Get ready for Cannes Lions 2024—the advertising industry is buzzing with excitement. This year’s event promises to be a center of innovation, ideas, and networking. Here are five themes we expect will take center stage in conversations and how Experian can help marketers be prepared for what’s ahead.
Cookie deprecation and signal loss
At Cannes Lions 2024, the theme of transitioning to a cookieless advertising ecosystem is likely to dominate discussions. The saga of cookie deprecation continues to unfold, with Google recently pushing back the demise of third-party cookies once again.
Experian remains fully committed to prioritizing continued testing of different industry solutions, including the Google Privacy Sandbox, to help customers prepare for a future without cookies. We’ve identified six viable alternatives to third-party cookies, how these alternatives fall short, and how Experian can help you navigate these alternatives.
With Experian, the loss of cookies does not equate to a loss of coverage. With our strong roots in offline data and significant investments in our Graph, Experian ensures uninterrupted and effective marketing with robust signal coverage, with or without cookies. Based on early tests, we expect our Graph to maintain 97% of its household coverage. Read how MiQ, a leader in the cookieless era, strengthened its Identity Spine with the integration of Experian’s cross-device Graph here.
Commerce
The theme of commerce is poised to be a central topic of discussion at Cannes Lions 2024, reflecting the emergence and growth of retail media networks (RMNs). Evolving customer expectations are a key driver, with consumers demanding seamless and personalized experiences across all touchpoints of their shopping journey. The importance of bridging physical and digital experiences to create a cohesive customer journey will undoubtedly feature prominently in discussions at Cannes.
Experian’s Consumer Sync offerings facilitate seamless integration between online and in-person interactions, fostering a cohesive approach to engaging audiences across various platforms while measuring campaign effectiveness.
As we heard at Shoptalk 2024, the evolution of retail media is propelling us into a new era of advertising and first-party data monetization. The integration of e-commerce with advertising presents an exciting opportunity for brands to drive direct sales through ads displayed within retail platforms, blurring the lines between marketing and commerce.
Our Consumer View solutions provide access to over 5,000 demographic and behavioral data points, enriching your customer profiles for deeper insights. By combining first-party data with Experian’s industry-leading data sets, you can create bespoke audience segments that drive increased return on investment (ROI), going beyond conventional category-based targeting strategies.
Looking ahead, the future outlook for RMNs remains promising, with anticipated growth and expansion as brands increasingly recognize the value of reaching consumers precisely at the point of purchase.
Connected TV
At Cannes Lions 2024, we anticipate discussions to focus on how connected TV (CTV) can continue to live up to its promise. CTV is the most rapidly expanding advertising channel in the U.S and 95% of advertisers plan to increase their share of spend on programmatic CTV in 2024, according to The Trade Desk’s latest CTV report. The growing adoption of CTV among viewers, driven by factors like quality content, reduced ad interruptions, and cost-saving alternatives to traditional cable, signals a shift in consumer behavior that marketers cannot afford to overlook.
Experian supports the growth of advertising interest in CTV through our signal-agnostic Graph that connects CTV IDs, universal IDs like Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2), IPs, and mobile ad IDs (MAIDs) for effective activation. Our digital identity resolution with Activity Feed provides insights into CTV viewership behavior, linking CTV exposure to e-commerce conversions.
CTV also enables greater collaboration, and we’ve recently announced new partnerships with CTV industry leaders Microsoft, Samsung, Attain, Sonobi, and EDO.
Consumer privacy
Consumers are increasingly aware of privacy concerns surrounding their data and numerous laws are going into effect across the U.S. at the state level. Most recently, there has been momentum on a federal data privacy law. We expect consumer privacy to be a significant topic of discussion at Cannes Lions 2024, reflecting the growing importance of ethical data practices in advertising.
In a recent Q&A with Datavant, Jeremy Meade, VP of Marketing Data & Product Operations at Experian, highlights the importance of balancing data privacy and utility, focusing on “data for good” practices while using de-identification techniques to support research without compromising consumer privacy.
Our Geo-Indexed audiences are an example of how Experian can help you reach your audience while balancing data privacy and accuracy. Our Geo-Indexed audiences combine location data with audience insights to deliver targeted marketing solutions. These audiences are created without the use of sensitive personal information, so you can confidently reach your target audience without sacrificing data privacy.
With deep roots in data protection and security, you can confidently partner with Experian as we proactively stay ahead of regulations and strictly follow all consumer privacy laws.
Campaigns and competition
The theme of campaigns and competition is poised to be an important discussion point, driven by the convergence of major global events like the U.S. presidential election and this summer’s games—both occurring once every four years. These landmark occasions present opportunities for marketers to craft targeted campaigns that resonate with specific audience segments.
