This week audigent announced an integration with Experian, the world’s leading global information services company, making Experian identity and audiences available directly within Audigent’s SmartPMPTM private marketplaces.
The integration enables advertisers to activate using the world’s largest source of known, privacy-compliant customer information. Advertisers can now deploy Experian’s audience ecosystem across addressable and programmatic inventory, digital-video and over 139 million IDs in connected-TV.
We sat down with Drew Stein the founder of Augigent and Chris Feo, Senior VP of Sales and Partnership at Experian to talk about how this can be used by marketers.
1. What makes this partnership between Audigent and Experian unique?
Drew Stein, CEO and founder, Audigent: Experian is widely-renowned for its data stewardship and its depth of consumer insights. This direct integration allows advertisers and media agencies using our suite of intelligent curated PMP products to activate this incredible data set across all of their core programmatic media channels including CTV, display and video.
2. In light of these partnerships, what’s the future role of behavioral data?
Stein: It’s a much broader topic than just behavioral data. The question is – what is the future of deterministic vs. probabilistic data? We believe the healthiest future for both our ecosystem – and consumers – is one that makes these key distinctions and balances both deterministic and probabilistic data. When behavioral data is used as an aggregated, anonymized predictor and actioned through cohort-based and/or contextual targeting, we see that as a more privacy-centric path forward. When behavioral data is tied to deterministic identifiers and targeted 1-to-1 cross-device/cross-platform, we see that as a practice that is phasing out quickly and significantly less consumer friendly.
3. Should buyers be looking for cookie substitutes, or should they be exploring other ways of targeting?
Stein: As an industry, we have to end our addiction to deterministic, 1-to-1 targeting and the deprecation of cookies provides us all with a unique opportunity to finally get it right. There has been so much innovation over the past several years around safer methodologies for identity and addressability that provide for an incredibly exciting future around the actionability of data. We need to embrace what’s new and not look for substitutes to replace a very broken ecosystem. Bottom line, the only future is one that respects data privacy and this is an ethos shared between Experian and Audigent.
4. Audigent is doing lots of integrations right now – what excites you about the Experian integration specifically?
Stein: The opportunity with Experian transcends the data sets alone. With our deep partnership with Tapad, we see exciting opportunities together around potential product innovation across identity, addressability and attribution.
5. Besides these kinds of integrations, what trends matter for advertisers in 2023?
Stein: Curation became the bedrock of retail media platforms in 2022 and we expect the same “playbook” to proliferate in 2023 as major media agencies begin to build out their Curated Marketplace offerings and Curated Exchange strategies for clients. Our SmartPMP, ContextualPMP and CognitivePMPs are the cornerstone of these Curated Marketplaces and – now with the ability to add in incredible data sets like Experian – we expect the trend to continue to be strong.
6. How do you both see data of this magnitude used in the metaverse?
Chris Feo, SVP Sales and Partnerships at Experian: Regardless of the medium, marketers have always and will always want to understand their consumers and reach them with relevant messaging. The metaverse offers another opportunity for addressability and ultimately, quality engagement and results.
Stein: Advertisers see the metaverse today simply as another media channel. As such, Experian’s data sets have relevance anywhere audiences are addressable.
7. What are the benefits of Experian data and identity for convergent TV and addressability across all platforms?
Feo: In TV specifically, Experian is connected into operators, measurement providers and programmers. That being said, Experian’s LUID (living unit identifier) continues to be a key enabler of audience insights, extension and addressability across all channels and having that connectivity allows marketers to better plan, buy and measure the success of their campaigns holistically.
Stein: Advertisers can now activate using the world’s largest source of known, privacy-compliant customer information. The initiative enables marketers to deploy Experian’s audience ecosystem across addressable and programmatic inventory, digital-video and over 139 million IDs in connected-TV.
