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While the weather outside is frightfully hot this summer, it’s never too soon to start thinking about the holidays – and consumers are more likely to start their holiday shopping early this year. To get you ready for the 2022 holiday shopping season, we looked back at consumer shopping trends from 2019-2021. What did we learn and what trends do we expect to see this year? Let’s look back. A look back Over the last three years, average consumer spending has increased. Record 2021 holiday sales came amidst a wave of COVID-19 cases, rising inflation, labor shortages, and supply chain problems. Despite these challenges, consumers continued to let it snow when it came to spending during the holiday season.  2022 has been a year with its own economic roadblocks – the war in Ukraine, rising gas prices, and recession concerns. Yet 2021 was a banner year for holiday sales despite its obstacles, and we predict similar trends in the 2022 holiday shopping season. What trends do we expect to see for the most wonderful time of the year?  2022 predictions While consumer spending remains strong, changing economic conditions continue to shape shopper behavior. To develop our predictions for 2022 holiday shopper behavior, we focused on four key areas: When consumers shop Where consumers shop What consumers purchase Consumer media preferences Now, let's make our holiday campaign planning checklist and check it twice. When consumers shop Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Those aren’t the only ways to know when the holiday season has begun. Shoppers tend to spread out their holiday purchases across multiple months and were more likely to start shopping earlier. To understand holiday retail sales trends from 2019-2021, we identified four shopper segments:  Early Shoppers Traditional Shoppers Late Shoppers Random Shoppers What differences did we see between our four shopper segments? Early shoppers made almost half of their holiday purchases in October Random shoppers spread out their holiday purchases evenly across multiple months Late shoppers made almost half of their holiday purchases in December Traditional shoppers made almost half of their holiday purchases in November While December continues to dominate holiday sales, October has started to gain traction over the last three years, and November remains a core shopping month. Everybody knows a turkey and a mistletoe help to make the season bright but knowing when your consumers are most likely to shop will help deck your campaign planning halls. Jingle bell rock your way to holiday sales that shine bright with our tips to prepare for earlier shoppers:  Offer targeted promotions earlier in the shopping season Target your ads based on the shopping habits of your customers throughout the season Where consumers shop There’s no place like home for the holidays but most consumers aren’t shopping from home. Despite the rise in online shopping, brick and mortar locations continue to dominate holiday sales. October is the most popular month to take a one-horse open sleigh to a store, and consumers gather around the fire to online shop in November and December.     With most shoppers preferring to shop in-store, and e-commerce popularity growing, it’s critical to think about bridging the gap between your online and offline presence for the consumer. Are you offering multiple paths to purchase with solutions such as BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In-Store)?  Go down in history like Rudolph with our tips to prepare for more in-store shopping:  Focus on in-store shopping experience technology (self-checkout, VR, QR codes, scan to pay, etc.) Offer multiple paths to purchase to connect your online and physical presence through methods such as BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In-Store), BORIS (Buy Online, Return In-Store), and ROPO (Research Online, Purchase Offline), etc. What consumers purchase When it comes to holiday gifts, for some, only a hippopotamus will do. Compared to pre-pandemic, shoppers are spending more at apparel stores and mass retailers. Spending at specialty retailers, warehouse clubs, and on office, electronic, and games is almost the same across holiday and non-holiday shopping months. Time for toys and time for cheer may be year-round, but are there any correlations between where consumers shop (online vs. in-store) and what they purchase? Our data found that shoppers who bought from mass retailers were more likely to shop online, while shopping for apparel and warehouse clubs was done at a physical store location.     Put this insight to the test by thinking through how you can target your consumer based on where they shop in-store and online. You just might find that hippopotamus at a brick and mortar mass retailer location!  Consumer media preferences Do you see what I see? While we are seeing a shift to digital media channel preference, consumers still engage with traditional media channels like direct mail and the traditional newspaper. Successfully connecting with your customers involves capturing their attention through the right channel. We found that our four shopping groups prefer a mix of traditional and digital media channels. What does your media channel mix look like?  Hark! The herald angels sing of ways to adapt to the change in holiday spend and media preferences:  Align your activation efforts to digital, but don't forget about traditional channels Expand your targeting and activation focus beyond in-store vs. online Download our new 2024 report For a deeper dive into our predictions and actionable insights you can use to take your holiday campaign planning home for the holidays, download our new 2024 report. Experian data can help you refine your content and creative strategy to achieve maximum ROI for each campaign across all your channels. Download now

