Margins and Paddings Update

Earlier this week, it was reported that the Mississippi Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Experian. While not breaking news, it is important to provide context to the allegations. As the world’s largest credit bureau – and in managing more than 220 million files in the US alone – it has become commonplace to question credit reporting agencies. We are used to scrutiny of our practices – but sometimes the claims are just plain wrong. In the case of the lawsuit from the Mississippi Attorney General, we are disappointed that the state has taken this action. We feel that the lawsuit is not based on facts – even after we had fully cooperated with their investigation. As such, we intend to vigorously defend our company against these allegations. Specifically, to say we purposefully put errors on credit reports is false and unsupported by evidence, and clearly calculated to be sensational. Contrary to those allegations, Experian credit reports are used millions of times every day to accurately and quickly assess risk in lending and speed the process of making credit readily available to consumers. The Attorney General asserts that 95% of the data in our systems is accurate – but in fact, it is closer to 98% accurate. While we are proud of this accuracy rate, we continue to invest millions of dollars every year to make our accuracy rates even better. We are, in fact, working with the industry and our competitors to raise the accuracy and data quality standards for our credit reporting industry and, ultimately, to benefit consumers. Any allegation that we are operating illegally and out of compliance is false. In fact, Experian already operates in compliance with laws and under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which governs all aspects of our credit reporting business, including how we receive data, store it, transmit it and most importantly, how we allow other companies to use it and consumers to view and dispute it. Specifically, under the FCRA, consumers can view and dispute any or all of the information on their credit reports. And we recommend consumers take full advantage of accessing their free report annually at www.annualcreditreport.com. In the event a consumer finds an inaccuracy in their report, they can dispute the inaccuracy at Experian as required by federal law. While we plan to defend the lawsuit outside the lens of a public forum, it is worth noting how Experian, as a global leader, is a vital part of the credit ecosystem — empowering economic health for businesses and consumers alike. Very simply, because of what we do and what the credit reporting business offers, consumers can walk into an automotive dealership and purchase a car, they can get approved for a home loan over the phone and they can instantly get credit at their favorite retailer. Sometimes we take that for granted.

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.