The Millennial generation comprise approximately 80 million people – the largest in history. Thus, it is no surprise that every type or organization from financial to automotive to healthcare are seeking to better understand their mindset and habits. Experian also recently took a look at these post-Baby Boomers to learn more about their approach to personal finance conducting a national survey among more than 1,000 people ages 19-34. Interestingly, what the findings showed was that there is a strong dichotomy in many areas; we saw a disconnect between what Millennials know about personal finance (not a lot) vs. how they manage it with the latest tools and resources (on the cutting-edge). The survey respondents are quick to try new products and services but also lack loyalty and always look for the next best thing. They are also torn between feeling concerned about their finances, however are optimistic about their future financial outlook. When it comes to credit, there is a lack of awareness about how credit scores are created (67%) and 61 percent check their credit reports less than every three months. The main reason for not checking reports and scores was that it’s not necessary (35%/37%). Yet, 71 percent feel confident about their credit knowledge. View the survey report here: Experian Millennial Credit & Finance Survey Report Part I of II 

Experian Marketing Services, a recognized leader in data-driven marketing and cloud-based marketing technology, has hired digital-marketing industry veteran Bridget Bidlack to lead the global product vision, evolution and innovation for the Experian Marketing Suite. Bidlack, who joins the company in the New York City office as vice president of global product management, will play a pivotal role in further unifying Experian’s industry-leading technology, data and services for digital advertising and cross-channel marketing within the Experian Marketing Suite. In this role, Bidlack will oversee a global team responsible for product planning, execution and training in more than 30 countries around the world. “Bridget’s background in building and bringing innovative digital-marketing products to market  and her depth of industry knowledge will be instrumental as we take the Experian Marketing Suite to the next level of cross-channel marketing technology,” said Matt Seeley, group president, Experian Marketing Services. “As a client-centric organization, Bridget’s marketing prowess will be critical in ensuring that Experian continues to deliver market-moving products that put the marketer’s needs at the center of our innovation road map.” Known for her industry savvy and insight, Bidlack was named in 2014 as one of Adweek’s “12 Stars of Ad Tech Who Are Building the Future of the Industry Right Now.” In 2015 she was recognized by the San Francisco Business Times as one of the “Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business.” Bidlack brings to the Experian team more than 15 years of experience transforming and scaling digital-marketing businesses. Most recently, she served as vice president, enterprise products, at Rocket Fuel, where she led product management for the company’s platform business and was instrumental in integrating the company’s people, processes and tools after the acquisition of data management company [x+1]. Bidlack served as senior vice president, product management, at [x+1], overseeing the Origin Digital Marketing Hub platform. Prior to [x+1], Bidlack held numerous leadership positions at Traffiq, Turn and Microsoft. She first cut her teeth in digital advertising and email marketing at Bluestreak, an industry pioneer in digital marketing and started her career at IBM in the Global Services division, supporting Fortune 500 clients using IBM’s Customer Relationship Management, call center and middleware products. “The collision of marketing tech and ad tech is revolutionizing the marketing experience for both marketers and consumers. We’re now able to move beyond the relevant ad and the personalized email to create exceptional brand experiences that transcend the channel,” said Bidlack. “The Experian Marketing Suite has all the right ingredients to bring that vision to life for marketers in a single platform: accurate, quality data at scale; linkage technology; best-in-class security; real-time targeting; campaign management; decisioning and more. I’m thrilled to work with the industry’s best and brightest at Experian to deliver market-moving, customer-first technology for our clients.” Bidlack holds a Master of Science in information systems science from Salve Regina University and a Bachelor of Business Administration in business computer information systems from Hofstra University. Follow Bidlack on Twitter at @BBidlack.

