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.

Experian is one of 25 data management organizations that will be honored at the 2015 Data Impact Awards in New York on September 29, 2015. The awards celebration, hosted by Cloudera, honors big data success stories and recognizes the impact data-driven technology can have on the organization, business, and society at large. The common link between each of these 25 Big Data success stories is CDH, the world's most popular open source Hadoop-based distribution and key component of the Cloudera Enterprise platform. The event will kick-off the annual Big Data conference, 2015 Strata + Hadoop World and a weeklong series of events as part of Data Week in New York City. Experian is a finalist in the category of “Data-Driven Transformation” for the launch and deployment of the Experian Marketing Suite. During the last two years, Experian made transformational decisions about their marketing portfolio to unify offerings in data, technology and services into a single platform that allows marketers to create rewarding and relevant customer experiences in any channel via any device. This transformation culminated in July 2014 with the launch of the Experian Marketing Suite, a cloud-based marketing platform that leverages Experian’s customer identity and recognition technology, consumer data (the largest in the world), analytics and interaction technology. Hadoop technology was a foundational element of the Experian Marketing Suite and in particular and allowed Experian to realize their vision of creating a platform that would put the data and technology into the hands of the marketers themselves, linking disparate and disconnected customer data from any difference sources at scale and then leverage that cross-channel intelligence in real-time.  “Nobody is doing what we’re doing with Hadoop today, especially at this order of magnitude. The Experian Marketing Suite’s Identity Manager is the first real-time linkage engine that accepts data, links information together across an entire marketing ecosystem, and puts it into a usable format for a solid customer experience.” – Emad Georgy, SVP Global Software Development, Experian Marketing Services "It has been fascinating to see the growth in Data Impact Awards nominations every year – both in terms of total quantity and in the maturity and impact of each story shared," said Alan Saldich, vice president of marketing, Cloudera said in a press release. "This year's applicants represent organizations of all sizes, across all industries, and spanning locations around the globe, but they all have one thing in common: they're using data to do something amazing. I'm continuously impressed and humbled by our customers, and am glad for this opportunity to showcase their achievements." Follow the hashtags #DataImpact and #StrataHadoop on Twitter and other social media channels.  

Since Henry Ford invented the assembly line and mass automotive production began, the primary objective of all manufacturers and dealers has been to move new vehicle inventory off the lot year after year. But nowadays finding the right automotive customer can be a challenging task. Where do they live? How old are they? How much do they make? By leveraging data to answer these questions, manufacturers can market to the appropriate audience and manage inventory accordingly. In fact, a recent Experian analysis of the automotive market found that the top 10 states accounted for nearly 60 percent of all new vehicle registrations during the second quarter of 2015, led by California at 12.6 percent. The remainder of the top 10 included Texas (9.9 percent), Florida (7.9 percent), New York 5.7 percent), Pennsylvania (4.4 percent) Ohio (3.9 percent), Illinois (3.8 percent), Michigan (3.7 percent), New Jersey (3.5 percent) and Georgia (2.8 percent). Diving a bit deeper, the analysis also showed that through May 2015, nearly 50 percent of all new vehicle buyers fell within the 40-69 age range. Furthermore, 17.9 percent were between the ages of 50-59. The analysis also found that individuals with incomes from $50,000-$100,000 were the most active new car shoppers during the same time period, equating to nearly 36 percent of the market. Other findings include: Los Angeles and New York were the two DMAs with the highest market share for new vehicle registrations at 6.8 percent and 6.7 percent, respectively Toyota (13.5 percent), Ford (11.6 percent) and Chevrolet (10.8 percent) were the top 3 brands with highest new vehicle market share among retail buyers through Q2 2015 Entry-level CUVs accounted for the highest percentage of new vehicle registrations at 14.6 percent, followed by the small economy car (11.0 percent) and full-sized pickup trucks (10.7 percent) Leveraging data and analytics gives manufacturers and dealers a competitive advantage by enabling them to better understand the entire automotive market, specifically new vehicle trends. With these actionable insights, automotive companies will be positioned to make more confident inventory decisions and target specific consumers. And by better understanding whom they are targeting, manufacturers and dealers will be able to check their primary objective off the list.