Fluctuation in consumers' behaviors and preferences during the pandemic has prompted a shift in the practices and patterns that we are accustomed to. Powerful market forces are emerging as society builds a new normal, forcing marketers to rethink their strategy, activation, and measurement.   It is important for marketers to understand the forces that influence the industry, and to learn about alternative approaches that can be applied to help reach their goals.   In our recent webinar, ‘How to Adjust to the New World of Advertising,’ Experian’s Chris Feo and guest speaker Tina Moffett, Principal Analyst at Forrester Research, lead an in-depth discussion of the market dynamics and developments guiding us to this new era of advertising. They talked about:  The pandemic changing consumer behavior  Emerging media channels   Data deprecation    The pandemic and increased media consumption The pandemic caused seismic shifts in consumer behaviors and business operations. Work from home became the norm, consumers made drastic changes in their routines, and businesses had to adjust to new operating models as local economies shrank and supply chains strained. As stay-at-home orders were put into effect, consumers increased their media consumption drastically as more time was spent at home in front of their devices. According to Forrester, by June 2020, 48% of US online adults subscribed to at least one streaming service, while 34% had signed up for multiple.  Forrester contends that:  Social and online video/OTT will grow fastest among other categories of ad spend   Connected TV outpaces other video advertising channels  55% of consumers plan to continue watching movies at home rather than in theatres after the pandemic    Data deprecation   The ways that marketers can personalize content and measure the effectiveness of campaigns is changing with data deprecation. Consumer preferences, regulations, and technology providers are evolving the way advertisers understand consumers, causing changes to existing identity-based marketing strategies. According to Forrester, 66% of marketers are investing in first-party data collection strategies to adapt to these market forces.    Marketers need to adjust   Demand for a new advertising approach    Changes in consumer behavior, evolving media consumption patterns, and data deprecation have marketers looking at new approaches to targeting and measurement. However, with the future uncertain in many of these areas, marketers need to test and experiment to determine which approach is best for them in particular use cases.     Shifting to a new world of experimentation   Advertisers need to start by assessing their current environment to determine where they have exposure today, which methods of identification they are using, and how those channels may be impacted by the market forces outlined earlier. From there, they need to start asking themselves how they can assess identity in the future or if there is another way to approach advertising in that specific channel.   There are specific areas where marketers can look to make investments in terms of experimentation:  Adoption of cleanrooms to support analytics and audience targeting Investment in first-party data to overcome the issue of data deprecation Shifting to a value-based, omni-channel advertising mindset to address customers’ needs Investment in data-savvy resources to manage media insights Adoption of consistent cross-platform advertising metrics and currencies to inform better planning If you missed our recent webinar ‘How to Adjust to the New World of Advertising,’ you can listen to the full discussion here. 

Third-party cookies have been a crucial component in people-based advertising and digital identity. With Google's recent announcement of delaying third-party cookie deprecation to 2024, the industry has more time to rethink how to effectively identify and communicate with consumers when the time comes. Preparing for cookie deprecation  Solving for the post-cookie world is mission critical, particularly as consumer expectation for a relevant digital experience is heightened. We’ve seen a number of industry participants, including brands, publishers, data providers and technology platforms, work around the clock to find an alternative to third-party cookies—one that amasses the same scale and reach but also maintains consumer privacy.  In fact, industry insights echo that sentiment. According to a white paper from Winterberry Group, Collaborative Data Solutions: The Evolution of Identity in a Privacy-First, Post-Cookie World, sponsored in part by Experian, one of the most frequently heard comments was the urgency for the industry to develop post-cookie, privacy compliant solutions that work in a more integrated manner.  And if there was one overarching position regarding the research into the future of identity, it’s that collaboration is key. Participants in the white paper expressed that with the elimination of third-party cookies, there will be a surge in collaborative solutions across and within companies to accommodate changes in the digital marketplace. Collaborative data solutions must move beyond new post-cookie identity replacements and encompass more holistic approaches, including first-party data.  First-party data sharing   Currently, 64.3 percent of organizations in the US collaborate with other organizations to share first-party data for insights, activation, measurement or attribution, and 16.7 percent in the U.S. have plans to. Virtually all US companies surveyed were aware of the option to collaborate with other organizations and expressed openness to discussions around sharing first-party data.  What is the solution to third-party cookie deprecation?   The deprecation of third-party cookies is creating a shock in the marketing and advertising world because there has been an over-dependence on one type of identifier. Therefore, the solution to identify consumers across the digital ecosystem will not come from a single replacement for third-party cookies. Instead, it will rely on a combination of solutions, including collaborative data between organizations and implementation of proprietary first-party data strategies, as well as a framework that can connect all these touchpoints together.  Experian can help you navigate the cookieless future   Experian is focused on building a more effective advertising ecosystem that promotes the interoperability of digital touchpoints while enabling and fostering new innovations in a privacy forward way. Contact us today and get started with building connected identity in the ever-changing data landscape. To learn more, watch the recording of our webinar with The Vitamin Shoppe where we discuss identity and how you can drive more addressable audience strategies amidst diminishing data signals.   