More than 2.5 billion gigabytes of data is generated every single day. By 2020, it’s estimated that 40 zettabytes of data will be created. The sheer amount of data available today is changing nearly every aspect of our business and personal lives. Big Data is also transforming the world of sports – from the way General Managers recruit and draft players, to how coaches set lineups and design plays and even how everyday fans watch and participate in professional sports. Today, every major professional sports team either has an analytics department or an analytics expert on staff. By 2021, the markets for sports analytics is expected to reach $4.7 billion. This year, nearly 57 million people in the United States and Canada will play fantasy sports. At Experian, we’re fascinated with this transformation of the sports industry, in large part, because we are immersed in Big Data. Similar to the use of analytics in sports, we are in the business of compiling, analyzing and transforming massive amounts of information into actionable insights. Every day, we are using Big Data for good – to streamline processes, mitigate risk, grow the economy and improve society. To explore the many parallels between Big Data in business and sports, we sat down with Diane Bloodworth, president and CEO of Competitive Sports Analysis (CSA) to find out more. Here’s what we learned: What's the mission of CSA? Competitive Sports Analysis turns today’s overwhelming amount of data into meaningful predictions and useful analytics. Essentially, we provide coaches, fans and fantasy sports players with meaningful information that helps them make decisions ranging from which players should be drafted to which quarterback to start in a fantasy roster. Our vision is simple – to put game-changing data in the hands of as many sports fans, decision makers and influencers as possible. What makes CSA different from other analytics tools and experts? CSA is the only sports analytics company with patented software that merges data from both objective and subjective sources. For college coaches, our scoutSMART app imports data from existing recruitment systems and tracks original data to help coaches make better and more-informed decisions in real-time. More importantly, it helps coaches consider “fit” when recruiting. They can customize skills based on their own system and schemes and the player’s specific position. For fans and fantasy players, scoutPRO cuts through the chatter of pundits, bloggers and sports analysts to take the guess work out of fantasy sports. scoutPRO calculates skill ratings and converts them into fantasy points to give GMs numerical measurements for real time decisions. In other words, CSA is different because we understand that data has to be useful. General Managers and coaches are still the decision makers, CSA is a tool to make those decisions easier. Risk Management is a key focus for us at Experian. This is also relevant in your business, especially with injury and risk management? How can analytics help with that aspect of sports? Just like data can be used to help recruit and draft the right players, it also has potential to maximize player performance by managing risk – helping to predict fatigue and prevent injury. We are exploring new ways to gather data points on athlete performance to help inform training, lend insight to the ideal game day lineups and better predict individual athlete performance during competition. Is sports learning from business or is business learning from sports when it comes to Big Data? There’s a sharing of knowledge both ways. Right now, the business world is slightly ahead of the sports world in terms of real analytics, primarily because businesses are profit-driven and that drive encourages innovation and creativity. But, because sports are universally loved and understood, they are also a good conduit for people – including business leaders – to explore analytics and the advantages that come with them. At Experian, we agree that the sports and business worlds have a lot of commonalities, and more importantly, a lot of knowledge to share. Like Competitive Sports Analysis, Experian is distilling huge amounts of information into actionable insights to drive efficiencies and improve results. We are both providing leaders with tools to manage risk and make decisions. And we both demonstrate that when used for good, Big Data has the power to deliver positive outcomes not only in sports or business, but across the economy and society. Don't miss our #DataTalk with Competitive Sports Analysis this Thursday, November 5 at 5 p.m. ET on Twitter.  

