Loading...

Customer data enrichment with a4 Advertising

Published: June 27, 2023 by Experian Marketing Services

Ask the Expert with a4 Advertising and Experian

Our next segment in our Ask the Expert series dives into the importance of data enrichment and its benefits across connected TV (CTV) advertising. Ask the Expert features a series of conversations with product experts where we focus on topics that matter the most in AdTech. In our latest segment, Natalia Irmin, Director of Strategic Data & Media Partnerships at a4 Advertising, joins us to chat with Experian’s SVP of Sales & Partnerships, Chris Feo.

a4 is an advanced advertising and data company that offers audience-based, multiscreen advertising solutions for local and national advertising businesses.

In their conversation, Natalia and Chris review:

  • The benefits of data enrichment
  • First-party data enrichment across advertising
  • Data enrichment in CTV advertising
  • How Experian and a4 work together
Watch the Ask the Expert recording with A4 and Experian

What is data enrichment?

Data enrichment enhances first-party data sets using third-party data sources. This process involves merging first-party data from internal sources with data gathered from other internal sources or from external third-party sources.

Examples of data that can be part of the enrichment process include:

The more you know about your customers, the better equipped you are to reach them where they are with the right message. By enriching your data, you can enhance your messaging, provide personalized offers, and establish a loyal customer base.

First-party data enrichment across advertising

Businesses are transitioning from cookie-based third-party targeting to first-party data enrichment solutions as a result of cookie deprecation. When data enrichment is paired with internal first-party data, you can generate a more holistic customer profile.

a4 has a rich set of first-party data, based on the subscriptions to their services. a4 uses first-party data enrichment across advertising in two ways:

  1. Measure performance using their viewership data
  2. Advise their customers on where they should focus their advertising efforts based on the customer’s viewing behavior

a4 supports the enrichment of their customers’ first-party data so they can get the most out of their insights.With Experian’s privacy-first approach, a4 can continue to rely on their first-party data while protecting personally identifiable information (PII).

Data enrichment in CTV advertising

CTV advertising refers to digital advertising that appears through a streaming service during a viewer’s video content, like a movie or TV show. CTV ad campaigns allow businesses to personalize their digital marketing messages while the viewer watches content on various platforms. CTV offers a highly measurable opportunity to increase brand awareness.

Benefits of data enrichment in CTV advertising

Data enrichment provides three key benefits that can enhance targeting, personalization, and campaign effectiveness in CTV advertising.

Understand your target audience

By using enriched data such as demographic information, viewing behavior, and interests, you can gain deeper insights into your target audience, refine your targeting strategies, and create highly personalized ad experiences. Data enrichment also enables better measurement and optimization of ad campaigns, maximizing ROI.

Integrate enriched data with other marketing channels

You can integrate enriched data into CTV with data from other marketing channels. This enables the creation of comprehensive and cohesive marketing strategies that provide consistent messaging and enhance cross-channel targeting.

Enhance the value of ad inventory

Data enrichment can also benefit content publishers and broadcasters by enhancing the value of ad inventory and providing more targeted and effective advertising opportunities.

Enabling your marketers to target specific audiences will result in improved campaign performance. Through data enrichment, you can increase return on your ad spend and boost the value of your publisher’s ad inventory. a4 and Experian can help your business attract additional demand with audience enrichment. a4 uses Experian’s vast offering of audiences and combines it with Experian’s Graph. This data can later be used to activate across a4’s parent company, Altice’s owned and operated properties, as well as beyond Altice’s own footprint via premium publisher partners.

How Experian and a4 work together

a4 and Experian have a long-standing partnership that enables a4 to enhance its data. Through our Consumer View and Consumer Sync products, a4 can add audience attributes to its subscriber and viewer data to precisely pinpoint the audience that its clients are targeting. Experian helps a4 in building a comprehensive customer profile, which helps expand the customer base for a4’s advertising clients.

We form partnerships, like we do with Experian, to enhance our data further, so that we can combine the power of the viewership and exposure data for those other attributes that clients might need.” – Natalia Irmin, Director, Data & Strategic Partnerships, a4 Advertising

Through Experian’s audience attributes and Graph, a4 can assist advertisers in targeting audiences beyond their usual reach, creating a better user experience. a4 can personalize experiences and promotions to prioritize customers with a higher likelihood of making a purchase. By tailoring messages and promotions to individual customer preferences, businesses can improve their advertising efforts and deliver them through their preferred channels.

Watch the full Q&A

Visit our Ask the Expert content hub to watch Natalia and Chris’s full conversation about data enrichment and its benefits across the advertising world. In the Q&A, Natalia and Chris also share their thoughts on the importance of first-party data enrichment, addressability, and measurability in CTV advertising.


