Experian Marketing Services released its 2016 Digital Marketer Report. The eighth annual study reveals the challenges, priorities and other key issues impacting marketers worldwide. This year, the top challenge marketers faced also is their top priority: knowing their customers’ needs, wants and attitudes. Thirty-eight percent of marketers cited knowing their customers as their top challenge in 2016, and 52 percent named enhancing their customer knowledge as one of their top three priorities. Other top challenges indicated by marketers include increasing visibility over competitors and staying ahead of new marketing trends. The integration of technology and collecting, linking and managing data also were key priorities. “The future of marketing is being driven by sophisticated, channel-agnostic consumers who expect exceptional experiences every time. This reality poses a real challenge for organizations, as consumer intolerance for mediocre brand interactions puts more pressure on brands to leverage their data and technology,” said Ashley Johnston, senior vice president of global marketing at Experian Marketing Services. “Today’s brand marketers realize the significance of knowing their customers, but it’s still problematic. Our research found that regardless of the company size or industry, marketers around the globe still find this to be a top challenge.” Findings from the study will be explored in detail during a live Webinar on April 13, 2016, which will include an insider look at how Publishers Clearing House has overcome data and technology challenges to center its marketing programs on the customer. Webinar attendees will receive an exclusive Digital Marketer cheat sheet that highlights the report’s top statistics. To reserve your spot for the Webinar, sign up at https://www.experian.com/marketing-services/digital-marketer-report.html. Experian Marketing Services surveyed more than 1,000 marketers worldwide to identify the biggest opportunities and challenges for marketers around the world. The annual report benchmarks the key issues that brands face as they try to engage audiences with relevant messages in an often complex digital environment. Additional findings of interest from the 2016 Digital Marketer Report: Eighty-one percent of marketers report challenges in achieving a single customer view Enterprises cite making messages contextually relevant as their top challenge Seventy percent of respondents work in marketing teams that are integrated either fully or somewhat, up from 61 percent in 2015 Personalization helps achieve a 158 percent increase in click rate Sixty-six percent of marketers plan to implement predictive modeling over the next year and 68 percent plan to run mobile campaigns Eighty-six percent of marketers build segmented audiences for paid advertising “Now in its eighth year, the Digital Marketer Report contains key insights and trends that thousands of marketers have come to rely on every year,” added Johnston. “Our research and analysis focus on the areas we anticipate being the most impactful for marketers moving forward — particularly for brands that are committed to surprising and delighting their customers with every interaction.” The full 2016 Digital Marketer Report can be downloaded here: http://go.experian.com/dm16report. Past editions of the Digital Marketer Report have been recognized with awards such as the Killer Content Award (Demand Gen Report) and Stevie Award® (American Business Awards).
![[Infographic]: Off-lease Vehicles Surge Back into the Market](http://www.experian.com/blogs/news/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Feature-Leasing-Image1.png)
As automotive leasing trends to new heights, a rapid influx of off-lease vehicles are returning to market. Experian Automotive’s latest infographic explores the surge in off-lease vehicles, including which models and vehicle segments are most popular. Click here to download this infographic.
Tru Optik, the only audience measurement and data management platform built for OTT and Connected TV, has partnered with Experian Marketing Services to offer a service providing real-time census-level viewer data for over-the-top (OTT) TV programs and ad exposure across all screens. Tru Optik clients will be able to measure and segment content and ad exposure based on lifestyle, demographic and purchase behavior powered by Experian’s ConsumerView marketing database. Tru Optik has the world’s largest database of OTT media and entertainment consumption. Experian’s ConsumerView is the world’s largest and most accurate consumer marketing database. Together this will allow for comprehensive metrics for valuing advertising on OTT networks and platforms, and close a conspicuous gap in TV audience measurement. It’s widely accepted that digital is the future of TV. One third of Millennial television viewing already occurs “over the top,” mainly via Connected TV (CTV) devices such as Roku, Apple TV, smart TVs and gaming consoles that stream OTT content to TV screens. While OTT offers the possibility of reaching TV viewers with unprecedented precision, barely one percent of TV advertising dollars flow through OTT. There are three reasons why advertising dollars are not catching up to viewership: No measurement – advertisers have no visibility to OTT ad exposure, and can’t relate it to other media; Fuzzy targeting – the advertising industry relies on cookies or SDK’s (device-specific software development kits) to capture consumer data for ad targeting. However, CTV is a cookie-less ecosystem accessible via dozens of devices, rendering cookies useless making SDK’s impractical; No attribution – lack of measurement means there’s no way to connect OTT ad expenditures to desired outcomes like purchases. Tru Optik CEO, Andre Swanston, sums up the problem: “If you can’t fully measure it, you can’t fully monetize it. Tru Optik’s technology and first-party data combined with Experian’s data will enable media companies and advertisers to understand and value audiences for OTT content. In other words, it will provide the currency that is necessary to truly open not only the OTT ad market, but also provide better insight as to the value of product placement and licensing of content to subscription video services like Netflix and Amazon." By providing census-level audience measurement and profiling data for programming and ad exposure across OTT platforms and connected devices, Tru Optik and Experian Marketing Services have removed all three barriers to OTT advertising and monetization. Tru Optik and Experian Marketing Services use cookie-less methods that allow anonymous, aggregated behavior and profile information to be connected and protected across all digital devices belonging to the same individuals or households, including CTV. This enables “cross device” OTT and addressable campaign analysis, which is critical for accurate attribution. “Tru Optik is at the forefront of empowering media companies and brands to harness the power of CTV. By partnering with Experian they are adding a trusted and reliable source of audience and consumer data to enhance their measurement and segmentation ability,” said Kevin Dean, President and General Manager of Targeting, Experian Marketing Services. Tru Optik is careful to distinguish its offering from traditional audience measurement products. “This is not a panel based ‘ratings’ service,” said Swanston. “With respect to media companies and marketers, your data belongs to you; it is not part of a Co-op.” “Experian Marketing Services is far and away the industry leader in audience creation for addressable TV, connecting advertisers to 100 percent of the household-level addressable TV operators in the U.S. “ said David Wiesenfeld, Tru Optik’s Chief Strategist. “With Tru Optik already having the world’s largest media consumption database, the addition of purchase, preference, and profiling information from Experian will give clients unmatched insight into their audiences and marketing efficacy.”
