Agencies, platforms, and marketers stand at the crossroads of transformation, as privacy regulations tighten, technology accelerates, and consumer behaviors evolve. Yet these challenges also present extraordinary opportunities.
Our 2025 Digital trends and predictions report highlights five trends that will shape 2025 and digs into:
- What’s changing in the market
- How to keep learning about your customers
- How to reach your customers in different places
- How to measure what’s really working along the way
In this blog post, we’ll give you a sneak peek of three of these trends — from cracking the code of signal loss to tapping into the buzz around connected TV (CTV) and stepping up your omnichannel game. Think of it as a taste test before the main course. Ready for the full menu? Download our report to get the lowdown on all five trends.
1. Signal loss: A rich appetizer of alternate ingredients
As traditional cookies crumble, marketers need fresh ingredients to keep the flavor coming. Already, about 40% of browser traffic doesn’t support third-party cookies, and marketers are spicing things up with first-party data, alternative identifiers like Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2) and ID5, and contextual targeting strategies. In fact, 50% more of our clients received alternative IDs (UID2, ID5, Hadron ID) in their Digital Graph in 2024 compared to 2023. The number of alternative IDs resolved to individuals in our Digital Graph increased by 30% year-over-year – as everyone looks beyond the cookie jar.
There is no secret sauce to replace cookies. Instead, expect a multi-ID recipe that brings together different identifiers, unified by an identity graph. This approach turns a fragmented pantry of data into a cohesive meal, giving you a complete view of your customer on every plate.
2. The rising power of CTV: A hearty entrée of opportunities
CTV is quickly becoming the main dish on the streaming menu, as viewers load up on their favorite shows. While CTV is slated to make up 20% of daily U.S. media consumption by 2026, advertisers are still holding back on pouring in the ad spend. To unlock its full flavor, marketers need to whip up solutions like frequency capping and unified audience activation.
Although CTV will account for 20% of daily U.S. media consumption by 2026, it’s projected to command only 8.1% of ad spend. Frequency capping and unified audience activation solutions will be key to unlocking CTV’s full potential.
By 2025, nearly half of CTV “diners” will choose free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST). Marketers need strategies to prevent ad overexposure. With 50% of U.S. consumers avoiding products due to ad overload, and 30% of marketers willing to increase their CTV spend if frequency capping improves, unified identity solutions help ensure every impression is served just right.
3. Omnichannel: A flavorful fusion plate
No one likes a one-flavor meal. Marketers are moving beyond single-channel “side dishes” to omnichannel “fusion feasts” that blend direct mail, digital, CTV, and retail media networks (RMNs) into a truly cohesive culinary experience. Even though only 21% of global B2C professionals currently put omnichannel at the top of their shopping list, the growing demand for seamless, audience-first campaigns is heating up.
In 2025, having an audience-first approach will be like having a perfect pairing for every course. Unified identity solutions act as your master sommelier, ensuring that each channel complements the next, and every customer enjoys a well-rounded, memorable journey.
Vertical trends: A dessert sampler from four unique kitchens
Different markets have their own signature flavors.
- In Auto, crossover utility vehicles (CUVs) claim 51% of new vehicle registrations, and consumers in the 35-54 age group and families are the primary buyers. Automotive marketers should prioritize CUV advertising with a strong focus on family-oriented and income-appropriate messaging
- In Financial Services, marketers need to anticipate shifts in consumer behavior tied to economic conditions, such as increasing demand for deposit products when interest rates are high. For insurance, aligning campaigns with life events, like new home purchases or marriage, can maximize engagement.
- In Healthcare, advertisers are prioritizing personalized, regulation-compliant campaigns that address social determinants of health (SDOH).
- In Retail, advertisers are increasingly activating on both CTV and social platforms, with many managing their own in-house campaigns. While larger brands often rely on media agencies, a shift toward in-house media buying is emerging among some bigger players, offering more control over audience targeting and performance metrics.
Our report covers each vertical’s unique menu, helping you select the right “ingredients” for your customers. With the top Experian Audiences on hand, you can create feasts that delight, nourish, and convert.
Hungry for more? Download our full menu
The three “samples” you’ve just tasted are just the starters. Our 2025 Digital trends and predictions report serves up five insights, complete with strategies, data, and tools to help you adapt, scale, and thrive in 2025.
Ready for the full menu? Download our report now and discover all five trends that will shape your marketing “cookbook” in 2025. Bon appétit!