About our experts

Natalia Irmin headshot

Natalia Irmin, Director, Strategic Data & Media Partnerships, a4 Advertising

Natalia Irmin is the Director of Strategic Data & Media Partnerships for a4 Advertising. With over 10 years of experience working with data in the Defense, Finance, and Advertising industries, Natalia currently leads the a4 Strategic Partnerships team in the development of advanced data and media products in support of the organization’s media planning, buying, and advanced analytics business. Natalia holds an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Arts from Tel Aviv University in Israel.

Chris Feo headshot

Chris Feo, SVP, Sales & Partnerships, Experian

As SVP of Sales & Partnerships, Chris has over a decade of experience across identity, data, and programmatic. Chris joined Experian during the Tapad acquisition in November 2020. He joined Tapad with less than 10 employees and has been part of the executive team through both the Telenor and Experian acquisitions. He’s an active advisor, board member, and investor within the AdTech ecosystem. Outside of work, he’s a die-hard golfer, frequent traveler, and husband to his wife, two dogs, and two goats!


Latest posts

Loading…
Score a touchdown with Experian’s football audience playbook

The stakes are high when it comes to advertising during football’s biggest games as the cost of advertising continues to rise, with the average 30-second TV ad during the 2023-24 Sunday Night Football season priced at $882K. With record viewership at the College Football Playoff and the Super Bowl drawing in 123.7 million average viewers, the largest TV audience on record, it's no surprise that brands are willing to pay those prices since football games are prime time for reaching engaged audiences. In fact, an estimated 51% of viewers search for an ad they saw during the game, underscoring the potential of second-screen engagement to amplify campaign impact. Whether you advertise on TV during these games or not, brands are exploring how they can use football season to drive a deeper connection to their audience. To do this, brands need data driven strategies. In this blog post, we’ll reveal audience segments designed for you to craft tailored marketing strategies that resonate with football fans in the stands and on the couch. You can find the complete audience segment name in the appendix. Make a game-winning play with Experian Audiences With playoff season fast approaching, it’s the perfect time to go on the offensive and target football fans. Utilize Experian’s syndicated audiences to ensure your marketing messages resonate with fans when they're the most engaged. Experian's 2,400+ syndicated audiences are available directly on over 30 leading television, social, and programmatic advertising platforms. Reach consumers based on who they are, where they live, and what they do using data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset. Run omnichannel campaigns based on a reliable understanding of households, people, digital identifiers, and marketing attributes. Four football audience categories to add to your advertising lineup Football fans come in all shapes, sizes, and viewing habits. From dedicated supporters to casual viewers, targeting the right audience can make or break your campaign. Here are four football audience categories you can target: Sports enthusiasts College football fans  21+ audiences TV viewers Let’s huddle up and break down the audience segments within each category. Whether it’s tailgating, tuning in, or cheering from the stands, these insights will get your campaign into the end zone. Sports enthusiasts Whether they’re following their favorite teams, attending games in person, or watching professional sports events on TV, football fans are deeply engaged, making them an ideal target for advertisers looking to score big. Here are five audiences to target: NFL Enthusiasts Football (FLA/Fair Lending Friendly)1 Sports Enthusiasts NFL Stadium Visitors Professionals Sports Event College football fans College football fans bring unmatched passion and loyalty, with bowl games during the 2023 season drawing on average of 4.6 million viewers across 40 total games—a 5% increase year-over-year. From students to alumni, these fans represent an invaluable opportunity for advertisers to connect with a deeply invested audience. Here are four audiences to target to connect with passionate college football fans: College Football Stadium Visitors College Football Bowls College Students College Sports Venues 21+ audiences With 84% of U.S adults reporting that they drink alcohol while watching football on TV, targeting 21+ audiences during game season is a winning play. Whether they’re cracking open a cold one at