As we approach the 2024 election season, the advertising landscape is primed for growth, with political ad spending projected to exceed $10 billion. Effective audience targeting during this crucial period can sway voters, shape public opinion, and influence election outcomes. Experian’s 240+ politically relevant syndicated audiences, including our 10 political personas, enable a nuanced understanding of voter viewpoints and empower tailored engagement strategies to connect more effectively with constituents.
At the same time, this summer’s games in Paris offer a unique opportunity for sports marketing. With one billion viewers expected to tune in, the global spectacle presents a platform to engage with passionate sports audiences worldwide. Using Experian’s syndicated audiences, marketers can precisely target sporting goods shoppers, avid fans, athletes, and spectators alike.
The combination of these major events emphasizes the need for careful planning and data-driven strategies and marketers should take advantage of the excitement surrounding both events.
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By now you’ve all seen the headlines about the burgeoning success of eCommerce compared to the relatively drastic decline in transactions for brick-and-mortar stores during the holiday season. ComScore data showed desktop online sales in the last two months of 2016 rose 12%, and are expected to rise to 16-19% once the mobile commerce numbers are tallied. This steady downward trend for brick-and-mortars has been caused by a variety of factors. Amazon has carved out a desire for free, fast shipping and one-stop shopping. The rise of “fast-fashion” pushes consumers to buy mass-produced and cheap clothing that is easiest to replicate online, and the wide-spread usability of eCommerce and mCommerce sites make the experience of online shopping hassle free. Many organizations have relied on the in-store experience to garner loyalty, so now the question is how to achieve that same experience in the digital realm as foot traffic to stores falls to all-time lows. The answer lies in understanding your users and tailoring content, not just products, within your communications. Experian Cross-Channel Marketing’s studies have shown that by incorporating editorial content into email, overall audience engagement can rise by up to 28% over audiences that don't receive content-driven messages. That’s an increase of over 20% in opens, clicks, and transaction rates! Now to be clear, this is content that is NOT focused on the sale, but rather, how the products, services, or organization can better the user’s life. Let’s dive into this a bit more deeply by talking about the types of content you can weave into your communication strategy: Product Tutorials This is the easiest to execute for those wanting to digress from the discount epidemic plaguing us all. Instead of flaunting a low price, highlight product versatility, create a video showing ease of use or wow the audience by demonstrating transformative effects with before and after photos. Bring the experience to them virtually rather than relying on a showroom to demonstrate the value. The more you draw your users into this experience, the more likely they are to remember your brand. Social Highlights + Celebrity Bloggers Many organizations spend a great amount of time and energy developing a solid social strategy, but fail to bridge the gap between social, email, the website, and even in-store experience. Pull favorite items, the highest rated products, or user-generated content into email to add a personal, more relevant touch to your brand. Also consider bringing any celebrity or blogger content to the forefront of your eNewsletters to achieve the same goal. After Your Purchase Experian has found that Welcome Emails containing a “Thank You” message for those that purchased produced 20x the revenue per email than promotional welcomes. These users are primed to purchase again as they have already shown interest in your organization, so why not incentivize another transaction immediately when appropriate? However, don't forget that the user journey doesn’t stop at the transaction. A huge part of customer satisfaction comes after the credit card has been swiped. Send communications to ensure the user knows how to care for their product, prepare for their service, or simply send a survey after their journey is complete. Including additional options to purchase should be secondary to making sure you get THIS transaction right. How It’s Made Is your product made in America, handcrafted, or come with special care that makes your brand stand out? Are your services or designers top rated for good reason? Give your customers a behind the scenes look to entice them and peak their interest in your brand. A Bigger Purpose Does your brand have a mission that will resonate in the hearts of your consumers? Is there a give-back program you think your audience will care about? If so, bring that bigger purpose to the spotlight and give your consumers a reason to be a part of your community. As your content strategy becomes more advanced, consider profiling your audience to understand their messaging preferences, and then test your content across these cohorts. Not all content will resonate with all customers, but finding the right content marketing mix will surely help your online presence stand out in a time where the digital experience is more important than ever.