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Ditch the cookie, not the data with the next evolution of contextual targeting Today, we're excited to announce Contextually-Indexed Audiences, a game-changer in contextual targeting. Experian’s new solution offers advertisers a powerful, privacy-safe solution that combines the precision of deterministic audience targeting with the flexibility of contextual targeting. Powered by real-time analysis from two million websites, access to 1,400 trusted audience segments, and easy activation through the top demand-side platform’s contextual marketplace or Audigent private marketplaces (PMPs), this solution offers advertisers a scalable way to reach their target consumers. With this solution, advertisers can reach consumers on websites that over-index for visitors with the demographics, behaviors, or interests, they are looking to target. For example, an automotive brand can select Experian’s “Contextually-indexed in-market for a luxury electric car” audience segment and reach consumers when they are browsing websites that often attract that exact segment. Best of all, this is done in a privacy-safe way since it’s not reliant on cookies, mobile ad IDs (MAIDs) or other user identifiers. How Contextually-Indexed Audiences work Contextually-Indexed Audiences harness advanced machine learning technology to move beyond traditional keyword-based strategies. The solution works in three steps: First, it analyzes traffic from over two million websites and mobile apps to identify the types of frequent visitors to those platforms. Next, using Experian’s Digital Graph, it resolves the identities of those visitors and maps them to more than 1,400 of Experian’s Syndicated Audiences, determining which audiences are most overrepresented on each site. Finally, the relevant audiences are assigned to those sites, allowing advertisers to deliver ads to people in those audiences while they are actively browsing the websites — without relying on user identifiers. Customer success story A leading auto manufacturer was among the first clients to activate this new solution while we were in beta. The goal was to identify new contextual targeting solutions that focus on privacy while maintaining scale and performance. The client identified two key target audiences: first-time vehicle buyers and experienced buyers. The initial campaigns using this new solution were highly successful. Even as the campaign scaled to twice the original volume, it continued to deliver three times the targeted click-through rate (CTR) goal. “Partnering with industry leaders like Experian, we're pushing the boundaries of contextual targeting with innovative data strategies that offer buyers greater flexibility and improved performance. These advanced contextual solutions are exciting as they not only drive results but also have the same privacy safeguards as traditional contextual targeting.”Matt Griffith, CTO & Co-Founder, Audigent Benefits of Contextually-Indexed Audiences Accurate consumer reach: Real-time integrations with over two million websites and apps coupled with machine-learning indexing technology ensure audience segments are constantly refreshed, which means advertisers reach consumers based on their latest habits. Privacy-safe audience targeting: These audiences are not reliant on cookies or any other user identifiers for targeting. Audience customization: Create the right audience segment for your campaign by using a combination of over 1,400 audiences across 12 data categories like demographics, politics, health, travel, finance, and TV. Flexible activation: Activate these audiences instantly in the top demand-side platform’s contextual marketplace or utilize our partnership with Audigent to create a custom private marketplace (PMP), where they can be activated across any media buying platform. When using a PMP, advertisers benefit from additional performance optimization capabilities. Experian’s Contextually-Indexed Audiences offer advertisers a powerful solution that combines the precision of audience targeting with the flexibility of contextual targeting. With real-time analysis of over two million sites and access to 1,400 trusted audience segments, advertisers can reach consumers based on their exact behaviors and interests. This is done in a privacy-safe, yet scalable way since it’s not reliant on cookies or other user identifiers. Whether activating instantly through the top demand-side platform or customizing through Audigent PMPs, this is the future of audience targeting. Ditch the cookie, not the data, and elevate your strategy today. See how these audiences can work for you Latest posts
Experian is excited to announce that Experian Audiences are now accessible on FreeWheel, a global technology platform for the TV advertising industry. This includes FreeWheel’s leading sell-and-buy-side programmatic advertising platforms, which provide premium inventory for digital and TV campaigns. With Experian Audiences available within FreeWheel, advertisers can access the data they need to create and activate high-impact, targeted, and personalized campaigns across linear, digital, and advanced TV. Unlock unmatched audience precision With this integration, FreeWheel customers gain access to Experian's syndicated audiences powered by Experian Marketing Data. Experian offers 2,400 ready-to-use audiences across 15 data verticals, including demographic, lifestyle and interests, retail purchases, and auto. Backed by a deep understanding of people in the offline and digital worlds, Experian's data is ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset, giving advertisers confidence that they are reaching the right people. “With the expansion of our collaboration with FreeWheel, we're enabling digital and television advertisers to access Experian Audiences with unprecedented ease. This