This Movember, participants can change the face of men’s health directly from their mobile device. Experian Marketing Services and The Movember Foundation, the global charity raising funds and awareness for men’s health, are kicking off a new mobile program for Movember 2015 participants. The mobile messaging program will give participants the option to receive reminders and updates from The Movember Foundation directly from their mobile device. Powered by the Experian Marketing Suite, The Foundation will be able to reward, encourage and inform participants with more immediacy and relevance across channels, including email and mobile. “Mobile messaging is a natural extension of our mission to start more conversations around men’s health and inspire people to get active,” said Mark Hedstrom, U.S. Country Director of the Movember Foundation. "In partnership with Experian, we’re mobilizing men’s health awareness and giving participants a more personal and immediate way to understand how their contributions are helping us to tackle some of the biggest health issues faced by men.” The announcement of The Foundation’s new mobile messaging program comes just days before the kickoff of the annual Movember campaign. Since 2003, The Movember Foundation has raised more than $650 million and funded more than 1,000 world-class programs in 21 countries. Every Movember, the hairiest month of the year, The Foundation challenges men to grow a moustache and women to support a moustache or to increase their activity and commit to MOVE, the foundation’s 30-day fitness challenge, all to help raise funds and awareness for men’s health. Men and women who choose to participate in Movember and then subscribe to the mobile messaging program can stay connected to the men’s health movement through special rewards, event information and innovative fundraising ideas delivered straight to their mobile device. “Mobile messaging done right isn’t just promotional. It’s an opportunity to drive meaningful, two-way communications between a brand and its audience, particularly for brands that can add value in a specific location or moment, such as Movember,” said Matt Seeley, group president, Experian Marketing Services. “Movember participants are more than customers; they are brand ambassadors for the men’s health movement and want to receive information and ideas when they need it most. We’re thrilled to contribute our expertise to help The Movember Foundation take those communications to the next level to make Movember a more personal and rewarding experience for those involved.” To sign up for the Movember campaign or for more information about mobile messaging, go to Movember.com to Grow, Give or MOVE.    

It was only a few months ago when millennials officially surpassed baby boomers to become the largest living generation. Since millennials are so numerous, it stands to reason, that they could also become the most prevalent population of small business owners in the U.S. As a matter of fact, everyday there are hundreds of new start-ups being created by this younger demographic. Clearly, the millennial generation is gravitating toward entrepreneurship, but what do we really know about this segment of the population? While we know they are deeply rooted in technology, what industries are they most likely to enter? Where are millennials more apt to establish their companies? How do they handle credit? In order to put a face to the average millennial business owner, Experian recently conducted an analysis exploring the demographic and its credit characteristics. Interestingly, we found correlations between their education level and the industries in which they were most likely to start a business. Interestingly, the analysis showed millennial business owners had the highest percentage of those without a high school diploma and subsequently established companies in industries that typically do not require a college degree. For example, the top three industries for millennials include business services, building cleaning and maintenance and general contractors. From a geographic perspective, we found more than 68 percent of millennials establish businesses primarily in three states, including California, Texas and Florida. While the number may seem a bit high, it makes sense considering one of the states is a hub for technology, and the other two do not have state income tax. We also found millennial business owners have the lowest commercial* and consumer credit scores at 32 and 628, respectively. However, despite their low scores, millennials show to be the most credit active generation. More than 17 percent of millennials have opened a commercial account within past 24 months. While they have a brief credit profile, which can impact their credit score, millennials seem to understand the importance of building credit by opening new accounts. By putting a face to the name, so to speak, creditors and suppliers will have a better understanding of what drives the millennial business owner. These insights will enable them to better market to this growing segment of entrepreneurs, as well as position them to service these young business owners and uncover their own growth opportunities. Millennials are the future, and the more we understand how to help them succeed, the better off our economy and society will be. *Based on a scale of 1 to 100 (with 100 being least risky); predicts the likelihood of severe delinquency (more than 91 days past due) within the next 12 months  