a tailgate, hosting a game-day party, or relaxing on the couch, these audiences represent a key audience for brands looking to tap into football culture. Here are four audiences that you can target this post season: Imported Light Beer Enthusiasts  Domestic/Imported Beer  High-end Spirit Drinkers Discretionary spend: Alcohol and wine $331 – $726 These audiences can help you serve up campaigns that pour directly into the heart of football fandom. TV viewers Football games attract some of the most engaged and diverse TV audiences, with 85% of sports fans preferring to watch live sports on TV rather than in-person. Notably, for the first time, viewers aged 18 to 49 spent the majority of their sports viewing time (54%) via streaming. This shift highlights the immense opportunity for advertisers to connect with highly attentive viewers tuned into every play. Here are seven audiences that you can use to create a game-winning strategy to reach engaged TV watching football fans:   Cable Satellite or Streaming Network Subscribers  Streaming Video: High Spenders Cord Cutters  Cable and Streaming TV Service Subscribers  Paid TV High Spenders  Screen Size – Large  Co-Watchers Whether they're catching the action on a large TV screen or streaming from their phone, these audiences will help you craft campaigns that deliver results with highly engaged viewers. Score big with Experian this postseason As some of football’s biggest games approach, it’s time to huddle up and connect with consumers who live for the thrill of the game. Whether they’re tuning in to cheer for their favorite teams, tailgating with friends, or enjoying the game-day experience from home, Experian Marketing Data provides the playbook to score big with targeting, enrichment, and activation. With Experian’s data-driven insights, you can turn every opportunity into a game-winning play! Connect with our audience team You can activate our syndicated audiences on-the-shelf of most major platforms. For a full list of Experian’s syndicated audiences and activation destinations, download our syndicated audiences guide. Explore our other seasonal audiences that you can activate today. View now 1 “Fair Lending Friendly” indicates data fields that Experian has made available without use of certain demographic attributes that may increase the likelihood of discriminatory practices prohibited by the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”) and Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”). These excluded attributes include, but may not be limited to, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age, disability, handicap, family status, ancestry, sexual orientation, unfavorable military discharge, and gender. Experian’s provision of Fair Lending Friendly indicators does not constitute legal advice or otherwise assures your compliance with the FHA, ECOA, or any other applicable laws. Clients should seek legal advice with respect to your use of data in connection with lending decisions or application and compliance with applicable laws. Appendix Sports enthusiasts Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Activities and Entertainment > NFL Enthusiasts  Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Sports and Recreation > Sports Enthusiast   Mobile Location Models > Visits > NFL Stadium Visitors   Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Sports > Football (FLA / Fair Lending Friendly)2 Travel Intent > Activities > Professional Sports Event College sports fans Mobile Location Models > Visits > University Stadium College Football Visitor  Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Sports > College Football Bowls  Mobile Location Models > Visits > College Students  Mobile Location Models > Visits > College Sport Venues   21+ audiences Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Activities and Entertainment > Imported Light Beer Enthusiasts  Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > In-Market > Domestic/Imported Beer  Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Retail > High-end Spirit Drinkers Financial – Analytics IQ > Discretionary Spend > Alcohol and Wine: $331-$726 TV viewers Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Cable Satellite or Streaming Network Subscribers Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Entertainment > Streaming/Video/Audio/CTV/Cable TV: Streaming Video: High Spenders Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Cord Cutters Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Cable and Streaming Service Subscribers Television (TV) > TV Enthusiasts > Paid TV High Spenders  Television (TV) > Viewing Device Type > Screen Size – Large  Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Co-Watchers Latest posts