integration equips brands with ready-to-use audiences, allowing them to build highly personalized campaigns that precisely reach the right consumers. This helps drive measurable impact and improves the effectiveness of brands' advertising strategies.”ali mack, vp of adtech, experian Publishers using Audience Manager, FreeWheel’s audience-enabled solution, can unify audiences across devices and ad types, including linear, through the FreeWheel Identity Network. Advertisers using Beeswax, FreeWheel’s demand-side platform (DSP), can target these audiences across multiple devices and platforms to ensure their campaigns resonate and deliver better results. Whether advertisers are targeting holiday shoppers or in-market car shoppers, Experian's data ensures campaigns are timely, relevant, and effective. Boost your campaigns with targeted audience solutions When it comes to capturing the interest of car buyers or connecting with valuable holiday shoppers, our collaboration provides audience targeting to ensure a marketer's message hits home when it counts. Capture TV viewers at the right moment. Developed in partnership with the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF), Experian's TV viewership audiences allow advertisers to reach households based on actual viewing habits, from how a household consumes TV to the brand of TV they own. Drive auto sales with in-market targeting. Reach in-market and near-market car buyers to support vehicle launches and end-of-year promotions, ensuring advertisers’ messages hit consumers actively looking for a vehicle. Maximize retail success during the holiday. The holiday shopping season presents an ideal opportunity to capture attention, drive sales, and build lasting customer relationships. Experian can help you capitalize on the holiday season with precisely targeted audiences, including shopping styles, discount-seekers, gift-givers, and holiday travelers. Transform your campaigns with Experian Audiences With Experian Audiences available in FreeWheel’s platforms, advertisers can access the data they need to create high-impact campaigns across TV and digital platforms. Whether your goal is to drive sales during the holiday season or reach in-market car shoppers, Experian's trusted data ensures you'll reach the right audience at the right time with the right message. For a full list of Experian’s syndicated audiences and activation destinations, download our syndicated audiences guide. Download now Latest posts
As Oracle exits the advertising space, we understand that this may present a challenge. Experian is here to support you with a seamless transition in your audience targeting. As one of Oracle’s primary data providers that powered their audiences, we’ve mapped Oracle audiences to Experian audiences, helping you to switch your audience targeting with no impact on your campaign’s performance. In this blog post, we highlight four audience categories that we know marketers are actively seeking to replace and target: auto, restaurants, lifestyle and interests, and demographics. Experian’s approach to best-in-class audience targeting 2,400+ syndicated audiences powered by marketing data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset offers advertisers the ability to reach people based on demographic, geographic, and behavioral attributes Our audiences span 15 data categories including demographics, auto, retail purchases, lifestyles and interests, financial, and travel Audiences are available on-the-shelf on 30+ major ad platforms, including TV, social, and programmatic, or distribute them to 200+ media platforms Experian’s audience solutions are rooted in offline, deterministic data — like name, address, phone number, and email — that rarely changes. Our deep understanding of people in the offline and digital worlds provides marketers a persistent linkage of known offline data and digital identifiers, which means you get accurate and consistent audience targeting across all channels. Auto, Cars, and Trucks As the premier auto partner contributing to Oracle auto segments, Experian can help you reach and target consumers based on their known and predictive auto shopping behaviors. Experian’s auto audiences are built utilizing insight from our North American Vehicle Database℠ and other data attributes from Experian Marketing Data to provide highly accurate audiences for digital and TV advertising. Unlike some of our competitors who are also positioning themselves as a replacement audience provider, Experian owns all our Vehicle, Consumer, and summarized Credit data under one umbrella and refreshes our audiences every 30 days. This ensures tighter audience composition, superior data hygiene, and best in-class data fidelity, which means you get to target the most accurate audiences. With over 750 syndicated audiences segmented by make, model, price, vehicle age, fuel type, and more, our data is accessible through Experian’s distribution power across all platforms — digital, TV, programmatic, and social — allowing activation wherever our partners need it. Here are the 10 most popular Experian audiences that align with Oracle’s auto audiences: Audience by OracleExperian audienceAudiences by Oracle > Auto, Cars and Trucks > In-Market > Body Styles > SUVs and CrossoversAutos, Cars and Trucks > In Market-Body Styles > SUV and CUVAudiences by Oracle > Auto, Cars and Trucks > In-Market > Body Styles > Trucks > Mid-Size Pickup TrucksAutos, Cars and Trucks > In Market-Body Styles > Mid-Size TruckAudiences by Oracle > Auto, Cars and Trucks > In-Market > Body Styles > Trucks > Full-Size Pickup TrucksAutos, Cars and Trucks > In Market-Body Styles > Full-Size TrucksAudiences by Oracle > Auto, Cars and Trucks > In-Market > Body Styles > SUVs and Crossovers > SUVs > Small to Mid-Size SUVAutos, Cars and Trucks > In Market-Body Styles > Small Mid-Size SUVAudiences by Oracle > Auto, Cars and Trucks > In-Market > Body Styles > SUVs and Crossovers > SUVsAutos, Cars and Trucks > In Market-Body Styles > SUVAudiences by Oracle > Financial Services > Insurance > In-Market > Auto InsuranceLifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > In-Market > Auto InsuranceAudiences by Oracle > Auto, Cars and Trucks > Merchant Category Audiences > Auto Insurance High SpendersRetail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Automotive (Cars & Trucks) > Auto Insurance: High SpendersOracle BlueKai > In-Market > Auto, Cars and Trucks > Condition > Used Cars > More than 5 years oldAutos, Cars and Trucks > In Market-New/Used > Used car 6+ yearsAudiences by Oracle > Auto, Cars and Trucks > In-Market > Condition > Used > Less than 5 years oldAutos, Cars and Trucks > In Market-New/Used > Used car 0-5 yearsOracle BlueKai > In-Market > Auto, Cars and Trucks > Classes > Cars > Compact and Sub-Compact CarsAutos, Cars and Trucks > In Market-Body Styles > Compact or Subcompact Cars Lifestyle and Interests Experian’s Lifestyle and Interests data helps you reach and target consumers based on their predicted lifestyle and behavioral characteristics with data sourced from consumer surveys, research panels, and online behaviors, enabling more personalized and impactful marketing strategies. Here are five of the most popular Experian audiences that align with Oracle's lifestyle and interest audiences: Audience by OracleExperian audienceAudiences by Oracle > Hobbies and Interests (Affinity) > Pets > DogsLifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Pets > Dog OwnersAudiences by Oracle > Hobbies and Interests (Affinity) > Pets > CatsLifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Pets > Cat OwnersAudiences by Oracle > Hobbies and Interests (Affinity) > Health and Fitness > ExerciseLifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Health & Fitness > Fitness EnthusiastOracle DLX (Datalogix) > DLX Finance > InvestorsLifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Investors > Active InvestorAudiences by Oracle > Lifestyles > Merchant Category Audiences > Sports LoversLifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Sports and Recreation > Sports Enthusiast Demographics Experian’s demographic data allows marketers to tap into the accurate data from Experian Marketing Data to refine audiences to meet a brand’s target persona. Our demographic audiences deliver insight into age, gender, income, and household attributes such as home ownership, presence of children in the household, and length of residence. Based on customer feedback, we have expanded our range of age-based audience segments. These new segments cover various adult age groups and gender distinctions (e.g., Adult Females 18-39, Adult Males 35-54). Here are seven of the most popular Experian audiences that align with Oracle's demographic audiences: Audience by Oracle Experian audienceAudiences by Oracle > Demographics > Validated Demographics > Household Income > HHI: $100,000+Demographics > Household Income (HHI) > $100,000+Audiences by Oracle > Real Estate and Home Property Services > Real Estate Attributes > Ownership > Home OwnersDemographics > Homeowners/Renters > HomeownerAudiences by Oracle > Demographics > Age Groups > Adults 25-54Demographics > Ages > 25-54Audiences by Oracle > Demographics > Gender > FemalesDemographics > Gender > FemaleAudiences by Oracle > Demographics > Validated Demographics > Age Groups > Adults 25-54 > Females 25-54Demographics > Ages > Female 25-54Audiences by Oracle > Demographics > Age Broad > Ages 40-49Demographics > Ages > 40-49Audiences by Oracle > Demographics > Validated Demographics > Age Broad > Ages 65+Demographics > Ages > 65+ Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) Here are six of the most popular Experian audiences that align with Oracle's QSR audiences: Audience by OracleExperian audienceAudiences by Oracle > Restaurants > Merchant Category Audiences > In Store QSR Fast Food Frequent SpendersRetail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Food and Drink > Restaurants: Fast Food/QSR QSR Frequent SpendersAudiences by Oracle > Restaurants > Merchant Category Audiences > QSR Chicken Frequent SpendersRetail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Food and Drink > Restaurants: Fast Food/QSR Chicken Frequent SpendersAudiences by Oracle > Restaurants > Merchant Category Audiences > QSR Burgers Frequent SpendersRetail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Food and Drink > Restaurants: Fast Food/QSR Burger Frequent SpendersAudiences by Oracle > Restaurants > Cuisine Type > SandwichesRetail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Food and Drink > Restaurants: Fast Food/QSR Subs and Sandwich Frequent SpendersAudiences by Oracle > Restaurants > Dining Type > Casual DiningRetail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Food and Drink > Restaurants: Casual Dining Frequent SpendersAudiences by Oracle > Restaurants > Dining Type > Coffee Shops and CafesRetail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Food and Drink > Restaurants: Coffee Frequent Spenders Switch from Oracle to Experian audiences with ease Experian is here to make it easy for advertisers and agencies to find the right audience solutions after Oracle’s exit. By partnering with us, you work with a single data provider that offers access to a diverse range of audiences across multiple categories, including political and holiday shopping. Our audiences are available for activation on the leading demand, supply, social, and TV platforms. Reach out to your account representative or our audience team for information about our comprehensive audience mapping and finding the right audiences for your campaigns. Connect with our audience team Download our audience lookbook to discover more about Experian’s audiences. Latest posts