The appetite and need for data within businesses is continuing to grow at a rapid pace. Organizations are viewing data as a strategic asset and using analytical insights for everything from key business decisions, to the customer experience and more. However, the methods for managing first-party data and ensuring it’s accuracy have not kept pace with the growing data demand. The majority of businesses today are still relying on siloed, departmental strategies for data management that have little data governance or consistency in terms of people, processes, and technology. This very clear gap between data usage and data trust has been realized. Organizations are starting to put better structures in place and assign owners to data. In some businesses, especially in highly regulated industries, a chief data officer (CDO) position has been created. The CDO is viewed as a trusted advisory and a custodian of data. That individual is responsible for evangelizing data usage within the business and ensuring that individuals buy-in to information management practices. But a C-level focus on data has only occurred in a select number of organizations. For the thousands of other organizations who have data and need to improve data trust, who do they turn to today? In many instances, we are finding that the CIO is taking ownership of data management in a bigger way. In fact, according to a recent Experian Data Quality study of 250 CIOs from large organizations, 52 percent stated they have become increasingly responsible for data management in the last 12 months. The main responsibilities for the CIO around data management are: Improving the bottom line through lowering the cost of compliance Providing platforms and technologies to support analytics Measuring and managing data value and risk These executives are adding data management to an already busy work-load. Most CIOs report working longer hours and increased personal stress levels in the last year. However, they are seeing increases in their budgets, allowing them to hire additional help and invest in new technology. While the CIO is perfectly capable of handling the weight of data management with the right team around them in place, there are a few pitfalls that have occurred in the past that need to be avoided when modernizing any data management strategy. Data management isn’t just about technology There needs to be a large investment in people and processes to make sure there is organizational buy-in around data quality. Whenever there are policy changes that employees do not like, they will inevitably find a work around. With data management it is no different. Data owners need to evangelize data and make people want to maintain and use quality information. Data should not just be controlled and manipulated by IT While a central data stakeholder should provide consistent data governance and management across the organization, they should also an empowerment of departments and individual users. A large problem with data today is it is difficult to access. Sometimes departments will have to make requests with IT in order to have reports generated for analytics and wait weeks while their request becomes out of date. Today, data owners need to think about business users. How can they make data governed, accurate and accessible while allowing individual departments to manipulate data themselves for specific purposes? Don’t think about big data, think about insight We all have talked a lot about big data over the last few years. But, at the end of the day it is just data. It doesn’t matter how much data we have, we ultimately need to be able to access and manipulate that data for analytical purposes. When you are looking at technology, don’t just think about Hadoop clusters and data lakes; think about what you need to build models and access analytics in real-time. One of the biggest gaps right now for organizations is central ownership of data. A few organizations are looking to answer need by creating a CDO role. However, before this role becomes main stream, much of the work will fall to an already overloaded CIO. They need to maximize their time around data management and ensure that information is fit-for-purpose. Consider the pitfalls above and be sure to hire a great team of data professionals. To learn more about how data is affecting CIOs, download our research report, The role of the CIO in data management.

For those of you attending the Money 20/20 show in Las Vegas next week, billed as the largest global event focused on payments and financial services innovation, the topic of millennials will be top of mind. Why? Because the millenials are 75 million strong, even surpassing the Baby Boomers, and the financial services industry knows that future success depends on learning what matters to millennials and building products and services around those desires. This is true for both consumer lending and small business lending for budding entrepreneurs. On Oct. 26 at 11:10, Michele Raneri, Experian’s VP of analytics and authority on millennial credit trends will present “What’s Trending in Lending”. The nutshell version of this presentation is that millenials use credit very differently than any other population segment, even if you compare different population segments (Generation X for example) when they were the same age as millennials now. In addition, Michele will discuss the present and future look of small business owners in this population segment. A SlideShare of the presentation will be posted here next week so you all can see the details. Aside from the credit habits of millenials, what else have we learned? Millenials have different expectations for financial services providers. This includes the authenticity of brands, the expectation for financial education, technology of course, and importantly, brands that connect to a larger purpose. Financial services organizations that develop and innovate based on the millennial wish list can capture the hearts of this population and build long lasting loyalty. If you just can’t get enough on this topic, a webinar, hosted by Michele Raneri, titled "Millennial Credit: The Insights You’ve Been Missing" is on Nov. 10.