Jan 07,2025 by Lucy Simmonds

Experian unveils new data marketplace: Revolutionizing addressability across display, mobile, and CTV

Following the success of our recent launch of Third-Party Onboarding, we are excited to introduce the Experian marketplace, a new addition to our portfolio of data-driven activation solutions. Experian’s marketplace bridges TV operators, programmers, supply partners, and demand platforms with top-tier third-party audiences across retail, CPG, health, B2B, and location intelligence. Easily activate premium audiences from leaders like Attain, Alliant, Circana, and Dun & Bradstreet – driving precise, efficient consumer reach. "Experian has been a longstanding partner of DISH Media, and we’re excited to be an early adopter of their marketplace which leverages the foundation of their identity solutions to ensure maximum cross-channel reach as we look to expand the breadth and depth of data we use for addressable TV."Kemal Bokhari, Head of Data, Measurement & Analytics, DISH Media As privacy regulations evolve and traditional identity signals shift, many activation platforms face declining addressability. This impacts their ability to effectively reach consumers, which is critical to staying competitive. Experian’s marketplace, powered by our identity graphs which include 126 million households, 250 million individuals, and 4 billion active digital IDs, enables audiences to be easily activated and maintain high addressability across display, mobile, and connected TV (CTV) channels. Benefits of Experian's marketplace Enhanced addressability and match rates: All audiences delivered from our marketplace benefit from our best-in-class offline and digital identity graphs, which ensure addressability across all channels like display, mobile, and CTV. Unlike other data marketplaces, Experian ensures all identifiers associated with an audience have been active and are targetable, improving the accuracy of audience planning.  Simplified audience planning and distribution for TV Operators: TV operators can build custom audiences matched directly to their subscriber footprint and distribute them across all advanced TV channels (data-driven linear, addressable, digital, and CTV) for maximum impact. Diversification within the data marketplace ecosystem: With the recent departure of Oracle’s advertising business, the optionality for buyers and sellers to connect with third-party data has become increasingly limited. With Experian marketplace, we’re excited to offer a new solution to the market that ensures data-driven targeting can continue to take place at scale. Lower activation costs: Experian’s marketplace offers transparent, pass-through pricing with no additional access fees, enabling partners to maximize their earnings while reducing costs. Audience diversity and scale: Platforms can access a broad range of audiences across top verticals from our partner audiences, which can be combined with 2,400+ Experian Audiences. This offers the flexibility, reach, and scale necessary to effectively execute advertising campaigns. Remove compliance concerns: Experian’s rigorous data partner review ensures available audiences comply to all federal, state and local consumer privacy regulations. “Circana and Experian have enjoyed a deep partnership for over a decade. We are exceedingly excited to extend our partnership and be an early adopter and launch partner of the Experian data marketplace. This additional capability will enable the ecosystem to more easily access Circana’s purchase-based CPG and General Merchandise (for example Consumer Electronics, Toys, Beauty, Apparel etc.) audience segments to drive performance outcomes across all media channels.”Patty Altman, President, Global Solutions, Circana “Capturing the attention of target audiences across channels is critical for marketers navigating an increasingly connected digital world. We are excited to be an exclusive provider of B2B solutions within Experian’s marketplace, helping brands and media agencies to accelerate their reach, addressability and targeting capabilities across TV, mobile and connected TV channels.” Georgina Bankier, VP of Platform Partnerships at Dun & Bradstreet Better connections start here: Experian's marketplace Experian’s marketplace, easily accessible from our Audience Engine platform, brings unparalleled addressability, enabling our clients to reach more relevant consumers and increase revenue.  If you’re interested in learning more about Experian’s marketplace or becoming an active buyer or seller in our marketplace, please contact us. Contact us Latest posts

Jan 06,2025 by Experian Marketing Services

New OpenRTB specs ensure identity resolution can be done transparently with trusted partners

