Odido and Merkle win Marigold Award for TeamNL campaign ahead of Olympic Games

Telecom provider Odido has won a Marigold Award for a successful multichannel marketing campaign delivered in the run-up to the Olympic Games in Paris.

Held for the third time, the annual Marigold Awards celebrate excellence in loyalty and digital marketing campaigns. The awards judge cases from all corners of the world, with winners announced across four categories.

The category known as ‘The Multichannel Magician’ was won by Odido and its consultancy partner Merklefor their joint TeamNL campaign, which saw Odido apply omnichannel best practices to effectively reach over 400,000 consumers and delight around 2.400 campaign winners with an exclusive TeamNL t-shirt.

One of the largest telecom providers in the Netherlands, Odido is the official sponsor of TeamNL, the umbrella organisation that represents professional Dutch athletes (and coaching staff) at sporting competitions worldwide, including at World Championships and the Olympic Games.

The Olympics campaign

In the run-up to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Odido wanted to increase the awareness of its TeamNL sponsorship. Several campaigns were created, including campaigns on tv, print and online media, as well as the more tailored TeamNL t-shirt giveaway campaign.

The TeamNL t-shirt giveaway campaign kicked off with a personalized email blast, sent to around 430,000 people. Recipients were invited to claim their t-shirt, with those that were interested directed to a custom landing page to check real-time the availability of their t-shirt size. At the end of the campaign, nearly 2,400 t-shirts were ordered, which according to Odido was close to exactly what it had hoped for.

“Our TeamNL t-shirt giveaway campaign aimed to inspire and activate customers by tapping into the Olympic excitement. The secondary goal was to boost customer engagement and loyalty,” said Odido on the campaign.

Marigold technology

Odido and Merkle ran the campaign using Marigold technology, which led to the team winning the Marigold Award 2025.

Using Marigold Engage, the campaign was created and delivered to recipients. The system helped ensure a smooth and personalized experience, including recognizing customers and visitors returning to the site if they had previously broken off their experience. After placing an order, customers received an instant confirmation email.

Meanwhile, for Odido, Marigold Engage provided several key operational functionalities such as real-time stock insights, preventing overselling and duplicate orders. It also allowed Odido to send all orders to the fulfillment house in one efficient batch.

When the t-shirts were finally dispatched, customers received SMS notifications with track-and-trace codes, keeping them informed throughout the process. This too was facilitated by Marigold.

Multichannel excellence

At the Awards ceremony, the jury lauded Odido and Merkle for orchestrating a seamless multichannel journey, integrating email, landing pages and SMS to create a unified experience for the customer. The team was also praised for its ability to improve both the customer experience and business outcomes, and for its technical proficiency in achieving multichannel excellence through Marigold’s platform.

Commenting on the recognition, Merkle stated in a release: “By using Marigold, Odido and Merkle integrated multiple channels into a single, seamless workflow. This not only simplified campaign management but also ensured a consistent and personalized customer experience. The platform empowered our team to deliver a well-coordinated multichannel campaign, significantly boosting efficiency and results.”

Merkle has been a partner of Marigold since 2010. The international consulting firm, which is a subsidiary of dentsu, previously also won a Marigold award for a loyalty campaign with a major supermarket chain.