As a marketer, you know that the digital landscape is always changing. That’s why it’s important to make sure you’re equipped with the right tools every step of the way – no matter how rapidly things change. You want to ensure your strategies and tactics stay ahead of any changes in technology or consumer behavior, so what new marketing strategies should be in your toolbox in 2023?
Discover what industry leaders from Experian, Adweek, FreeWheel, Tubi, and Instacart had to say about what should be in every marketer’s toolbox in 2023 at Cannes.
Keep reading to learn the top four new marketing strategies you need in your marketing toolbox for 2023 and beyond.
1. A plan for signal loss
The first item you should have in your marketing toolbox is a plan for signal loss.
The phasing out of third-party cookies presents both a challenge and an opportunity. This shift not only poses challenges but also opens up opportunities for alternative strategies.
On the one hand, it makes it more difficult to track users across channels and measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. On the other hand, it forces marketers to focus on building relationships with their customers and collecting first-party data.
Consumer behavior is changing
When we consider signal loss in a traditional sense, we think of the implementation of iOS 14, where we couldn’t track click-based data from campaigns. It’s important to reflect on the fact that the paid media ecosystem needed to adapt to new consumer realities.
Younger demographics are less likely to click on ads and instead engage in video environments. They discover brands through platforms like TikTok or Instagram. It’s crucial to understand how people behave, where they discover products, and where influence takes place. This understanding becomes even more vital when targeting a young audience demographic.
Four things to consider when planning for signal loss
There are four things you should consider when building out a plan to address signal loss and fragmentation.
Channel diversification
You need to reach your customers on the channels where they are already spending time, such as social media, email, and your own website. You should work with platforms that have first-party data to understand how your customers interact with your brand.
Data privacy
You need to be transparent about how you are collecting and using customer data. You should also anonymize data whenever possible.
First-party data
First-party data is now more crucial than ever, awakening its importance in shaping our actions. The combination of channel diversification and first-party data will be essential in the years to come. By focusing on these two areas, you can build stronger customer relationships and create more effective marketing campaigns.
Contextual targeting
Contextual targeting is emerging as a viable method to deliver more relevant content to your intended audience.
By embracing signal loss, the alternative new marketing strategies that are emerging as a result, and adopting a privacy-centric mindset, you can navigate cookie deprecation.
2. Collaboration
The second item you should have in your marketing toolbox is collaboration within the AdTech ecosystem.
To address signal loss and changes in privacy, moving toward a more collaborative, holistic marketing ecosystem is key.
Two ways we can achieve better collaboration
Here are two ways we can create better collaboration in the AdTech ecosystem.
Enable interoperability
We should aim to create an ecosystem that fosters collaboration between marketers, publishers, advertisers, ad tech companies, and more. When we enable seamless interoperability, everyone can use the best data available.
Use clean rooms
We are witnessing a growing trend of collaboration between parties, where buyers and sellers share data in these secure environments. Clean rooms can help us develop data strategies in a controlled manner.
3. Generative artificial intelligence (AI)
The third tool you should have in your marketing toolbox is generative AI.
Benefits of implementing AI
There are three main benefits to implementing AI within your marketing strategy.
Enables creativity
Although AI and machine learning have long been part of our toolbox, this moment marks an extraordinary acceleration that expands our capabilities. Copywriters can now create visuals, and art directors can write compelling copy. It’s an extension of what we’re capable of, potentially alleviating the burden of repetitive tasks and enabling more time for collaboration, creativity, and strategic thinking.
By embracing generative AI, we can preserve valuable talent, prevent burnout, and invigorate the advertising industry.
Enables more personalization
The rise of personalization with AI has significantly increased the demand for tailored experiences. People now willingly allow AI agents to read their emails, hoping for quicker and easier responses. This shift signifies a change in the previous emphasis on privacy and consumer preferences. Consumers now see the value in exchanging personal information for more targeted services.
E-commerce has already witnessed this transformation with customized ads based on individual preferences and behaviors. For instance, if a CPG brand notices you’re not purchasing meat, they won’t serve you ads for meat products.
However, it’s crucial to strike the right balance between being useful and intrusive. Users want relevant information that aligns with their needs without feeling intruded upon.
As we navigate this path, we must ensure that personalization remains beneficial and respectful of user preferences.
Helps drive impactful results and customer satisfaction
The tool is a perfect analogy for improving your job performance and business operations. Having the right data input to feed the machine is crucial, just like using the right ingredients to cook a perfect meal. Keeping the consumer in mind throughout the process is key. You can ensure customer satisfaction by putting the right ingredients in and allowing the machine to work its magic. Scaling up, repeating, and refining the process will drive impactful results.
4. First-party data
The fourth item you should have in your marketing toolbox is first-party data.
Benefits of implementing a first-party data strategy
Moving from a third-party cookie world to a first-party cookie world brings about significant transformation. Here are two benefits of implementing a first-party data strategy.