There is no doubt data breaches have become a part of the Corporate and consumer consciousness. As data breaches have become more prevalent and companies are in need of assistance to prepare for and respond to a breach, industry analysts have taken notice of the experts in the marketplace like Experian. In its first report on data breach services, we are proud to have been named as a leader in The Forrester Wave™: Customer Data Breach Notification And Response Services, Q3 2015. The report by Forrester Research, Inc. covering the customer data breach industry independently evaluated vendors’ current offering, strategy and market presence to score the top players in the market. Each vendor was evaluated in 23 different areas, with Experian scoring the top marks possible in several categories, including response scale, call center, identity monitoring and remediation and credit monitoring and remediation. Although it is the first report like it in the industry, Experian has been around awhile serving clients for more than 10 years. There has been a lot of change since the market has matured, including the magnitude of breaches affecting now millions of people, the growth of a new industry in cyber insurance, and the vital need for consumers to have identity theft protection. On the topic of protection, the best type has fallen into debate, which has been a disservice to consumers in this age of data proliferation and breaches. Any time personally identifiable information (PII) has been exposed can possibly lead to identity theft and fraud so the most beneficial course of action is to enroll in identity theft protection, which includes credit monitoring. This provides consumers with alerts if there is a change in their credit report such as a new account opened in their name. If the individual feels it is fraudulent, they can seek assistance from a fraud resolution agent to rectify the situation and remove the account from their report. Over the course of a decade in business, millions of consumers have benefited from our ProtectMyID® product, and we are pleased it received a 5 out of 5 score in the report. However, while accolades are appreciated, our milestones speak for themselves with nearly 15,000 data breaches and more than 170,000 fraud cases handled to date. For more information on Experian Data Breach Resolution, visit Experian.com/databreach.

Financing my first car was a bittersweet feeling. I was thrilled at the thought of purchasing a new vehicle, yet I was dreading haggling the price with the dealer. As a millennial, I feared the rising prices for new cars, and knew that I needed to find a way to make the vehicle more affordable. That said, I decided to look at used cars. Clearly, I’m not the only car shopper going through this experience. Many consumers are exploring new options to keep their monthly payments down, whether it’s extending the length of their loan, or turning to leases. Sometimes it’s both. According to Experian Automotive’s Q2 2015 State of the Automotive Finance Market report, the average loan amount for a new vehicle reached $28,524, while the average loan amount for a used vehicle hit $18,671, a second quarter high and an all-time high, respectively. Subsequently, the increasing loan amounts also caused the average monthly payment for new ($483) and used ($361) vehicles to increase. Interestingly, the $122 difference in average monthly payment was also a second quarter high, furthering the need to make car payments affordable. As such, consumers continued to take out leases. During the second quarter, leasing accounted for 26.9 percent of all new vehicle transactions, reaching an all-time high. While leasing continues to be a popular option among car shoppers to keep monthly payments down, we’re beginning to see these consumers take it a step further. Sure 36-month term leases are still the most popular, however the percentage of leases extending past the 36 months into the 37- to 48-month range has increased by 18 percent. Furthermore, the average lease payment dropped $13 from a year ago, reaching $394. Findings from the report also showed that consumers continued to lengthen their loan terms, especially for used vehicles. The percentage of used vehicles financed for 73- to 84-months increased by 14.8 percent from Q2 2014 to reach 16.1 percent – the highest percentage of record. New vehicles financed for the same term length climbed 19.7 percent from the previous year to reach 28.8 percent. If the trend continues, we can only expect vehicles to become more expensive and harder to keep within budget. That said there are ways to keep monthly payments within reason. Just as I did, consumers will need to explore the different options available and work with the financing tool that best meets their needs. If they can do that, it will just be the sweet feeling of purchasing a car.  

