The digital advertising landscape has undergone a seismic shift in recent years. Privacy-conscious consumers, transformative regulations, and emerging technologies are converging to redefine how addressability — the ability to accurately reach a specific audience — functions in this new era. Addressability is a cornerstone of digital advertising, and its evolution presents both challenges and opportunities for publishers and advertisers alike.
The need for enhancing addressability is driven by a complex set of factors. More consumers are opting out of data sharing or disabling cookie-tracking, leading to a drastic reduction in the reach of traditional programmatic advertising. Nearly 70 percent of consumers are now unreachable through these conventional methods, creating an ‘addressability gap’ that publishers and advertisers are eager to bridge. The landscape is further complicated by privacy regulations such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which mandate solutions that balance user privacy with advertisers’ needs.
Contributing to this intricate mix is the growing shift toward video and connected TV (CTV). These platforms have long operated in a cookie-less environment and are witnessing rising demand due to their engaging nature and broad reach. However, the attractiveness of these mediums to advertisers hinges on effective addressability, highlighting the urgent need for innovative audience identification and targeting methods.
The emergence of data enablers and collaborative initiatives
Data enablers like Experian are stepping up to meet this need. These companies are providing robust, privacy-compliant data resources to improve addressability. Experian’s unique approach to identification, the Living Unit ID (LUID), is a key tool in bridging the current gap in reach.
How Experian and Microsoft Advertising are redefining addressability
We recently expanded our collaboration with Microsoft, to make our extensive data resources available through Microsoft Advertising’s data marketplace. This collaborative initiative represents a significant move, offering a compelling model of how data enablers and buy-side and sell-side platforms can work together to redefine addressability.
The benefits of this arrangement extend to all stakeholders in the ecosystem. Advertisers using Microsoft Invest can now access Experian’s audience data. This not only enhances the granularity of their audience targeting but also broadens the reach of their campaigns. Experian’s identity spine also serves as a robust framework to extend the value and reach of advertisers’ first-party data.
For publishers, the accessibility of Experian data on Microsoft Advertising’s data marketplace opens the door to greater addressability in their inventory, enabling them to offer advertisers more addressable impressions. This then amplifies the value of their inventory, potentially increasing their overall yield. For advertisers, this integration facilitates access to highly relevant audiences while simplifying campaign setup and respecting user privacy.
We can help you carve a new path toward addressability
In the ever-evolving landscape of digital advertising, such collaborative efforts are becoming critical to ensure that advertising remains effective for brands, profitable for publishers, and respectful of consumer privacy. This model of cooperation and innovation is essential to navigate the challenges of a privacy-centric, cookie-less world and unlock the true potential of every media channel.
With collaborative initiatives and innovative solutions, the industry is set to transform these challenges into opportunities, carving a new path toward addressability that respects privacy and delivers value for all stakeholders. Connect with us to learn more about how you can access our data in Microsoft Advertising’s data marketplace.
To learn more about our partner Microsoft Advertising, visit their website.
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Marketers traditionally use income, net worth and income-producing assets to enhance their consumer targeting efforts. However, these data elements provide insight only into spending capacity, not how much is actually being spent. Consumers who appear nearly identical in terms of demographics may, in fact, vary widely when it comes to discretionary spending. Some are savers, some are spenders and some have more financial obligations than others. Experian Marketing Services offers data-driven marketers a way to cut straight to the chase when targeting consumers by out-of-pocket expenditures with the Discretionary Spend Estimate. This estimate is available for direct marketing applications to enhance marketers’ targeting efforts as well as an add-on to the Simmons National Consumer Study (NCS) providing marketers with the ability to evaluate discretionary spending against any of the 60,000 consumer variables measured in the study offered by Experian Simmons. In the new 2011 Discretionary Spend Report, Experian Simmons presents a vivid profile of American households by the amount spent annually on nonessential goods and services, including things like entertainment, dining out, personal care, etc. For starters, we report that an estimated 28% of Americans’ annual household spending is on discretionary goods and services. Specifically: The typical U.S. household today shells out $12,800 annually on discretionary expenditures Over half of households spend less than $10,000 on discretionary purchases each year, including just over a third that spend less than $7,000 annually Only 5.8% of American households spend $30,000 or more per year on nonessential goods and services, including 2.2% that spend $40,000 or more annually Distribution of U.S. households, by annual discretionary spending Furthermore, we estimate that, in aggregate, Americans spend $1.47 trillion annually on discretionary goods and services. Despite the fact that households spending less than $7,000 on nonessentials comprise over a third of all households, this segment of the population accounts for just 10.8% of total annual discretionary spending in the United States. Combined, households spending less than $7,000 annually contribute $158.3 billion in discretionary spending to the economy at large The top 2.2% of spenders (those households that spend $40,000 a year or more on nonessentials) account for fully 11.2% of the nation's total annual discretionary spending Households spending between $20,000 and $29,999 annually on nonessential purchases account for the largest single share of the nation’s spending: $305.1 billion Proportion of nation’s total annual discretionary spending, by spend segment Total annual discretionary spend contribution, by spend segment Understanding the pocketbooks of America’s spenders is one thing, but understanding what’s going on in their heads is another. Luckily, Experian Simmons delivers the mindset of the American consumers; below is a look at select attitudes that uncover real differences in personalities and lifestyles of Americans depending on their annual discretionary spending. Highlights include: 46% of high spenders say they often drink alcoholic beverages making them 77% more likely than the average U.S. adult to do so High spenders like to drive faster than normal while low spenders like to drive alone for a sense of freedom Low spenders say that “money is the best measure of success,” but they also say they “don’t want responsibility” High spenders say they are often chosen to be the spokesperson of a group Check back here for more posts on America’s discretionary spending habits and behaviors or download the full 2011 Discretionary Spend Report now.
