Marketing across channels

Experian kicks off the AdTech year at CES  What better way to jump-start start 2023 than a trip to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Our team was thrilled to participate in this annual kick-off with the AdTech community. The uniqueness of what CES has become for our industry can be defined as the intersection between technology brands, digital, television, and AdTech. CES creates the space necessary for marketing and advertising leaders to collaborate to drive rewarding outcomes for the year ahead.  Our goal in attending CES was to connect with our partners, clients, and industry leaders to build relationships, form strategic plans, and listen. The opportunity to learn about our industry’s challenges and goals enables us to develop initiatives, drive success, and support our clients and partners.  Keep reading for our 2023 CES AdTech recap. “I have been to CES too many times to mention the number; this year was as energetic, collaborative, engaged, and effective as I can ever recall. Our presence was first-class and meticulously organized, which made our interactions as robust as possible. It's a team effort, and we appreciate all the work that goes into this event. “ - Greg Koerner, Vice President of Digital Advertising Sales Our CES AdTech recap  Supporting publishers and advertisers is top of mind for us. Many of our conversations focused on the technologies we deliver or collaborate with our partners to provide.   Clean rooms and activation were two common themes throughout our discussions.  Clean rooms  Consumer privacy, regulatory requirements, and data deprecation are driving the AdTech industry to talk about and explore clean rooms. There’s a need to address data collection, storage, analysis, and sharing. Clean rooms are a potential solution that can standardize data and address interoperability issues.  Activation  In 2023, we predict that digital activation will increase. We continue to see increased demand for environments where alternative identifiers are being transacted (like demand side platforms and video). Social platforms will continue to experience volatility and advertisers will shift their focus to demand-side, video, and supply-side platforms. Download our 2023 Digital audience trends and predictions report to learn where you should activate your audiences in 2023. We can help plan your 2023 digital activation strategy.  How we support clean rooms and activation  Our Consumer Sync and Consumer View products support these areas and can help you understand people better--so you and your customers can connect with confidence.  What is Consumer Sync?  Consumer Sync, our consumer identity product, enables signal agnostic collaboration across marketers and technologies, bringing together digital devices, IDs, households, and attributes. Consumer Sync’s Resolution and Collaboration solutions can help you gain a better understanding of your consumers and make identities actionable in any environment.   What is Consumer View?  Consumer View, our data discovery product, offers marketers a robust, privacy-first understanding of their customers and prospects. Grounded in consumer identity, Consumer View provides the data foundation to engage consumers where, when, and how they want. Consumer View’s Audience and Attribution solutions provide expansive coverage so that you can fill in the gaps to better understand your prospects.  Additionally, our collaborative efforts with strong partnerships across the clean room ecosystem and with our activation partners help our clients serve the best ads, at the best times, to the right audience.     “CES is back and was a great way to kick off the new year! We were able to meet with a high volume of clients to eagerly talk about building new solutions for the TV space. We are excited to see where these conversations lead in the next few months.” - Ali Mack, Senior Director of TV Advertising Sales  Let’s navigate what’s new in our industry, together  We can help you connect with your consumers in innovative, impactful ways. Contact us to continue the conversation and learn more about our Consumer Sync and Consumer View products. We can help you take advantage of the opportunities on the horizon. 

With the long-term effects to the economy unknown, many consumers are feeling the financial impact, while others are looking for opportunities, resulting in a transformational shift in spending. Some brands are experiencing decreased or paused marketing budgets, and you may be trepidatious about making the right decisions in your efforts to grow share of wallet. Recent events have been an impetus for change and we’re seeing brands make modifications to traditional marketing strategies. Some are developing innovative technologies and utilizing new sources of data and analytics. As we look at how these changes impact marketing results, we see the gap grow between those brands who are equipped to pivot and implement new strategies quickly, versus those who are not. So what steps can your organization implement now to make the smartest choices for both your customers and your business to secure more share of wallet? Here are four ideas to accelerate the success of your next financial marketing campaign: 1. Meet your customers wherever they are: Digital-first strategies have never been more relevant than they are right now. While consumers have fully embraced online engagement, marketers are even more focused on reaching high-value segments in the channels they utilize. By using an informed, data-driven strategy that includes preferred marketing communication channels and decision-making styles, engagement increases across those channels your target audience frequents the most. For example, are they heavy social media users? Do they prefer streaming TV? Or do they tend to rely on financial advice vs. performing their own research? To drive take rates, your audience must be exposed to a tailored message, in the right channel, and possibly multiple times. 2. Use messaging that resonates: As consumers refocus priorities, their expectations of brands with whom they do business are ever-increasing. Reflecting an understanding of the current needs and interests of your customers and prospects is an undertone that can only help strengthen their view of your brand. Consumer behavior has changed and is unlikely to revert to what was, so you want to be relevant, but you also do not want to be seen as ‘tone deaf’. As a result, consider revising your segmentation strategy to leverage predictive insights, such as household economic indicators, financial behaviors, lifestyle propensities and interests to help shape your message into one that truly makes an impact. 3. Prove the worth of your campaign: New consumer journeys are being formulated and showing ROI is imperative as your marketing budget is scrutinized. Having the right industry-relevant metrics and reports to analyze and share with leadership are key. Demonstrate that your campaigns are contributing to bottom-line success—and justify future campaigns—by using data-driven measurement insights collected across multiple reads and countless touchpoints. Marketing budgets are being scrutinized now more than ever, so showing ROI is critical. Having the right metrics and reports to analyze and share with leadership are key. 4. Follow government regulations—leverage Fair Lending-friendly audiences: Whether you’re cross-selling or prospecting, now is the time to identify the right audiences with rich data insights to not only execute impactful campaigns but adhere to government regulations that protect consumers and your organization. Trusting that the data you are activating follows Fair Lending Laws, including the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) and the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) is crucial. The Federal ECOA prohibits creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of several prohibited factors. Developing people-based segments that are not derived using these factors positions you to follow these regulations. Check out our previous blog post about Fair Lending-friendly audiences here. As you transition to new operating models, access to current and accurate consumer data can provide confidence in campaign potential, help you avoid business risk, enable you to respond to market changes and make better decisions. Experian can help you implement these strategies and put your brand unique position for growth. From start to finish, we provide the marketing solutions you need to plan, build and execute successful, Fair Lending-friendly campaigns to cross-sell to existing customers and acquire new customers. Learn more about Experian’s financial services marketing solutions here. *Experian Fair Lending-friendly audiences do not constitute legal advice or otherwise assure compliance with the FHA, ECOA, or any other applicable laws. It’s recommended to seek legal advice with respect to the use of data in connection with lending decisions or application and compliance with applicable laws.