Greater accuracy
The shift to first-party cookies ensures greater accuracy, enabling us to establish critical mass through secure partnerships. This empowers us to strengthen and refine our personalization capabilities, much like Amazon’s ability to anticipate customer needs before they arise. When you can predict and understand customer behaviors with remarkable precision, you can reach your customers with tailored and creative ads.
“Building a robust first-party data strategy should be a central discussion for marketers, involving key stakeholders such as CEOs and CMOs. Quality and precise data are paramount, and while first-party relationships with consumers form the foundation, even established brands benefit from strategic partnerships. Together, we can unlock the potential of accurate and meaningful data-driven marketing.”
jeremy hlavacek, cco, experian
Identify high-growth audiences
First-party data can help you identify audiences with the greatest growth potential, ultimately optimizing marketing dollars for greater efficiency.
Watch our Cannes panel for more new marketing strategies for 2023
We hosted a panel with Adweek in Cannes that covered what should be in every marketer’s toolbox this year. Check out the full recording below to hear from leaders at Tubi, Freewheel, Instacart, Adweek, and Experian.
Check out more Cannes content:
- Our key takeaways from Cannes Lions 2023
- Insights from a first-time attendee
- Exploring the opportunities in streaming TV advertising
- The future of identity in cookieless advertising
- Maximize ad targeting with supply-side advertising
Follow us on LinkedIn or sign up for our email newsletter for more informative content on the latest industry insights and data-driven marketing.
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The holiday season is almost here, and knowing how each generation plans to shop can give your holiday advertising campaigns the edge you need. Our recent survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers reveals 2024 holiday shopping trends for each generation and key insights into their anticipated spending levels, preferred shopping categories, and how they look for gift ideas. In this blog post, we'll explore three 2024 holiday shopping trends across generations: Projected consumer spending Top categories on shoppers' lists Preferred channels for researching gifts 1. Projected consumer spending Over 1 in 3 Gen Z and Millennials are gearing up to increase their holiday budgets this year, while Gen X and Boomers are likelier to stick to last year's budget. 36% of Millennials and Gen Z plan to spend more this holiday season 45% of Gen X and 52% of Boomers expect their spending to remain consistent with last year What this means for marketers These insights highlight the importance of tailoring your messaging. For Gen Z and Millennials, emphasize value and unique offerings that justify increased spending. For Gen X and Boomers, focus on trust and reliability, reinforcing their confidence in your brand. How Experian can help you target these audiences Experian’s custom and syndicated audience segments, including Holiday Shopper High Spenders and Holiday Shopper Moderate Spenders, enable you to connect with these diverse consumer groups. Our audiences are available on-the-shelf of leading ad platforms to help you reach people across social, TV, and mobile. The election effect U.S. holiday retail sales saw 4.1% YoY growth in 2016 and 8.3% YoY growth in 2020 following presidential elections. There’s a chance that holiday spending increases after the 2024 election, regardless of the outcome. Experian has 240+ politically relevant audiences that you can activate across major ad platforms ahead of the upcoming election. 2. Top categories on shoppers' lists Different generations have distinct preferences when it comes to what they plan to buy. Gift cards top the list for Gen X and Boomers, while Gen Z leans toward clothing. Millennials are looking to splurge on toys, electronics, and experiences. 69% of Boomers and Gen X plan to purchase gift cards 72% of Gen Z will buy clothing 45% of Millennials will buy health and beauty items 25% of Millennials will buy tickets and 22% of Millennials will buy experiences What this means for marketers Align your product offerings and promotions with each generation's preferences to capture their attention. For example, highlighting versatile gift cards may resonate more with older generations, while showcasing trendy apparel and tech gadgets will appeal to younger consumers. How Experian can help you target these shoppers We offer audience segments like Holiday Shoppers: Apparel, Cosmetics & Beauty Spenders, and Toys Shoppers that you can activate to connect with consumers primed to purchase in these categories. We recently released 19 new holiday shopping audiences we recommend targeting to drive engagement and conversions. Download our audience recommendations here. 3. Preferred channels for researching gift ideas When it comes to finding the perfect gifts, Gen Z turns to social media, while Millennials prefer online reviews and video content. Boomers and Gen X are more inclined to visit physical stores for hands-on product evaluations. 29% of Gen Z and 26% of Millennials will look for gift ideas on social media 44% of Millennials will rely on video reviews and product demos on platforms like YouTube 49% of Gen X and Boomers plan to visit physical stores to evaluate products in person What this means for marketers Understanding where each generation looks for inspiration can guide your content and ad placement strategy. To engage Gen Z, focus on social media campaigns and influencer partnerships. For Millennials, consider investing in video content and reviews. For older generations, ensure your in-store experience is optimized to convert browsing into purchases. How Experian can help you engage these shoppers Our TrueTouchTM audiences can help you pair the perfect messaging styles with the right channels and calls to action. Our Social media channel and content engagement audiences can help you reach Gen Z who are likely to be active users on major social platforms and are Black Friday shoppers. For a full list of Experian’s syndicated audiences and activation destinations, download our syndicated audiences guide. Download our report for five 2024 holiday shopping trends by generation Understanding 2024 holiday shopping trends by generation can help you tailor your targeting, messaging, media