Experian Marketing Services and Data Quality President Genevieve Juillard recently sat down with Zach Rodgers, host of the AdExchanger Talks podcast to discuss the future of identity, the importance of data transparency and privacy, and our recent acquisition of Tapad. Genevieve focused on the opportunity for our industry to reimagine an advertising ecosystem that is resilient and adaptable; one that takes advantage of emerging data and prioritizes data transparency and consumer privacy. She also discussed the importance of advertising strategies that put consumers at the heart of every decision and give them more control over their data. Genevieve shared with AdExchanger that Experian’s acquisition of Tapad, a global leader in digital identity resolution, was a natural fit for our company. Tapad’s approach and role in the ecosystem is very much aligned with Experian’s, which is to develop solutions that are resilient to industry and consumer changes. The combination of our capabilities supports interoperability across all types of identifiers, both online and offline, and will position us to help our clients navigate the post-third-party cookie world. To learn more about Experian’s plans to support an effective advertising ecosystem that will evolve with our dynamic industry, listen to the full podcast Embracing ‘Healthy Fragmentation’ In Ad Tech, With Genevieve Juillard.

Cross-device matching and pixel-based foot traffic attribution reporting empower digital marketers with greater control of location-based campaigns.RALEIGH, N.C. (PRWEB) AUGUST 04, 2020 Tapad, part of Experian a global leader in digital identity resolution, and Reveal Mobile, a leader in location-based marketing, today announced a collaboration that combines Tapad's digital cross-device matching technology and pixel-based attribution features with Reveal Mobile’s VISIT Local, the software that hundreds of digital agencies and brands use for location-based analytics. The partnership is designed to drive improved performance by optimizing ad targeting and messaging for location-based campaigns. Powered by Tapad’s privacy-safe cross device matching, marketers using VISIT Local to power location-based campaigns can enhance how they reach shoppers. When one member of a household shops for groceries, clothes, household goods or any other consumer item, a conversation between multiple members of the household typically takes place beforehand. With cross device matching, marketers can reach everyone who has influence over what to buy and where to buy it. VISIT Local users can expand location-based services with a single click to include devices that share the same household, including targeting across multiple devices owned by the same user, allowing advertisers to maximize messaging and increase their share of wallet among consumers. “VISIT Local has always given our customers access to high-intent location-based audiences. With the addition of cross device matching from Tapad, advertisers can boost audience sizes up to 300 percent while maintaining full confidence in quality and relevance,” says Brian Handly, CEO of Reveal Mobile. “VISIT Local users can now apply multiple criteria and attributes to a single location-based audience, giving them the advanced control and transparency they need.” As reliable attribution becomes increasingly complex for marketers and ad buyers who need to prove value, the addition of Tapad’s pixel-based foot traffic attribution to VISIT Local enables the measurement of actual campaign effectiveness by tying ad views to in-store foot traffic. This new feature, which will be available in VISIT Local this fall, lets Reveal Mobile customers understand who visited a retail location as a result of being served an ad, providing a more accurate view into return on ad spend during and after advertising campaigns. “Tapad’s goal is to empower marketers with digital advertising efficiencies at scale across devices,” says Mark Connon, COO of Tapad. “With cross device matching and pixel-based foot traffic attribution, marketers using VISIT Local can better address the consumer’s preferences and habits, and deliver them consistently actionable information on user behavior. These capabilities advance location-based advertising in ways marketers need and want.” In addition to these new features, VISIT Local’s location-based audience builder now enables marketers to create custom audiences made up of people who have visited different places on different dates. This gives VISIT Local users the ability to segment and create the most highly targeted audiences possible. For example, a marketer who wants to advertise for a chain of restaurants can easily target visitors of different competitors in different cities. Or a marketer who wants to advertise vacation destinations can target people who have been to various resorts at different times of year. Or a marketer who wants to advertise the release of new music can target people who have been to concert venues in different cities on different dates. “Many of our customers need to create highly custom audiences so they can run experiments, test messaging, and run increasingly competitive campaigns,” says Handly. “Everyone who uses VISIT Local can now apply multiple criteria and attributes to a single location-based audience, giving them the advanced control and transparency they need.”To learn more about Tapad’s digital identity resolution products, visit our identity solution page. To learn more about Reveal Mobile’s location-based marketing offerings, visit http://www.revealmobile.com. About TapadTapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph, and its related solutions, provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Our one-of-a-kind Graph Select offering enables marketers the flexibility and freedom of choice to correlate devices to varied objectives, driving campaign effectiveness and business results. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo. About Reveal MobileReveal Mobile is a leader in location-based marketing, analytics, audiences, and attribution. Creator of VISIT Local, VISIT Match and VISIT Data, the company’s products help digital agencies, brands and retailers of any size leverage location data to understand and reach the right audiences. Reveal Mobile is CCPA compliant and a member of the Network Advertising Initiative, which conducts an annual privacy certification. The company is based in Raleigh, NC. For more information, visit https://revealmobile.com. Contact us today