Email marketing remains a marketer’s most powerful tool. It not only produces an impressively high ROI, it’s also highly measurable. It’s not uncommon to hear people boast about high deliverability as one of these metrics. However what does that statistic ‘deliverability’ actually mean? Statistics suggest that 1 in every 5 emails fail to land in the inbox [1] which means 20% of opportunities to connect with customers are being missed. Having great deliverability is what every marketer strives for but it is something that has been difficult for people to define. Now it’s not uncommon for words to have different meanings in different countries, the most obvious example being football. Deliverability, like football, has many different meanings No wonder Googling the term “deliverability” leaves you more confused than when you started. Metrics and people’s interpretation of their meaning is one of the biggest reasons for confusion around the topic of deliverability and many marketers mistakenly feel secure in their ability to reach subscribers if they have a high delivery rate. This however, isn’t necessarily the case… Delivered vs ‘accepted’ Often what marketers believe to be a measurement of their deliverability is in reality the proportion of emails that were ‘accepted.’ An email is considered to be delivered if it does not bounce or doesn’t get returned to the mail server stating it was unable to be delivered for a specific reason. Delivery rate is a calculation of mail sent minus the volume that bounced. Deliverability is making sure you are doing what you can to put yourself in the best position to be actually seen by your email subscribers. Not stuck in spam or ignored. Inbox placement is an ongoing battle for email marketers and is effected by many factors such as CAN-SPAM, PECR, CASL compliance, sender reputation, list hygiene, authentication and blacklisting. The number of active subscribers, open and click-through rates also can influence reputation with certain ISPs such as Hotmail or Gmail. Successful deliverability depends on a combination of best practices, including authentication and email reputation. The rules of deliverability go through perpetual change and proven techniques can prevent failures. Many people believe there is a silver bullet or a guarantee that a supplier can provide 99% deliverability rates, in reality sending mail to those who want it is the only truly proven way to get great deliverability. Deliverability is a critical element of email marketing and something that all marketers should be considering. Want to learn more about deliverability? Check out our ebook "You’ve got mail! Spotlight on email deliverability," where we offer a proactive strategy for building brand loyality and improving ROI through email deliverability and optimized email marketing programs. Read related posts about email marketing and deliverability here. [1] Return path Deliverability Benchmark Report http://returnpath.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/2015-Deliverability-Benchmark-Report.pdf Tom Corbett is an expert on Email Deliverability
Engagement matters. It matters to marketers and it matters to the consumer…but what is the most effective way to improve that engagement? We sat down with Marketing Expert, Liz McLemore to get her take on the top 5 marketing resolutions to improve your marketing programs. Resolution 1: Gain a full understanding of your data This year, strive to get a full picture of what data you have available. In order to really know who your customers are across all channels and be able to deliver meaningful experiences to them, you’ll need to consider what sources of data are available to you, and then who needs to have access to that data in order to best leverage it. Here are a few tips to get you started: -Collect demographic and behavioral data to get a clear picture of your customers. Combining these data types will help give you a better view of your audience. -Perform a comprehensive data audit to figure out exactly what your data is telling you. Document everything, from the data type to how often it’s updated. -Find a partner who can centralize your database and help you leverage unlimited data types and sources. Resolution 2: Amp up your personalization Your newly centralized data will allow you to better personalize the content and timing of your cross-channel communications. In order to make change executable, consider a phased approach to personalization. -Start small, with elements of your current template that can easily be personalized, such as headers or footers. -Enhance personalization through demographic or behavioral data, such as loyalty points. -Move toward a true 1:1 experience by partnering with a cross-channel communications provider who can help with state-based personalization. Resolution 3: Maintain a consistent approach When your customers interact with your brand, they should encounter a consistent brand experience. They don’t think in channels, so why should you? -View your brand as a customer would. Sign up for your emails, check out the in-store experience, and follow your brand on social media. -Compare your message across channels. Is the story you’re telling consistent? -Examine your internal operations, and work to remove silos. Cross-functional teams need to work together seamlessly in order to deliver a seamless cross-channel customer experience. Resolution 4: Adopt a mobile-first approach in every channel Customers do more than check email on their phones. Mobile commerce is growing, and a Business Insider BI Intelligence report predicts that mobile will account for 45% of all ecommerce by 2020. In order to take advantage of this growth, expand your mobile-first approach beyond the inbox. -Have a well-paved mobile path. Test the look and feel of your emails on a mobile device. Make sure that your website is mobile optimized, and that the path to purchase is as frictionless as possible. -When incorporating an SMS campaign, have a clear goal in mind. SMS campaigns can be effective ways to promote upcoming deals, cultivate loyalty, or inform, but it’s important to narrow your focus in order to best engage your customers. -Be compliant. If you do not have a mobile expert on your team, be sure to partner with one who can ensure your campaigns follow mobile compliance guidelines. Resolution 5: Measure effectiveness Now that you’ve put processes and plans into effect, measure their impact. -Work with your web, mobile, and social teams at the campaign creation stage to determine what metrics you need to measure, and why. In today’s cross-channel marketing world, it’s about more than open and click rates. -Compare your engagement rates to industry benchmarks to gain a better sense of how your brand is performing, but remember you need to be your OWN benchmark. -Invest in more sophisticated analytics programs to take your reporting to the next level, or seek the professional advice of experts who can show you how to separate the signal from the noise and gain deeper insights. These five tips and more are discussed in our webinar “Trends are Dead Ends: Create a clear road to success with our 2017 planning tips.” If you didn’t get a chance to join us, you can view a recording of it here. Also, if you want more information on our 2016 holiday insights please join us for our next webinar “It’s a wrap: 2016 holiday insights, “on February 23rd at 1pm ET.