Margins and Paddings Update

Experian Marketing Services’ Client Summit and The Digital Marketer report recognized among more than 3,300 nominations nationwide Experian Marketing Services, a global provider of integrated consumer insights and targeting, data quality and cross-channel marketing, was presented with three bronze Stevie Awards at the 12th Annual American Business Awards in Chicago, Illinois, on Friday night, June 13, 2014. The American Business Awards is the nation’s premier business award program. All organizations — public and private, for-profit and nonprofit, large and small — operating in the United States are eligible to submit nominations. As a winner, Experian Marketing Services was recognized from more than 3,300 nominations that were submitted this year. “It’s an honor to be recognized, especially by this esteemed panel of business executives, for the value we create for our clients,” said Ashley Johnston, senior vice president of global marketing at Experian Marketing Services. “Our Stevie Award wins underscore our commitment to helping our clients create intelligent interactions with their customers, through our wide range of strategic marketing services and offerings.” Experian Marketing Services’ Client Summit and The Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report were both recognized with bronze Stevie Awards. • For the highly attended 2013 Client Summit, Experian Marketing Service developed a program that combined inspiration, education and networking around the theme of “Interactions.” The three-day event exposed more than 1,000 marketers from some of the world’s largest and most sophisticated brands to key strategies, recommendations and drivers for effective cross-channel marketing. The ultimate goal the Client Summit is to help marketers make meaningful connections with their customers at every point of interaction. • Created to help demystify today’s rapidly changing digital landscape for clients and the business community at large, the fifth edition of The Digital Marketer: Benchmark and Trend Report features extensive analysis, case studies, best practices and the results of a survey Experian conducted among several hundred marketers. Experian Marketing Services also received a bronze Stevie Award for Communications or PR Campaign/Program of the Year for an internal communications campaign that engaged global employees in a strategic business initiative. Nicknamed “the Stevies” for the Greek word for “crowned,” the trophies were presented to winners during a gala banquet on Friday, June 13, at the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park Hotel. More than 400 nominees and their guests attended. The presentations will be broadcast by the BizTalk Radio Network this week on Tuesday and Friday nights, June 17 and June 20, respectively. Experian Marketing Services also is a finalist for the American Business Awards new product and technology awards event, scheduled to take place on Friday, Sept. 12, in San Francisco, California. “It’s an honor for us to recognize and celebrate such an outstanding class of organizations and individuals,” said Michael Gallagher, president and founder of the Stevie Awards. “The judges were especially discerning this year. All of this year’s Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie winners should be proud that the judges recognized their achievements and their ability to express those achievements in a way that captured the judges’ hearts and imaginations.” Details about the American Business Awards and the lists of Stevie winners who were announced on June 13 are available at StevieAwards.com/ABA.