Tapad, part of Experian, integrates with MediaJel's current advertising solutions will enable U.S. brands to benefit from improved cross-device reach and targeting capabilities NEW YORK, April 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tapad, part of Experian and a global leader in digital identity resolution, has partnered with MediaJel, a leading provider of advertising and marketing solutions for regulated markets. The partnership will enhance MediaJel's current offering, enabling brands to further improve their digital marketing campaigns, and thereby, return on investment. Tapad's global, privacy-safe digital cross-device solution, The Tapad Graph, will complement MediaJel's state-of-the-art advertising solutions to identify and resolve fragmentation created by a consumer's researching and purchasing behavior across multiple digital devices. For MediaJel, this provides customers with an opportunity for incremental efficiencies across a number of use-cases, including reach extension, targeting, ad frequency capping, suppression, and attribution. Dash Rothberg, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at MediaJel commented, "With an endless list of considerations across consumer behavior, marketing fragmentation, and today's ongoing device proliferation - optimizing digital campaigns can be challenging for most brand advertisers. We partnered with Tapad after testing multiple cross-device solutions in the market but concluded that The Tapad Graph provided us with a blend of scale, quality, flexibility, and privacy-safe data to meet our customer needs." Mike Dadlani, Vice President of Agency Partnerships at Tapad added: "Our partnership with MediaJel is an exciting one. Not only will their portfolio of clients be enabled to more effectively execute and optimize cross-device campaigns, but they will also realize longer-term benefits from improved attribution and consumer insights." To learn more about Tapad and our digital identity resolution capabilities, visit our identity page. About Tapad Tapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph and its related solutions provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture, and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore, and Tokyo. About MediaJel Founded in 2017, MediaJel acts as a full-service agency that provides advertising and marketing solutions from brand building and search optimizations to campaign execution and online-offline attribution. Built with proprietary technology, the MediaJel.io platform leverages unique actionable data for brands and agencies to effectively execute high-performance marketing campaigns. With "Data Ethics" being the core of the business, all aspects are brand safe and compliant for regulated industries. Contact us today!

Tapad's digital identity resolution offering enables Gimbal's platform to provide expanded insights for campaign optimization to U.S. brand and agency clients NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tapad, part of Experian and a global leader in digital identity resolution, announced their partnership with Gimbal, a leader of location-powered marketing and advertising solutions. Gimbal now leverages Tapad's global, privacy-safe digital cross-device solution, The Tapad Graph, to further enhance its footfall attribution solution, Arrival.  Arrival delivers dwell-based attribution for in-store foot traffic and by leveraging the Tapad Graph, Gimbal provides customers with a more holistic, attributable understanding of consumers across multiple devices, like desktop, smartphone, and tablet. With this, Gimbal's clients are enabled to make more informed media planning decisions for programmatic activations across the web, and mobile apps.  "Today's consumers are utilizing their digital devices for research and comparison shopping before making a purchase. By leveraging The Tapad Graph, Gimbal's clients gain an even more complete view of the consumer decision journey across devices," said Chris Feo, SVP of Global Data Licensing and Strategic Partnerships at Tapad.  "With the number of devices per individual rapidly increasing, understanding the customer decision journey is becoming more complex," said Kyle Wendling, SVP of Product at Gimbal. "We're excited to partner with Tapad to continue engaging consumers across multiple devices." To learn more about Tapad and our digital identity resolution products, visit our identity solutions page. About TapadTapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph, and its related solutions, provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture, and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, Denver, London, Oslo, Singapore, and Tokyo. About GimbalGimbal translates location data into intent, measurement, and insights to help organizations transform their businesses, maximize marketing relevance, and humanize messaging for consumers. Gimbal is headquartered in Los Angeles and provides advertising and marketing technologies to the world's leading brands and retailers interested in understanding the physical world. To learn more, visit https://gimbal.com. Contact us today!