With the growth of digital marketing and the targeting capabilities associated with online outreach, many predicted that this would mark the end of direct mail advertising. But if Millennials have anything to say about it, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Yes, believe it or not, Millennials are driving the resurgence of direct mail advertising, and many leading brands are now pivoting their omnichannel marketing plans to include direct mail. And with the USPS reporting more than 75.7 billion in marketing mail volume in 2019, this trend shows no sign of slowing down. Including direct mail in your plans may give your brand a better chance of reaching your audience. Why? 1. Millennials actually like getting mail.While most of us have decried “junk mail” as being environmentally unfriendly or just a pain to deal with, Millennials actually enjoy physical mail. Valassis recently cited research from USPS Customer & Market Insights stating that Millennials spend the most time sorting mail (about six minutes compared to the average, which is four minutes), plus they’re opening mail and reading it (at eight minutes versus the average of seven minutes). Valassis also conducted a study that showed that 68% of Millennials read print ads or inserts from retailers, and 64% prefer getting them through the mail. So, while digital outreach may be convenient, it hasn’t completely decimated the desire for that old-school, hands-on experience of opening and reading something that’s addressed to you. 2. Millennials respond to a multi-channel approach.Oftentimes, marketers think of omnichannel as being a combination of digital and TV, but when you add print into the mix, it can make an even bigger impact on Millennial audiences. Valassis found that 60% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase after seeing an ad when it’s presented across both offline and online channels, while 72% of Millennial parents say print ads encourage them to go online and make a purchase from that retailer. 3. Millennials think physical mail makes for a more personal approach.You’d think that e-mail would feel more personal, but with the influx of spam most people get, that’s just not the case. In fact, 67% of people see physical mail as being more personal than an e-mail, with seven out of 10 saying they prefer receiving actual mail over digital mail. And for marketers looking to make a one-to-one connection, this is music to their ears. With changing marketing plans, the mailbox has less competition than the inbox.   Getting a catalog at their door with the perfect offer at the perfect time helps the marketer make the direct connection. 4. Direct mail lasts longer than digital mail.That may seem like an obvious statement, but there’s more to it than you think. When an e-mail arrives in someone’s inbox, it’s easy to ignore it, read the subject line and forget about it, or even just randomly delete it, if spam filters don’t take care of that on their own. But the average lifespan of a piece of direct mail is 17 days, which may account for how direct mail generates purchases five times larger than e-mail campaigns. It’s harder to ignore when it’s in your house and you have to physically handle it as opposed to just clicking a mouse to get rid of it. 5. Millennials trust direct mail.It’s true—research shows that 90% of Millennials think direct mail advertising is reliable. Plus, Millennials are 24% more likely to show mail to others, compared to 19% of non-Millennials… which means if they find a deal they like in the mail, they’re probably going to spread the word. Visit our Retail Marketing Solutions page to learn more about how we can help you find new customers and have more meaningful engagements with existing ones.

Ensure you understand privacy compliance pitfalls with special attention on shopping cart abandonment emails.

Welcome emails garner 86 percent higher open rates than regular promotional mailings. What other life cycle marketing programs should you be running?

If information is accurate when collected, loyalty programs have a better chance at engaging consumers and actually seeing the benefit that a loyalty program can provide.

My Experian Marketing Services’ colleagues and resident data experts Bill Tancer and Marcus Tewskbury answered the above question for marketers during our recent 2012 Holiday Planning Webinar. The webinar recapped key 2011 holiday marketing results, plus featured trends, benchmarks and recommendations for a successful and profitable 2012 holiday shopping season.

Thanks to simulcast streaming of games online and via mobile apps, die-hards are better equipped to keep track of multiple games at once. Those who stream games online live in every corner of the country, but some locales are more likely to log on for their March Madness fix than others.

I’ve had several requests to provide some numbers on finance.google.com in light of their redesign this week. Here are some quick daily stats from this week: On Wednesday 12/13/06, Google Finance ranked 16th in our Business & Finance – Business Information category with .78% market share of visits for the category up from last Wednesday’s 22nd position with .68% market share. Still the industry leader, Yahoo! Finance with 37.3% market share for the category, has over 50x the market share of Google Finance. Here’s a daily marketshare of visits chart for Google Finance: With a clearly compelling set of features and slick design, why is the gap between Google Finance and Yahoo! Finance so large? Aside for brand and switching cost issues, One possible explanation is the differences in distribution channels for the two finance sites. For 12/13/06, Google received 57% of its traffic from the Google homepage (www.google.com) primarily from search on stock ticker symbols. Yahoo! Finance in contrast received only 1.7% of its traffic from search with over 55% of its traffic coming from the Yahoo! front page and My Yahoo! pages.