In Chapter 1 of Hello $Firstname, Kim Motroen reads ‘The Hype of Personalisation’.

Kim is one of the founders of Publicis Foundry and has spent more than 20 years working with marketing, technology, and customer experience.

This chapter traces the roots of personalisation hype back to The One to One Future by Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, and explores why the idea of individualised communication has remained so powerful for marketers, brands, and technology vendors.

The chapter looks at the commercial promise of personalisation, from higher customer lifetime value to better omnichannel performance, while also questioning whether the technology has truly matured. It discusses martech growth, Gartner’s hype cycles, personalisation engines, multichannel marketing hubs, and the arrival of generative AI.

In his reflection at the end, Kim points out that even though we have moved from one-to-one marketing in the 1990s to AI and real-time personalisation today, many organisations still struggle with the fundamentals: data quality, ownership, execution, and actually getting things live.

The conclusion is clear: personalisation can create major value, but it is not magic, and it is not always plug-and-play. To avoid misunderstandings, bad investments, and broken promises, marketers need more clarity.

More resources from the Hello $Firstname universe

You can buy the physical book here: https://amzn.eu/d/6jV4QZT

If the Amazon EU link does not work in your country, please search for Hello $Firstname: Profiting from Personalisation, AI Edition on your local Amazon store.

You can download the illustrations and models from the book here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/resources

You can also learn more about the Personalisation Cards and Canvas, which help teams turn the Bowtie of Personalisation into practical use cases, here: https://www.omnichannelinstitute.com/en/personalizationcards