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Reasonably, a lot of people have been complaining on social media about the crush of emails they’ve received from brands regarding updates to their privacy policies. In compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which went into effect on May 25, companies now have to tell European customers what personal information they’re gathering and exactly how they’re using that data.
As it turns out, not all GDPR emails are a source of misery for shoppers. Some brands have turned a legal obligation into an opportunity to woo their customers, like the professional apparel label MM.LaFleur, which saw its privacy policy email bring in sales of more than $4,000. That’s less than most of its marketing emails generate, but it surprised the team nonetheless.
“Our expectation was that it would drive zero dollars,” says Tory Hoen, MM.LaFleur’s creative director of brand.
Hoen’s team wanted to make the GDPR message feel specific to MM.LaFleur’s audience of busy professional women, “even though it’s the most boring email that anyone’s going to get.” The result is an efficient note that’s a little sarcastic (subject line: “The most exhilarating email you’ll get today: an update on our privacy policy”) and that slyly nods to the attorneys on their distribution list.
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Not to sound melodramatic, but there’s a real risk in sending shoppers a winking, overly cute note about a widely discussed topic like data privacy, the danger being that it could fall flat or come off looking lame. As one Twitter user wrote recently, “I don’t know what’s more infuriating now, the level of #GDPR emails or brands [sic] desperate attempts at a luring subject line!”
MM.LaFleur seems to have avoided that fate. So did Reformation, which gave its privacy policy update a breezy, low-key tone that acknowledged how exhausted its shoppers probably were by the onslaught of GDPR emails.
I've never hated the EU more than this week but I truly appreciate the copy efforts that @reformationx and @mmlafleur put into their privacy policy update emails
— Jackie Huang Linayao (@jackielinayao) May 25, 2018
Maybe the least eye-roll inducing GDPR email @reformationx #Kthxbye pic.twitter.com/qCizLVTmQs
— Caroline Carson (@OhCarolineNo) May 25, 2018
Really want to meet the content person who writes for @reformationx — hands down the best GDPR privacy policy email update I’ve seen so far.
— Natalia Saylor (@NataliaSaylor) May 26, 2018
Turning a GDPR email into a branding moment and a way to connect with shoppers is significant precisely because GDPR emails are a reminder that we have good reason to distrust the companies we buy things from, many of which gather and use our data in ways we’re not informed about.
Indeed, plenty of brands irritated the heck out of their shoppers with overzealous messages ahead of (and after) the GDPR deadline on Friday, May 25. A number of people on Twitter called out Asos for waking them up in the middle of the night with text messages about it. (Asos declined to comment about its GDPR strategy for this story.)
I've been getting so many emails from @asos about GDPR, but it was the 3.40am reminder text today that made me leap out of bed and subscribe to their email - great marketing guys!
— Sarah Shearman (@Shearmans) May 25, 2018
How not to do #GDPR by @ASOS @ASOS_HeretoHelp. Text people at 4am and then 7am to remind them that today is #GDPRday. Yes, being woken up definitely makes me want to 'opt in' #fail
— Jeanette Gill (@JeanetteG1982) May 25, 2018
Would like to thank @ASOS for the text message at 04:33 this morning reminding me about #GDPR First time they’ve ever contacted me...to tell me they can’t contact me again without permission #GDPRday #GDPRidiots pic.twitter.com/zUNx3BlwhU
— Dean Cockett (@DeanCockett) May 25, 2018
Did you, like those MM.LaFleur shoppers, wind up buying something because of a GDPR email? If so, tell me about it at eliza@racked.com.