The BRICs markets (Brazil, Russia, India and China) are becoming ever larger forces in the world economy. For some time their growth rates have been faster than those experienced in western economies, and they have borne the recent economic crisis with greater resilience. In many ways it's wrong to refer to the BRICs as "developing" markets — by some measures they can be considered just as developed as the "developed" markets. Manufacturers and service providers have to be interested in the BRICs. Their sheer size, allied with these growth rates, means they offer huge potential. Growth rates in the BRICs for a range of items have been rapid. Data from Global TGI, an international network of market and media research companies spanning over 50 countries and six continents, shows this very clearly. In this post we look at three examples in diverse sectors. These charts show the trend over the last decade in the ownership in the BRICs markets of cars, microwave ovens and bank cards. They are based on the total measured urban adult Global TGI population in all cases. We can also compare this with the trend in the U.S. sourcing data from Experian Simmons. Boom in car ownership There has been dramatic increase in the ownership of cars over the last decade in Russia (80%), India (90%) and China (200% growth). These rates of growth are a clear sign of how economic development spreads wealth and makes items affordable to increasing numbers of consumers. The exception to this picture is Brazil, where car ownership was considerably higher than in the other BRICs at the opening of the new century, and growth has been more serene. By comparison to the BRICs we see from Experian Simmons that in the U.S. (as well as Great Britain) there has been virtually no percentage growth — new purchases are largely replacement purchases. The microwave oven market heats up Purchasing a microwave oven for your home is by no means as expensive an undertaking as purchasing a car, but it requires the availability of sufficient disposable income. In this category we see from Global TGI significant growth in all the BRICs over the last decade — from a 50% increase in Brazil to over 700% in Russia. The growth story in Russia is typical of many categories in fast-growing markets: ten years ago a microwave oven was still an expensive item for most households given their purchasing capacity, and ownership was largely the preserve of the well-off. Subsequently however, it has become affordable as well as being regarded as necessary by most people, and penetration has grown dramatically. As with automobiles, growth of microwave ovens in the U.S. has remained flat with fully 89% of all American homes already owning a microwave. Financial sophistication The growth in ownership of credit and debit cards arises from people's need to manage money, and greater levels of financial sophistication. Clearly it also represents a huge opportunity for financial institutions. It has been striking across all the BRICS — and there is still potential for more, perhaps in India most of all. Again we see from very little growth over the same period in the U.S. and Britain, which were already saturated. Today, 83% of Americans have a debit or credit card, as do 90% of Brits. Consumer growth in the BRICs will continue Across many other categories the same picture can be seen, of rapid growth yet still much further potential. We can anticipate growth in the BRICs and other developing markets continuing to outpace growth in western markets across the full range of consumption categories. With economic growth happening at different speeds this trend seems likely to last for a long time. Furthermore, it's not only that they are growing faster. In population terms, the BRICs together represent 42% of the people of the world. Their large populations mean that they will increasingly dominate world markets in absolute numbers too. When this rapid macro-economic development is considered along with the sheer size of their consumer markets and the speed of their growth evident from these Global TGI figures, it is very clear why many manufacturers are focusing attention very closely on the BRICs. Learn more about how Experian Simmons and Global TGI can provide you with consumer insights across the globe with comparisons to the United States.
In the digital age, print coupons are dinosaurs, right? Not one bit. In fact, according to Experian Simmons, users of printed coupons — those obtained from newspapers, magazines, mail, etc.—outnumber users of digital coupons by a margin of almost 3-to-1. As of February 14, 2011 (the latest date for which data was available at the time of this post), 68% of all U.S. adults said their household uses print coupons, a number that has remained relatively unchanged during the past five years. 68% of all U.S. adults said their household uses print coupons, a number that has remained relatively unchanged during the past five years. By comparison, Experian Simmons also reports that 22% of all U.S. adults say their household uses digital coupons obtained from email or the Internet. That figure may be lower than the usage reported for any measured type of print coupon, including those handed out in or near stores, but adoption of digital coupons is growing: in 2005, just 12% of American adults used digital coupons. Smartphones adoption will continue to propel digital coupon use to historic highs in the months and years to come. According to an analysis featured in the 2010 U.S. Household Consumer Trend and Benchmark Report, 34% of U.S. iPhone owners use digital coupons compared with just 21% of non-iPhone owners. Interestingly, use of print coupons among iPhone owners doesn’t suffer a bit. In fact, as of February 14, 2011, 68% of iPhone owners reported that their household used print coupons versus 64% of non-iPhone owners, making it obvious that merchants should give their customers an option of using both print and digital coupons. For further consumer insights, download the 2010 U.S. Household Consumer Trend and Benchmark Report, which includes trends on economic outlook by household income, charitable contributions and planned automobile purchases.