2024 marked a significant year. AI became integral to our workflows, commerce and retail media networks soared, and Google did not deprecate cookies. Amidst these changes, ID bridging emerged as a hot topic, raising questions around identity reliability and transparency, which necessitated industry-wide standards. We believe the latest IAB OpenRTB specifications, produced in conjunction with supply and demand-side partners, set up the advertising industry for more transparent and effective practices. So, what exactly is ID bridging? As signals, like third-party cookies, fade, ID bridging emerged as a way for the supply-side to offer addressability to the demand-side. ID bridging is the supply-side practice of connecting the dots between available signals, that were generated in a way that is not the expected default behavior, to understand a user’s identity and communicate it to prospective buyers. It enables the supply-side to extend user identification beyond the scope of one browser or device. Imagine you visit a popular sports website on your laptop using Chrome. Later, you use the same device to visit the same sports website, but this time, on Safari. By using identity resolution tools, a supply-side partner can infer that both visits are likely from the same user and communicate with them as such. ID bridging is not inherently a bad thing. However, the practice has sparked debate, as buyers want full transparency into the use of a deterministic identifier versus an inferred one. This complicates measurement and frequency capping for the demand-side. Before OpenRTB 2.6, ID bridging led to misattribution as the demand-side could not attribute ad exposures, which had been served to a bridged ID, to a conversion, which had an ID different from the ad exposure. OpenRTB 2.6 sets us up for a more transparent future In 2010, the IAB, along with supply and demand-side partners, formed a consortium known as the Real-Time Bidding Project for companies interested in an open protocol for the automated trading of digital media. The OpenRTB specifications they produced became that protocol, adapting with the evolution of the industry. The latest evolution, OpenRTB 2.6, sets out standards that strive to ensure transparency in real-time bidding, mandating how the supply-side should use certain fields to more transparently provide data when inferring users’ identities. What's new in OpenRTB 2.6? Here are the technical specifications for the industry to be more transparent when inferring users’ identities: Primary ID field: This existing field now can only contain the “buyeruid,” an identifier mutually recognized and agreed upon by both buyer and seller for a given environment. For web environments, the default is a cookie ID, while for app activity, it is a mobile advertising ID (MAID), passed directly from an application downloaded on a device. This approach ensures demand-side partners understand the ID’s source.  Enhanced identifier (EID) field: The EID field, designated for alternative IDs, now accommodates all other IDs. The EID field now has additional parameters that provide buyers transparency into how the ID was created and sourced, which you can see in the visual below:  Using the above framework, a publisher who wants to send a cross-environment identifier that likely belongs to the same user would declare the ID as “mm=5,” while listing the potential third-party identity resolution partner under the “matcher” field, which the visual below depicts. This additional metadata gives the demand-side the insights they need to evaluate the reliability of each ID. "These updates to OpenRTB add essential clarity about where user and device IDs come from, helping buyers see exactly how an ID was created and who put it into the bidstream. It’s a big step toward greater transparency and trust in the ecosystem. We’re excited to see companies already adopting these updates and can’t wait to see the industry fully embrace them by 2025."Hillary Slattery, Sr. Director, Programmatic, Product Management, IAB Tech Lab Experian will continue supporting transparency As authenticated signals decrease due to cookie deprecation and other consumer privacy measures, we will continue to see a rise in inferred identifiers. Experian’s industry-leading Digital Graph has long supported both authenticated and inferred identifiers, providing the ecosystem with connections that are accurate, scalable, and addressable. Experian will continue to support the industry with its identity resolution products and is supportive of the IAB’s efforts to bring transparency to the industry around the usage of identity signals. Supply and demand-side benefits of adopting the new parameters in OpenRTB 2.6 Partner collaboration: Clarity between what can be in the Primary ID field versus the EID field provides clear standards and transparency between buyers and sellers. Identity resolution: The supply side has an industry-approved way to bring in inferred IDs while the demand side can evaluate these IDs, expanding addressability. Reducing risk: With accurate metadata available in the EID field, demand-side partners can evaluate who is doing the match and make informed decisions on whether they want to act on that ID. Next steps for the supply and demand-sides to consider For supply-side and demand-side partners looking to utilize OpenRTB 2.6 to its full potential, here are some recommended steps: For the supply-side: Follow IAB Specs and provide feedback: Ensure you understand and are following transparent practices. Ask questions on how to correctly implement the specifications. Vet identity partners: Choose partners who deliver the most trusted and accurate identifiers in the market. Be proactive: Have conversations with your partners to discuss how you plan to follow the latest specs, which identity partners you work with, and explain how you plan to provide additional signals to help buyers make better decisions. We are beginning to see SSPs adopt this new protocol, including Sonobi and Yieldmo.  “The OpenRTB 2.6 specifications are a critical step forward in ensuring transparency and trust in programmatic advertising. By aligning with these standards, we empower our partners with the tools needed to navigate a cookieless future and drive measurable results.” Michael Connolly, CEO, Sonobi These additions to the OpenRTB protocol further imbue bidding transactions with transparency which will foster greater trust between partners. Moreover, the data now available is not only actionable, but auditable should a problem arise. Buyers can choose, or not, to trust an identifier based on the inserter, the provider and the method used to derive the ID. While debates within the IAB Tech Lab were spirited at times, they ultimately drove a collaborative process that shaped a solution designed to work effectively across the ecosystem.”Mark McEachran, SVP of Product Management, Yieldmo For the demand side: Evaluation: Use the EID metadata to assess all the IDs in the EID field, looking closely at the identity vendors’ reliability. Select partners who meet high standards of data clarity and accuracy. Collaboration: Establish open communication with supply-side partners and tech partners to ensure they follow the best practices in line with OpenRTB 2.6 guidelines and that there’s a shared understanding of the mutually agreed upon identifiers. Provide feedback: As OpenRTB 2.6 adoption grows, consistent feedback from demand-side partners will help the IAB refine these standards. Moving forward with reliable data and data transparency As the AdTech industry moves toward a cookieless reality, OpenRTB 2.6 signifies a substantial step toward a sustainable, transparent programmatic ecosystem. With proactive adoption by supply- and demand-side partners, the future of programmatic advertising will be driven by trust and transparency. Experian, our partners, and our clients know the benefits of our Digital Graph and its support of both authenticated and inferred signals. We believe that if the supply-side abides by the OpenRTB 2.6 specifications and the demand-side uses and analyzes this data, the programmatic exchange will operate more fairly and deliver more reach. Latest posts

Dec 18,2024 by Budi Tanzi

Subscribe to our newsletter

Enter your name and email for the latest updates

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

About Experian Marketing Services

At Experian Marketing Services, we use data and insights to help brands have more meaningful interactions with people. As leaders in the evolution of the advertising landscape, Experian Marketing Services can help you identify your customers and the right potential customers, uncover the most appropriate communication channels, develop messages that resonate, and measure the effectiveness of marketing activities and campaigns.

Visit our website

Subscribe to our newsletter

Stay up to date on the latest industry news and receive expert tips from our marketing experts.
Subscribe now!