Led the data and GDPR compliance stream of an Adobe Campaign CRM migration, launching on time and fully compliant across multiple brands.
→ GDPR-compliant launch. Dynamic customer journeys live across all brands.
Problem
Laithwaites was migrating to Adobe Campaign as its new CRM platform, which meant reviewing customer data, journey logic and GDPR compliance across multiple brands at once, on a shared rollout timeline, while live campaigns kept running.
Context
I led the CRM data and compliance stream of this rollout, working alongside the technical migration team responsible for the platform build itself.
Business objective
Deliver a fully GDPR-compliant Adobe Campaign launch across every brand, without pausing live marketing activity while the migration happened.
Customer/user objective
Customers needed their data handled correctly through the migration, with no gap in consent or compliance during the transition between platforms.
Constraints
The business couldn’t pause its marketing while the migration happened, and the rollout ran to a single shared timeline across multiple brands, so compliance gaps found late in one brand risked delaying the whole launch.
Stakeholders
The Data Protection Officer, brand marketing teams whose live campaigns had to keep running, and the technical team building the migration itself.
Research and discovery
I reviewed all customer data and contact processes against GDPR requirements, brand by brand, rather than assuming what worked for one brand would hold for another.
Options considered
I considered treating GDPR review as a final check before launch versus running it in parallel with the build. I chose to run it in parallel, working with the Data Protection Officer to close gaps as they were found, since leaving it to the end risked compliance issues blocking the launch date.
Prioritisation
Brand-by-brand review came first, since assuming consistency across brands was exactly the kind of shortcut that would have let a compliance gap through.
Delivery
I worked with the Data Protection Officer to close out compliance gaps before launch rather than treating them as something to fix afterwards, and led the build of customer journeys inside Adobe Campaign, overseeing testing and deployment through to launch.
Decisions made
Reviewing compliance brand by brand, rather than applying one GDPR assessment across all of them, was the decision that mattered most, it took longer but caught differences a single assessment would have missed.
Trade-offs
The brand-by-brand review took longer than a single blanket assessment would have. I judged that necessary given the compliance risk of assuming brands were interchangeable.
Business outcome
Adobe Campaign launched on time, fully GDPR compliant, with customer journeys live across every brand from day one.
Customer outcome
Customers experienced no disruption to how their data was handled through the migration, with compliance maintained throughout rather than caught up on afterwards.
Lessons learned
Assuming consistency across brands on data handling is a real risk, differences that look minor on the surface can hide genuine compliance gaps.
What I'd improve today
I would build the brand-by-brand GDPR review into the project plan from day one as a formal workstream, rather than it emerging as necessary once the migration was already underway.