New research from Experian Marketing Services, a recognized leader in data-driven marketing and cloud-based marketing technology, shows that email campaigns using the words “choice” or “choose” in the subject line are driving substantially higher engagement and revenue rates than average. As described in our recently released Q2 2015 Email Benchmark Report, these email campaigns drove 22 percent higher revenue per email, a 46 percent increase in transaction rates and a 117 percent increase in transaction-to-click rates. “Allowing customers to choose their preferred path is a smart and tangible way to increase engagement and ultimately their return on marketing investment,” said Spencer Kollas, vice president of global deliverability services at Experian Marketing Services. “Marketers know that consumers are the ones in control of their relationship today. What’s interesting about the trend our research uncovered is that consumers are responding to brands that explicitly give them that control; they are engaging and spending with brands that are taking action to empower them.” Value of mobile subscribers The Q2 2015 Email Benchmark Report features a special section on mobile subscribers that features the results of two analyses of two brands with ongoing SMS (mobile push) and MMS (mobile text) messaging programs. To conduct the analyses, Experian® attributed the brands’ transactions to their mobile campaign data on a subscriber level. In comparing mobile transaction rates to email benchmark data, Experian found that mobile transaction rates were more than 10 times higher than those for email campaigns. Further, SMS push/broadcast campaigns made up more than 95 percent of the volume, but pull messages provided much stronger transaction results. Interestingly, the results also showed that dual subscribers (both email and mobile) were 3.9 times more likely to complete transactions than email-only customers. “While mobile subscriber lists typically are much smaller than email lists, these subscribers form a loyal group of highly engaged customers,” said Kollas. “It is the sophisticated marketer that is able to use this type of information to continue to increase brand loyalty and customer engagement across multiple platforms.” Benchmarking email volume and mobile gains The Q2 2015 Email Benchmark Report details overall email marketing trends for the second quarter of 2015 as well as the key performance indicators (KPIs) that shaped the success of email programs over the past two years across six major verticals: business products and services, consumer products and services, media and entertainment, multichannel retailers, publishers, and travel. According to the analysis, email volume rose by 16.1 percent in Q2 2015 compared to the same period in 2014, yet subscriber response rates remained steady. Consumer products and services and multichannel retailers headed the surge in email volume gains. Two-thirds of the brands in these verticals increased their year-over-year volume in Q2 2015. While publishers and media and entertainment brands had an overall decrease in year-over-year volume in Q2 2015, one-third of brands under those categories actually increased their volume this quarter. Further, all of the industry verticals increased volume in Q2 compared to Q1 in 2015, except for media and entertainment. In comparing email opens and clicks by platform, Experian found that 52 percent of total email opens occurred on a mobile phone or tablet during Q2 2015, a slight increase from 51 percent in Q1. In comparing email opens and clicks by device type, Windows accounted for the largest percentage, with the iPhone® receiving the second largest number of clicks. IPhone clicks were particularly strong for media and entertainment and multichannel retailers. A complimentary download of the full report is available here: http://bit.ly/1K69bT6.

Forbes Magazine recently named Experian among the top 100 innovative companies in the world for the second year in a row. Forbes has a rigorous selection methodology that places an emphasis on what organizations’ investors see as the most innovative today, but also the companies that investors believe will continue to be the most innovative in the future; Forbes calls this methodology the Innovation Premium.  Put simply, it’s the expectation that a company will launch new products and services and enter new markets to generate growth. With this distinction, I am reminded of the many initiatives undertaken by Experian North America in the last year aimed at evolving its technologies and systems, all in an effort to deliver the highest-quality data, superior products, intelligent insights and best-in-class service to our customers. A few of these initiatives include: Experian Data Quality launched its first eCommerce offerings, allowing businesses of any size to quickly and easily see better value from their data assets. Experian Marketing Services transformed its marketing portfolio in the last two years – bringing together the synergies in the portfolio to deliver a differentiated proposition in the market. This transformation culminated with the launch of the Experian Marketing Suite, a marketing platform that unifies Experian’s unique capabilities in customer identity and recognition, consumer data, analytics and technology. Experian Consumer Services offered new apps to help consumers quickly and easily review and understand their Experian credit reports and FICO Scores. To ensure our ongoing commitment to data quality standards specific to consumer reported data, Experian created nimble technologies to identify business opportunities for clients and improve the quality of consumers’ credit reports. Experian Health introduced a number of new and innovative solutions to help hospitals, medical providers and patients address challenges, such as continuation of care, financial assistance, fraud and identity protection throughout the healthcare process. Our Business Information Services group introduced a new Global Data Network that provides businesses with insight into their international customers and vendors, enabling them to assess risk and become more competitive in the marketplace. To help companies manage risk and mitigate fraud, our Decision Analytics business recently launched a new dedicated enterprise Fraud and ID business in North America to more aggressively address the growing variety of fraud risk and identity management challenges businesses, financial institutions and government agencies face. In an effort to help its clients track loyalty rates, Experian Automotive reengineered its data sources to standardize a new loyalty measurement model at the manufacturer, brand and dealer levels. We’re proud that Forbes Magazine continues to view Experian as a forward-thinking and innovative company. But Experian isn’t resting on its laurels. We are continuing the ongoing process of looking at ways to serve our customers better by investing in innovation. In fact, Experian holds an annual innovation program that brings together talented employees from across our businesses to research, build and test new concepts that address emerging market challenges that can benefit from Experian’s data and insights. Data can be and must be used as a force for good. Match it with the proper technologies and systems, and we are in a position to help businesses, consumers, government and society overall.