planning, and creative based on the generation you’re targeting. In addition to the insights covered here, download our 2024 Holiday spending trends and insights report to learn: When consumers plan to shop (hint: they're already shopping) Where they plan to shop (online vs. in-store) Download our full report to access all five of our predictions by generation, so you can address the diverse needs of this year's holiday shoppers. Download now When you work with Experian for your holiday shopping campaigns, you’re getting: Accurate consumer insights: Better understand your customers’ behavioral and demographic attributes with our #1 ranked data covering the full U.S. population. Signal-agnostic identity solutions: Our deep understanding of people in the offline and digital worlds provides you with a persistent linkage of personally identifiable information (PII) data and digital IDs, ensuring you accurate cross-device targeting, addressability and measurement. Secure connectivity: Bring data and identity to life in a way that meets your needs by securely sharing data between partners, utilizing the integrations we have across the ecosystem, and using our marketing data in flexible ways. Make the most of this holiday shopping season with Experian. Contact us today to get started. Contact us Source Online survey conducted in June, 2024 among n=1,000 U.S. adults 18+. Sample balanced to look like the general population on key demographics (age, gender, household income, ethnicity, and region). Latest posts
Today, Experian is excited to introduce our Offline Graph as a standalone product that clients can license, marking a significant step in our commitment to powering data-driven advertising through connectivity. Offline Graph empowers advertisers and advertising technology companies to build and refine consumer profiles, contributing to data connectivity, more offline audience reach, and improved offline measurement accuracy. As a result of consumers engaging with content across more channels, there are more disparate data points than ever before. When you couple that with ongoing signal loss, the need for a unified identity solution has never been greater. Experian’s Offline Graph offers companies a license of stable offline data points, like name, address, phone number, email, geographic information, date of birth, and additional attributes that provide a complete view of household and individual identities. The Offline Graph integrates known offline identity information from reliable deterministic sources like property ownership records, public records, and marketing data to provide access to all United States consumers and households. How customers can use the Offline Graph A big box retailer fills in the blanks of their existing customer data and builds a database of prospects. A media platform more effectively onboards advertisers’ segments, enabling advertisers to reach more of their customers. A retail brand better understands their customer’s demographic and behavioral make-up, by licensing Offline Graph with Marketing Attributes. A connected TV (CTV) manufacturer increases audience reach and accurately quantifies the campaign impact for their advertising partners. Experian’s Offline Graph is already driving value across industries. Here’s some in-depth client success stories: Fusion92 licenses Offline Graph to help their clients transform their marketing Fusion92 is a marketing partner that fuels business transformation in today’s digital economy and delivers exponential returns for brands. Fusion92 licenses Experian’s Offline Graph to power their strategy: from research and discovery to audience creation, activation, and measurement. With access to our Offline Graph, Fusion92 ensures their clients get the insights, targeting, reach, and measurement they need to achieve their business goals. "At Fusion92, we are always pushing the envelope to develop solutions that lead to success for our clients. Our desire to innovate pushed us to find an industry-leading partner in data and identity. This led to us licensing Experian’s Offline Graph product, which we use to build more complete audience profiles for our clients. In doing so, we help brands target, activate, and measure their marketing campaigns more effectively, leading to superior results.”dave nugent, executive vice president of data and analytics, fusion92 Using Offline Graph to deliver relevant messaging to multiple audience cohorts A leading direct-to-consumer (DTC) company with strong customer relationships built a robust first-party data set, enabling effective customer retention. To attract new customers, they partnered with Experian to access offline identity data from Experian’s Offline Graph. The Offline Graph provides them with the data needed to validate their first-party data and with the keys to unlock new customers. With this data, the DTC company delivered the right message to both sets of consumers: existing customers and new prospects. By integrating Experian’s Offline Graph they broadened their reach, personalized their messaging, and improved their marketing. What sets Experian’s Offline Graph apart from the competition Stability of data: With data from deterministic sources, our Offline Graph ensures that your view of consumers – and your ability to connect with them – is stable over time. Connected digital and offline data: Seamlessly connect offline data with digital identifiers through our Digital Graph, enabling a holistic approach to marketing, while ensuring consumer privacy is prioritized. Tailor made for your use cases: Build the Offline Graph to fit your specific needs, selecting the exact offline identity information required for your campaigns. Expanded consumer insights: Connect more data points to enrich your understanding of consumer demographics and behavior, using Experian’s Marketing Attributes and Audiences data. Offline Graph: Your gateway to consumer connectivity As signals fade, there is a large emphasis on procuring and having accurate consumer data. Experian’s Offline Graph delivers the connectivity and insights necessary to stay ahead. Whether you aim to strengthen your existing data or access entirely new data sets, Experian’s Offline Graph offers a solution tailored to your needs. Transform your data strategy with Experian’s Offline Graph — your gateway to a unified consumer identity solution. Get started today Latest posts
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