Tapad, part of Experian, integrates with AcuityAds' current offering will complement cross-channel capabilities for brands and agencies in the U.S. and Canada NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Tapad, a global leader in digital identity resolution, has partnered with AcuityAds, a technology leader that provides targeted digital media solutions for advertisers to connect intelligently with audiences. The partnership will enhance AcuityAds' existing cross-device solution, especially with respect to its cross-channel Connected TV offering. Tapad's global, privacy-safe digital cross-device solution, The Tapad Graph, will compliment AcuityAds' own cross-device data set for enhanced marketing capabilities across their Demand Side Platform (DSP). For AcuityAds, this provides customers with unduplicated reach across desktop, tablet, mobile and CTV devices - while augmenting their video offering. Tom Woods, Vice President of Products at AcuityAds commented, "With increasing marketing complexities, consumer device usage and new data regulations, our decision regarding the partnership was an important one. The Tapad Graph's privacy-safe identifiers for consumer notice and choice, as well as the ability to opt-out at any point, were critical factors in our decision who to partner with." Chris Feo, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Partnerships at Tapad added: "Our integration with AcuityAds' DSP should not only help marketers within North America optimize current cross-device campaign initiatives and performance, but also increase reach across additional digital screens long term. We are excited to expand our partnership with AcuityAds." To learn more about Tapad and our digital identity resolution capabilities, visit our identity page. About Tapad Tapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph and its related solutions provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture, and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore, and Tokyo. About AcuityAds AcuityAds is a leading technology company that provides marketers a powerful and holistic solution for digital advertising across all ad formats and screens to amplify reach and Share of Attention® throughout the customer journey. Via its unique, data-driven insights, real-time analytics and industry-leading activation platform based on proprietary Artificial Intelligence technology, AcuityAds leverages an integrated ecosystem of partners for data, inventory, brand safety and fraud prevention, offering unparalleled, trusted solutions that the most demanding marketers require to be successful in the digital era. AcuityAds is headquartered in Toronto with offices throughout the U.S., Europe and Latin America. For more information, visit AcuityAds.com. Disclaimer in regards to Forward-looking Statements Certain statements included herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by management at this time, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, AcuityAds does not intend, and undertakes no obligation, to update any forward-looking statements to reflect, in particular, new information or future events.   Contact us today!

Tapad's integration with Knorex's XPO™ platform will complement cross-channel optimization capabilities for brands and agencies in the U.S. and APAC markets NEW YORK and SINGAPORE, Dec. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Tapad, part of Experian and a global leader in digital identity resolution, has partnered with Knorex, a leading provider of digital performance marketing. Knorex's self-service online advertising platform, Knorex XPO™, enables marketers to advertise globally in real-time across different media channels, formats, platforms and devices. Tapad's global, privacy-safe digital cross-device solution, The Tapad Graph, will compliment Knorex XPO™'s own device data set for enhanced marketing capabilities. For Knorex, the integration enables their brand direct and agency customers to gain a more accurate understanding of consumers across devices to reduce campaign inefficiencies and duplication, and to effectively manage frequency capping and attribution. Abhishek Kumar, VP of Engineering at Knorex commented, "Today's digital consumer is raising the bar for marketers. With increasing marketing complexities and consumer device usage, this integration enables marketers to understand the consumer decision journey with heightened ease. Our combined offering will empower agencies in the APAC and US markets, providing an improved marketing solution that will help to streamline their efforts." Abhay Doshi, Head of APAC at Tapad added: "The Tapad Graph, when integrated with the Knorex XPO platform, should not only help U.S. and APAC marketers optimize campaign performance through cross device marketing - but also increase the opportunity for brands to reach out to their target customers within a desired time." To learn more about Tapad and our digital identity resolution capabilities, visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/consumer-sync. About TapadTapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph and its related solutions provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture, and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore, and Tokyo. About KnorexKnorex provides programmatic advertising products and technologies to advertising buyers worldwide. With its cloud-based online advertising platform, Knorex XPO™ enables ad buyers to self-serve and advertise real-time across the globe regardless of the media channels (social, search, OTT/CTV, video, web/mobile etc.), ad formats (display, native, search, social, video etc) and devices (desktop, laptop, smartphones and tablets) to deliver personalized marketing messages to the target audience in an automated way, powered by machine learning/AI. Underpinned by a multi-layered data-driven approach, XPO simplifies the execution and optimization of marketing campaigns, while delivering measurable and attributable performance. Contact us today!