I am part of a community that completely energizes me, makes me believe that there are good people in the world and that makes me want to be better. Over the course of four days in September, my co-workers and I were transported into the world of self-proclaimed “money media nerds” at FinCon, the Financial Influencers conference, where people share thoughts, best practices and update one another on the latest trends. FinCon is THE annual event for the financial media community. What FinCon is really about is trying to help people and each other. Whether it’s helping someone understand how to invest, how to plan for retirement, or in Experian’s case, help others understand and learn more about credit and financial empowerment, we are all a part of this education ecosystem.  Of course, none of us attending FinCon do this alone. We have our co-workers, our peers and our mentors that help guide us and work alongside with us to work toward a common goal. Personally, I love that the company I work for cares about financial education, cares about consumers and empowers our team to go forth and make those long-lasting connections at FinCon. The energy at FinCon is contagious and you tend to build up a kind of super-human strength that gives you the ability to go without sleep indefinitely and miraculously have meaningful, educational conversations even though your body is on auto-pilot. It’s been a few weeks — I’m caught up on sleep, my feet have healed from the blisters and I’m not on a sugar high from eating a dozen Ally white chocolate covered Oreos — so I thought it would be a good time to give you my top three reasons why I think this year’s FinCon was so fantastic and why we want to do it again and again: The Expo hall rocks: Everyone can learn something from someone else and FinCon is no exception. This place is filled with some very smart people and smart companies. The Expo hall is a great investment for a company that is interested in sharing tools, services and thoughts with the FinCon attendees and as a company. We find a lot of value in setting up a home base for a few days at the conference and it gives people a place to find us. This year’s expo hall was full of energy (and great swag like yoga mats, selfie sticks and cocktail flavored jelly beans to name a few) and we at Experian found it to be the perfect backdrop for recording podcasts with a large number of FinCon experts. We loved helping these bloggers/writers share and deliver their unique content to an even broader audience. I Heart inspiration: You don’t have to look far at FinCon for inspiration. The keynotes, the sessions and even just hallway conversations can spark an idea, create a new passion or give someone the confidence they need to try something new. One guy was even inspired to wear money-print pants. For real. Anyway, the keynotes moved people. Carl Richards reminded me why I love to do what I do and motivated me to be better at it. Grant Baldwin made a huge impact on people by discussing balance for a successful life and how just saying no isn’t as hard as you think. One source of my personal inspiration at FinCon was watching our Social Media Guru, Mike Delgado, constantly drive content via Periscope with our Director of Public Education. They were ”Scoping” from sun up to sun down and it caught on like wildfire. By the end of the conference, everyone was feeling the love for Periscope and viewers were sending hearts in droves. This kind of sharing and helping people, as well as one another, happens so organically at FinCon. Winning isn’t all that matters, but it sure feels good: Part of the FinCon tradition is the Plutus Awards, which is an annual awards ceremony that celebrates the best in personal finance. It was amazing to see so many bloggers recognized for their hustle and run up on the stage to accept their awards. We also couldn’t be happier that Experian was honored with a Plutus Award for Best Use of Social Media by a Brand (for the second year in a row—whoop whoop)! The nomination means so much to Experian as a company, and to be chosen as the award winner is a true honor for us. This is just a small snapshot of what FinCon is every year. There’s so much more. We’re already thinking about next year’s conference in San Diego and are excited to start planning and connecting with our FinCon family. If you want to know more about how to connect with us and join in our weekly conversations with consumers, see the links below: Join our #CreditChat, hosted by @Experian_US on Twitter and Blab.im with financial experts and consumers every Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern time. Participate in our daily #CreditScope hosted by @Experian_US on Periscope Mon-Fri. Tune in to our podcasts on SoundCloud and iHeart radio. Visit Experian’s help site for answers to common questions, advice and education about consumer credit Ask credit questions on Experian’s Facebook page at https://facebook.com/ExperianUS and Experian’s Credit Education Blog.  

On September 28 in New York City, Experian and Cloudera Cares hosted a panel discussion about how Big Data can be used in a variety of ways as a force of good.  The panel included Adam Fingersh, Senior Vice President, Products and Marketing for Experian, Mike Olson, Co-founder, CSO and Chairman of the Board at Cloudera; Board Member at DataKind, Dr. Richard Bonneau, Associate Professor of Biology, Computer Science and Faculty Director of Bioinformatics, New York University; Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Vlad Dubovskiy, Data Scientist, DonorsChoose.org.   As part of the discussion, the panelists shared their thoughts about how data is being used to improve the quality of life for people around the world. During the discussion, Fingersh pointed to the impact of Data for Good in the Healthcare space.  Highlighting how Experian’s data and technology guides hospitals, physicians and patients step by step through an increasingly complex healthcare process. Specifically, this enables health institutions to validate their patients’ identifications and help determine payment plans that can fit into a patient’s budget. To learn more about what was discussed at the event see the article from the Hub.