Vol. 101: Picture-perfect precision 📸

Case Studied
Two goals, one stone

For many established DTC brands, growth is a balancing act. On one side, there are loyal customers to retain. On the other, there are new customers to engage with and convert. 

As tricky as it is to grow both sides of that seesaw, Shutterfly found a way to successfully do it through converged TV strategies. 

This week, Case Studied explores how Shutterfly drove both retention and new customer acquisition with a converged TV strategy

The Brief

Shutterfly is a leading online platform for personalized photo products. They offer everything from photo books and calendars to custom home décor and gifts. 

As a category, personalized gifting is highly seasonal and emotionally driven, peaking around key moments like holidays and graduations. That means Shutterfly must stay top-of-mind when memories are being made.

But competition has heated up. The rise of Etsy, TikTok Shop, and hybrid DTC-retail players has reshaped how consumers buy personalized products. To stay competitive, Shutterfly needed a strategy that could help them maintain favorability among loyal customers while driving purchase intent among new audiences.

The Execution

Partnering with Rain the Growth Agency, Shutterfly set out to refresh its media mix, blending the reach of TV with the precision of digital to capture hearts and households in key seasonal moments.

Rain the Growth Agency built a converged TV strategy that united Linear TV, Connected TV (CTV), and Online Video (OLV) into one cohesive framework designed to reach three key audience segments: existing customers, younger aspirational consumers, and emerging audiences.

Here’s what the media mix looked like:

• YouTube: Creator sponsorships, shoppable mastheads, and Demand Gen ads reached younger audiences while retargeting campaigns nudged high-intent users. UGC-driven video content expanded reach during peak gifting windows to net-new users.
  

• Connected TV (CTV): Using a custom algorithm informed by Shutterfly’s first-party and real-time search data, the team identified high-opportunity markets where people were searching for Shutterfly’s products but not the brand. They doubled down on top-performing publishers like Paramount, Roku, Tubi, and Hulu, while also piloting new premium and FAST publishers like Vizio, LG, and WBD.
  

• Linear TV: National placements across TBS, HGTV, and Hallmark drove awareness among Shutterfly’s core demographics, reinforced by flexible in-campaign optimizations and opportunistic “firesales” during high-viewership periods.

While Shutterfly managed creative in-house, Rain the Growth Agency provided strategic input on call-to-action elements to enhance campaign effectiveness. They also layered in audience segmentation, Lift Labs incrementality testing, and cross-channel measurement to continually refine performance. Together, it created a behaviorally informed, data-backed video ecosystem built for both reach and results.

The Results

The strategy paid off big for Shutterfly. Unified Measurement Attribution (UMA) and incrementality testing via Lift Labs validated the performance across channels, and found a 12% improvement in new customer acquisition and a 29% increase in new customer growth rate. 

YouTube and CTV proved most effective in reaching younger audiences, while Linear TV remained a top performer among Shutterfly’s loyal base. The strategy drove both retention and acquisition and lifted retail and Amazon sales, demonstrating cross-channel impact across DTC, retail, and ecommerce channels.

The Takeaways

1)  Converged TV can bridge brand and performance.

Shutterfly’s strategy proved that brand storytelling and performance marketing don’t have to live in separate worlds. By integrating Linear, CTV, and YouTube into one cohesive ecosystem, the brand could reach new audiences while reinforcing loyalty among its existing ones. The result was a media mix that built emotional connection at the top of the funnel and measurable action at the bottom.

For marketers, this is a reminder that convergence is more than a buzzword. When your media channels are all part of the conversation, your campaigns can work harder across the entire customer journey. Think less about separating awareness and acquisition, and more about how each can amplify the other.

2) Recognize the strengths of each channel.

Shutterfly found that YouTube and CTV were highly effective for reaching younger, aspirational consumers, while Linear TV delivered strong reach and resonance among their core, older audience. By tailoring their creative and media strategy to the strengths of each platform, they ensured the right stories reached the right audiences.

Make sure you build your channel mix around the unique behaviors you’re seeing across them. Different audiences consume content in different ways, and what feels authentic on YouTube might feel forced on broadcast TV. When you respect those distinctions and design creative accordingly, you get the efficiency of precision targeting and the emotional lift of relevance.

3) Measure what matters across every screen.

Validated testing through Unified Measurement Attribution and Lift Labs gave Shutterfly a complete picture of performance across channels. Those insights revealed how video impressions translated into incremental sales and where budget shifts could unlock greater impact. Instead of guessing which platform was working, the brand could invest with confidence.

Strong measurement can be the bridge between experimentation and scale. Use it to help you connect the dots between visibility and value so your wins are backed by data, not assumptions. Whether you’re running across three channels or 10, unified analytics should be your north star for optimizing both reach and return.

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