According to Experian Marketing Services, a global provider of integrated consumer insights, targeting, data quality and cross-channel marketing, abandoned cart emails have significantly higher revenue per email than promotional mailings. Featuring results from a new email remarketing best practices analysis, as part of its Q1 2014 Email Benchmark Report, Experian Marketing Services found that personalized abandoned cart emails that show the actual customer cart had 25 percent higher transaction rates than abandoned cart emails that just linked back to the brand’s Website. Further, personalized subject lines had 12 percent higher unique open rates than mailings without personalization. A complimentary download of the full report is available here: http://ex.pn/1l4VlrS. Additional findings from the email remarketing best practices analysis confirm: • Abandoned cart emails should be delivered in a three-part series. Brands that send second abandoned cart reminders had a 50 percent increase in abandoned cart revenue compared to just their first abandoned cart mailing. Those sending three mailings saw a 56 percent increase in revenue compared to just sending the initial abandoned cart email. • Test including an offer. Including an offer in the first abandoned cart mailing boosted transaction rates by 54 percent. The highest transaction rates for offers were for dollar-off offers (2.05 percent), followed by free shipping (1.87 percent) and percent off (1.15 percent) offers. “Mastering email remarketing through a series of personalized content can have a real and direct impact on a brand’s bottom line,” said Peter DeNunzio, general manager for cross-channel marketing at Experian Marketing Services. “We’re seeing that brands that are able to ‘test and learn’ their way to personalization are particularly successful as they embrace cross-channel programs. By understanding the impact of timing, creative messaging and personalization – and adopting a continuous improvement mindset – brands are incorporating cross-channel tactics more seamlessly in their remarketing strategies.” Industry performance analysis The Q1 2014 Email Benchmark Report details overall email marketing trends for the first quarter of 2014 as well as the key performance indicators (KPIs) that shaped the success of email programs over the past two years across seven major verticals: business products and services, catalogers, consumer products and services, media and entertainment, multichannel retailers, publishers, and travel. Total email volume increased by 15.6 percent in Q1 2014 compared to Q1 2013 but volume declined in Q1 as compared to the previous holiday quarter (Q4 2013). Additional findings from specific industries include: • Catalogers had the highest gain in volume as 100 percent of brands increased mailings in Q1 2014. • More than half of the multichannel retail brands had statistically significant year-over-year increases in total and unique open rates in Q1 2014. • Fifty percent of total email opens are occurring on mobile devices. However, this varies by vertical. While 63 percent of emails from multichannel retailers are opened on a mobile device, mobile opens account for only 22 percent of email opens for business products and services. Increasing bounce rates highlight deliverability and data quality challenges According to a recent Experian Data Quality study, 66 percent of companies have experienced email deliverability issues in the last 12 months. Similarly, the Q1 2014 Email Benchmark Report highlights a 14.3 percent year-over-year increase in email bounce rates, with large percentage increases across several of the industries. Compared to bounce rates for the past two years, 2014 Q1 business products and services rates were constant, while catalogers and multichannel retailers experienced much larger increases in bounce rates year-over-year. The dramatic increase in bounce rates is due to the new practices of Internet Service Providers who are now shutting down inactive accounts more frequently to keep their own performance healthy. “It is vital companies adopt more effective targeting, list cleaning and data quality practices to improve the deliverability of their emails and the health of their cross-channel marketing programs,” said DeNunzio. Experian Marketing Services’ Q1 2014 Email Benchmark Report is available to download: http://ex.pn/1l4VlrS.

World Cup fans will be watching the 2014 games across multiple devices, often simultaneously, according to an analysis from Experian Marketing Services, a global provider of integrated consumer insight, targeting, data quality and cross-channel marketing. Specifically, World Cup fans are 31 percent more likely than average to watch online video across multiple devices, with 64 percent of adult fans watching online video during a typical week, compared with 49 percent of all adults. This is according to Experian Marketing Services’ National Consumer Survey, a nationally representative, continuously fielded survey of approximately 25,000 U.S. adults, including both English and Spanish speakers. Experian Marketing Services also found that World Cup fans are: • 60 percent more likely to use their phone to keep up with sports • 65 percent more likely to stream video from a work computer • 20 percent more likely to multitask while watching TV • 37 percent more likely to use a digital tablet • 60 percent more likely to use sports apps on their phone during a typical week “Adult fans of the World Cup don’t need a TV to watch video,” said Bill Tancer, general manager, global research at Experian Marketing Services. “This is a digitally and technologically savvy audience that doesn’t care how they watch their favorite programs, just as long as they are able to watch them. Expect to see the 2014 World Cup broadcasted everywhere the fans are this year, whether that’s at their desk computer or during their morning commute.” According to Tancer, because World Cup fans are such heavy users of digital media while they watch TV, Experian Marketing Services will be analyzing key online and search trends throughout the 2014 games. The Experian Marketing Services’ 2014 World Cup Online Trends Dashboard will be updated every Monday from June 9 to July 13, 2014. The dashboard will reveal the most popular daily searches from World Cup fans, including top players, search terms driving traffic to FIFA.com and the most popular Websites for soccer updates. So far, data has shown that ESPN Soccernet.com is the leading Website for soccer updates and Cristiano Ronaldo is exponentially the most searched individual player. Experian Marketing Services’ live 2014 World Cup Online Trends Dashboard can be viewed here: http://ex.pn/1hBc46F “The World Cup is a unique event for viewers but also for marketers because it attracts a fully engaged, globally diverse audience that loves to shop and engage with brands for an entire month,” said Tancer. “Our analysis reveals that World Cup fans are 29 percent more likely to have a strong connection with branded goods and services placed in the context of TV shows. It’s not just that they are aware of and engaged with branded products; they also are more likely to buy those products. Interestingly, we found the opposite in our analysis of Olympics viewers.” What do these viewers like to buy? World Cup fans are frequent shoppers overall, but they have an affinity for upscale stores like Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, Brooks Brothers, Nordstrom and Saks. They also shop at athletic stores like REI, Foot Locker, Modell’s and Nike and electronics stores like Apple.