name and age, before a reporter takes viewers to the stable area, where drivers wish them a happy birthday.
Each film features:
- First name, shown in the birthday greeting.
- Age, featured on the opening birthday card.
Norsk Rikstoto’s own team filmed the footage and built the experience in Seen Studio. Seen supported the setup and API integration, with delivery triggered automatically on each customer’s birthday.
The film arrived by SMS, putting the greeting directly onto customers’ phones on the day itself. The programme also expanded beyond the previous email audience to include both active and inactive customers.
Results
The commercial result led the story: more than triple the betting spend per recipient, supported by a purchase rate that nearly quadrupled.
Compared with the previous birthday email:
- 3.4x betting spend per recipient
- 3.9x purchase rate
- 21x click rate
These figures compare the two programmes across their reporting periods. They reflect the combined move to personalised video and SMS, alongside the broader audience. Betting spend per recipient means the total amount spent on bets, averaged across everyone who received the birthday message.
Less-frequent customers contributed more than a third of the programme’s betting spend, showing the commercial contribution from beyond the most regular players.
The film held people’s attention too. Nearly 8 in 10 visitors pressed play, and almost 9 in 10 of those viewers watched to the end. Customers opened their videos 2.4 times on average.
Several customers also contacted Norsk Rikstoto’s customer service team simply to say how much they appreciated the greeting.
More value from a recurring customer moment
The programme combined a personal occasion, familiar faces from the sport and automatic delivery on the day. Norsk Rikstoto’s marketing team created the experience themselves, using footage they’d filmed at the track.
For a recurring birthday communication, the outcome was substantial: 3.4x betting spend per recipient, with 3.9x the purchase rate. A personal greeting became a commercially stronger part of the customer relationship.
We saw stronger engagement from both active and inactive customers, and several contacted our customer service team just to say how much they appreciated the greeting.
About Norsk Rikstoto
Norsk Rikstoto provides horse racing betting in Norway. It uses Seen.io for personalised customer communications, including onboarding and birthday greetings.
