How can you reduce marketing fatigue and stay clear from creepy marketing ?

It all swings back round to the data…

Just a few days ago I was reading a 2024 Global Consumer Trend index which presented the result of an original “cool vs creepy” survey . The practices that came out as the coolest were “Personalised birthday offers”, “Recommendations based on past purchase” and “Abandoned basket email”, whilst the creepiest were “Ads from brands you don’t recognise based on geographic location” and “Ads based on indirect tracking tools like third party cookies”.

It might be self-evident but I find really interesting that those top 5 practices are exactly on par with the opposite sides of first vs third party data. What I mean is that the cool practices are solely relying on zero and first-party data, whilst the creepy ones are based on indirect or third-party data.

I have no doubt that it is possible to create cool customer experiences based on third party data and creepy ones based on first-party data, but I do believe that from the get-go there is a foundational understanding between a trusted brand and their clients. Both sides know the scope of the data explicitly or implicitly shared, and there are unsaid expectations about how it should be used.

Avoid feelings of unease: ‘my phone’s definitely listening to me!’

The creepy feeling comes when consumers can see something is happening, but can’t see how it’s been done (like a friend seeing an ad on Meta about something we were discussing on WhatsApp a few hours before), or because the topic is too personal (why do I keep seeing ads about hair loss?!).

My two pennies worth is to avoid doing anything that is so clever that it makes people uncomfortable, and instead to be upfront with why they are seeing the content presented to them. For example, recommendations can be introduced as “based on your last visit” or “good alternatives to the out-of-stock product you left in your basket”.

None of those concepts are intrinsically complicated, but implementing them well is not as straightforward as it seems. As always, I encourage you all to look at your data quality and completeness, and your ability to activate it sensibly through the most pertinent channels in a timeframe that makes sense. I also understand that’s not as straightforward as it sounds either! If it’s something you’re struggling with you should drop us a note, we might be able to help.

Factually, what are the impacts of excessive marketing pressure?

Poorly calibrated pressure does not just create irritation—it directly affects customer relationships and campaign performance:

• Increase in unsubscribe rates (with 57% of unsubscribes driven by a perceived excessive email frequency)
• Rise in complaints and spam reports
• Deterioration of brand image and growing customer frustration
• Decline in campaign effectiveness: fatigue (“marketing fatigue”) significantly reduces open and engagement rates as frequency increases

Over-contacting your customers, or doing so without delivering real value, is not just about lower open rates or weaker marketing KPIs. It is a business risk that undermines customer loyalty, increases compliance pressure, and ultimately damages your brand perception.

Best practices for optimizing marketing pressure are well known. The real challenge lies in execution.

Managing marketing pressure is not just about limiting the number of messages sent. It is about striking the right balance: delivering the right message, at the right time, through the right channel—without creating fatigue or frustration. This balance is enabled by:

• Fine-grained, behavior-based segmentation
• Clearly defined business rules
• Monitoring of key metrics (frequency, open rate, conversion, unsubscribe rate)
• Useful, personalized, and transparent content
• Continuous testing and optimization
• Compliance with regulations, within the European framework, and giving users full control (e.g., Trust Centers)

These best practices rely primarily on your ability to unify customer data, orchestrate activation campaigns, and manage a seamless omnichannel customer journey. They are at the core of the imagino Customer Engagement Platform.

For example, Toyota Financial Services improved its campaign orchestration with imagino, achieving +65% open rates and +25% engagement.

If implementing this type of customer experience remains a challenge, let’s talk, we can help.