Case Study: Lyle & Scott, SYYCO & Sientia
Scaling new customer acquisition through banking channels
SYYCO and Lyle & Scott had a clear objective for Card-Linked Offers: unlock targeted new customer acquisition at scale, without adding operational complexity or compromising on measurement.
As a well-established, premium fashion brand, Lyle & Scott have a mature affiliate programme which is managed by leading management agency SYYCO. Having already seen significant growth with SYYCO, Lyle & Scott were keen to explore additional customer acquisition opportunities to further drive direct revenue. SYYCO recommended CLO as a way to access high-intent audiences inside banking apps at the point of spend. The opportunity was clear, but so were the challenges. Fragmentation across publishers, unclear attribution, and internal scepticism often prevent CLO from scaling beyond small tests.
That’s where Sientia came in.
From the outset the focus was on simplicity and control. Rather than navigating multiple bank integrations and commercial relationships, SYYCO were able to launch Lyle & Scott across some of the largest UK banking platforms through a single access point. At the same time, SYYCO ensured the activity was structured to sit cleanly alongside their existing affiliate setup, ensuring alignment across channels.
What could have been a complex, multi-partner rollout became a streamlined activation with one contract, one reporting framework, and one source of truth.
The early results quickly validated the channel.
A significant majority of transactions were driven by entirely new customers, with only a small proportion coming from existing or lapsed users. This wasn’t CLO acting as another retargeting layer, it was reaching genuinely incremental audiences. Banking environments introduced Lyle & Scott to customers they wouldn’t typically capture through traditional digital channels, all at the moment those users were actively spending.
Just as importantly, this acquisition came efficiently. The cost per new customer remained highly competitive for a premium fashion brand, and compared favourably to other performance channels. Rather than trading margin for volume, the programme delivered a steady flow of high-quality customers at a sustainable cost.
Under the surface, the data reinforced this story. Transaction volumes translated into a broad base of unique customers, rather than being driven by repeat behaviour, and average order values remained consistent with the brand’s wider performance. This signalled that the channel was not diluting customer quality, but instead extending reach.
A key factor in building internal confidence was visibility.
Through Sientia’s live reporting and analytics, the SYYCO team had a clear, real-time view of Lyle & Scott’s performance across banks, markets and customer types. This transparency allowed them to move beyond the typical “black box” perception of CLO and instead treat it as a targeted and measurable growth channel. Performance could be understood, shared with Lyle & Scott, and built upon.
This was further strengthened by the integration into their affiliate ecosystem. This ensured CLO activity sat within a familiar reporting and operational structure ensuring the channel complemented, rather than conflicted with, existing activity.
With strong foundations in place, the focus has now shifted to scale.
What began as a UK activation has expanded into a broader European strategy, with the programme now live across the UK, the Netherlands and Sweden. CLO is no longer a test channel for Lyle & Scott, it is an active part of their customer acquisition mix, supporting both online and in-store growth.
Crucially, this expansion hasn’t introduced additional complexity. The same centralised setup, reporting, and operational model continues to underpin the programme, allowing the SYYCO team to scale Lyle & Scott’s activity confidently and efficiently.
Lyle & Scott’s journey reflects a broader shift in how CLO is being adopted.
When executed correctly, it moves beyond experimentation and becomes a reliable, scalable source of incremental growth. By focusing on data quality, operational simplicity and clear measurement from day one, Sientia has enabled SYYCO and Lyle & Scott to turn a historically opaque channel into one that is built for long-term scale.
Top level metrics for replit:
- High new customer rates (~79%)
- Efficient CAC (~£13.75)
- 3 x bank publishers launched
About SYYCO
SYYCO is a specialist affiliate, influencer and partnerships management agency with extensive experience in the retail, travel and leisure sectors. We help brands to drive incremental growth through working with well-established, high quality partners, creating efficiencies and reducing costs. To find out more about SYYCO and how we could help your business grow, contact us here.