

The Sports Brand's Guide to Fandom
Sep 5, 2025
36:10
Klaviyo has become the de facto personal CRM for eCommerce. Ben Jackson, Managing Director for EMEA, joins us to unpack how brands move beyond campaign calendars into relationship-building at scale. We get into rocketship growth, why attribution is still broken, and how Castore’s multi-instance CRM model points to a future where both/and thinking beats false trade-offs.
If You’re Just Following the Data, You’re Following the Past
Key takeaways:
- The marketer's identity crisis: Evolving from channel specialists to customer relationship managers orchestrating holistic experiences.
- Scale meets personalization: Castore manages 32 Klaviyo instances while maintaining intimate relationships through strategic automation.
- Attribution's cultural revolution: How brands are moving beyond "either/or" to "both/and" so they can measure immediate performance while building long-term value.
- Channel affinity intelligence: AI identifies not just preferred channels, but optimal timing to eliminate fatigue.
- "There's not many brands that you would get tattooed on yourself. But if you're a sports fan, if you're a supporter of a national team or a football club... that means you really care about the experience you have with that brand." - Ben Jackson on Castore's passionate customer base
- "Rather than our reliance being quite heavy on sending out a load of email blasts to try and tick revenue targets... Let's tell those stories. Let's give the customer who we know is already incredibly passionate a reason to be loyal." - Max Holland (Castore) on content-driven relationship building
- "If you're just following the data, you're following the past. If you're following the competition, you're following what everybody else has done, and it's really difficult to differentiate if you're gonna do that." - Ben Jackson on creative marketing philosophy
- "Some of the impact you have as a marketer today, typically you take credit for the success in that moment. But some of it is about building that brand, building that customer experience... that doesn't just last for that point of one transaction. It kind of lasts over years." - Ben Jackson on long-term value thinking
In-Show Mentions:
- Castore - Athletic wear brand managing 32 Klaviyo instances for partner teams and clubs
- Rory Sutherland - Behavioral economist discussing explore/exploit marketing philosophy
- K London - Klaviyo's European conference with 1,500 attendees and waiting list
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