Today, we stand at the forefront of a digital revolution that is reshaping the financial services industry. And, against this backdrop, financial institutions are at vastly different levels of maturity; the world’s biggest banks are managing large-scale infrastructure migrations and making significant investments in AI while regional banks and credit unions are putting plans in place for modernization strategies, and fintechs are purpose-built and cloud native. To explore this more, I recently had the privilege of attending the annual Reuters NEXT live event in New York City. The event gathers globally recognized leaders across business, finance, technology, and government to tackle some of today’s most pressing issues. On the World Stage, I joined Del Irani, a talented anchor and broadcast journalist, to discuss the future of lending and the pivotal role of data and AI in building a more inclusive financial system. Improving financial access Our discussion highlighted the lack of access to traditional financial systems, and the impact it has on nearly 100 million people in North America alone. Globally, the problem affects over one billion people. These people, who are credit invisible, unscoreable, or have subprime credit scores, are unable to secure everyday financial products that many of us take for granted. What many don’t realize is, this is not a fringe subset of the population. Most of us, myself included, know someone who has faced the challenges of financial exclusion. Everyday Americans, including young people who are just starting out, new immigrants and people from diverse communities, often lack access to mainstream financial products. We discussed how traditional lending has a limited view of a consumer. Like looking through a keyhole, the lender’s understanding of the person in view is often incomplete and obstructed. However, with expanded data, technology, and advanced analytics, there is an opportunity to better understand the whole person, and as a result have a more inclusive financial system. At Experian, we have a unique ability to connect the power of traditional credit with alternative data, bringing a more holistic understanding of consumers and their behaviors. We are dedicated to leveraging our rich history in data and our expertise in technology to create the future of credit and ultimately bring financial power to everyone. The future of lending After spending two days with over 700 industry leaders from around the world, one thing is abundantly clear: much like the early days of the internet, today, we are at the cutting-edge of a technical revolution. Reflecting on my time at Reuters NEXT, I am particularly excited by the collective commitment to drive innovative, and smarter ways of working. We are only beginning to scratch the surface of how data and technology can transform financial services, and Experian is positioned to play a significant role. As we look to the future, I am excited about the ways we will create new opportunities for businesses and consumers alike.
The advertising ecosystem has seen significant transformation over the past few years, with increased privacy regulation, changes in available signals, and the rise of channels like connected TV and retail media. These changes are impacting the way that consumers interact with brands and how brands understand and continue to deliver relevant messages to consumers with precision. Experian has been helping marketers navigate these changes, and as a result, our marketing data and identity solutions underpin much of today’s advertising industry. We’re committed to empowering marketers and agencies to understand and reach their target audiences, across all channels. Today, we are excited to announce our acquisition of Audigent—a leading data and activation platform in the advertising industry. With Audigent’s combination of first-party publisher data, inventory and deep supply-side distribution relationships, publishers, big and small, can empower marketers to better understand their customers, expand the reach of their target audiences and activate those audiences across the most impactful inventory. I am excited to bring together Audigent’s supply-side network as a natural extension to our existing demand-side capabilities. Audigent’s ability to combine inventory with targeted audiences using first-party, third-party and contextual signals provides the best of all worlds, allowing marketers to deliver campaigns centered on consumer choices, preferences, and behaviors. The addition of Audigent further strengthens our strategy to be the premier independent provider of marketing data and identity, ultimately creating more relevant experiences for consumers. To learn more about Experian and Audigent, visit https://www.experian.com/marketing/ and https://audigent.com/.
When it comes to cybercriminals and threat vectors, we need to expect the unexpected. Experian’s 12th annual Data Breach Industry Forecast highlights several potential trends for 2025, with AI playing a central role. This year has already seen more data breaches and impacted consumers than 2023, indicating that global data breaches are not slowing down. Some things to watch out for next year includes the potential for more internal fraud. As companies train employees on AI, there is a growing risk that some will misuse their knowledge for internal theft and sourcing sensitive information. Another trend may be cyberattackers targeting large data centers, with the growth of generative AI introducing power as a new attack vector. It’s reported that a single ChatGPT query uses significantly more electricity than a standard Google search, making data centers and cloud infrastructure vulnerable, especially in countries with varying security standards. We expect AI-related attacks to dominate the headlines next year and investments in cybersecurity will increase to tackle this emerging threat, as hackers leverage AI for phishing, password cracking, malware, and deepfakes. Jim Steven, Head of Crisis and Data Response Services at Experian Global Data Breach Resolution in the UK, anticipates that global data breaches will persist at their current rate next year. He notes that ransomware attacks are likely to become even more sophisticated with the integration of AI. Additionally, Steven predicts that threat actors will escalate their tactics to achieve greater rewards, and the misuse of consumer data to damage reputations will increase in 2025. To access the complimentary report, click here.