In our Ask the Expert Series, we interview leaders from our partner organizations who are helping lead their brands to new heights in AdTech. Today’s interview is with Brian Chisholm, SVP of Strategic Partnerships at OpenX.
About OpenX
OpenX is an independent omni-channel supply-side platform (SSP) and a global leader in supply-side curation, transparency, and sustainability. Through its 100% cloud-based tech stack, OpenX powers advertising across CTV, app, mobile web, and desktop, enabling publishers to deliver marketers with improved performance and dynamic future-proofed solutions. With a 17-year track record of programmatic innovation, OpenX is a direct and trusted partner of the world’s largest publishers, working with more than 130,000 premium publisher domains and over 100,000 advertisers. As the market leader in sustainability, OpenX was the first AdTech company to be certified as CarbonNeutral™ and third-party verified for achieving its SBTi Net-Zero targets. Learn more at www.openx.com.
Collaboration solves programmatic challenges
Could you share the story behind the partnership between OpenX and Experian and how this collaboration differs from typical data-provider/DSP or SSP relationships in the market? What unique challenges in programmatic advertising does this partnership solve?
OpenX first partnered with Experian in 2019 when we were building the industry’s first data-driven supply-side curation platform. Being the only SSP with a proprietary people-based identity graph (further enriched by Experian) gives OpenX a unique set of capabilities that are only growing in value in the market. We are seeing retail media networks, large agency planning platforms, and indie and specialty shops lean into OpenX’s tools to match, activate, and measure people-based audiences through our robust curation platform and premium supply.
Enhancing campaigns with data enrichment
How does combining Experian’s marketing data with OpenX’s technology create tangible benefits for advertisers, agencies, and publishers?
Last year, we expanded our partnership with Experian to enrich our digital IDs with Experian’s Digital Audiences, essentially making Experian data available directly to marketers across all OpenX supply and formats, including CTV. For marketers, this direct integration increases both match and activation rates. Meaning, not only do we match more of the starting audience universe to our system, we then provide more opportunities to identify and transact on those users in the bidstream. The result is greater reach for buyers even in previously unaddressable environments like Safari or mobile web – and publishers benefit from the increased addressability OpenX provides their supply.
Delivering impactful inventory solutions
OpenX has been enhancing its curation offerings beyond just providing curated marketplaces. Could you describe the strategic shift you’re making in how you package and deliver inventory?
At OpenX, we have a broader and more dynamic view of curation. It’s not just about gathering data or bundling inventory; it’s about layering on identity-based precision, enabling the targeting of the right audiences with premium, brand-safe inventory for our clients.
We saw the value of curating inventory and audiences on the supply side early on. We started by building capabilities for our own exchange and then found that our approach created tremendous value for data owners and marketers alike. Over the past five years, we’ve been continuously investing our curation platform capabilities to super serve those partners. As a result, we have what we think is by far the most robust and flexible platform in the market. We can match and integrate with any kind of data, curate supply at a granular level, activate audiences and help measure outcomes in multiple ways. We also provide turnkey integrations to third-party platforms.
Balancing customization with scalability in deals
There’s often tension between customization and scalability when it comes to curated deals. How does OpenX strike the right balance to meet varied advertiser objectives while ensuring operational efficiency for publishers?
Truthfully, we’re not finding that scale suffers with curation. We currently have 237 million monthly active users in our exchange that we can match and activate curated deals against. That’s a unique claim for an SSP, and we back it up with our identity graph. This directly benefits our publishers who see a 20% increase in overall bid density and a 118%+ increase in win rate for curated deals vs. open market.
Data-driven curation done on the supply side offers efficiency and drives results for buyers, while publishers are able to activate their own first-party data programmatically, increase their monetization, and maximize the value of their inventory. As the industry continues to adapt to a privacy-first, consent-based ecosystem, data-driven curation will play a key part in ensuring both sides of the marketplace continue to thrive.
Driving results with CTV curation
Connected TV is arguably the most dynamic channel in programmatic right now. How do curation improvements accelerate more precise or outcome-based targeting in CTV environments?
I want to take this a step further and say that biddable is the future of CTV. Not only does biddable enable advertisers to purchase closer to campaign activation, it gives buyers the option to curate deals, flexibility, addressability and ease of transacting at will. No minimums, no commitments.
Our CTV strategy has been centered around combining flexibility, efficiency, and real-time optimization capabilities with access to premium, direct, glass-on-wall inventory. TV by OpenX, powers the direct activation of curated audiences at scale through data-driven, contextual, attention, and sustainability offerings.
What does this mean for buyers? Advertisers can choose from any one of OpenX’s 250+ data partners, including Experian, to target an audience via CTV inventory using OpenX’s cross-platform identity graph. This setup allows buyers to increase scale and optimize toward their desired campaign outcomes via their preferred DSP. The focus on inventory quality and scale combined with advanced targeting curation provides a key driver of performance in CTV.
Identity resolution for better CTV measurement
In a channel as fragmented as CTV, measuring performance can be complex. What role does identity resolution play in better measurement and attribution? How do Experian’s identity capabilities integrate within your platform to drive measurable outcomes?
We talked about the value of audience targeting via curation above. Another critical driver is our ability to power true closed-loop measurement for advertisers or partners like retail media networks. OpenX is able to provide automated log-level reporting via BIDS, which includes exposed IDs from our proprietary ID graph back to our partners in near real time.
This closed-loop attribution enables partners to measure real-world outcomes like ROAS, conversion rates and incrementality. Insights and learnings from data can then be used to make optimizations mid-campaign, to further improve performance. Measurement starts with having a strong foundation to identity resolution – which Experian helps us achieve.
Tailoring audience strategies in the auto sector
The automotive vertical demands highly specific audience insights—everything from in-market signals to lifestyle and aftermarket service and parts data. How does the Experian–OpenX partnership enhance audience strategies in auto?
Experian’s deterministic data, combined with the OpenX identity graph, empowers buyers with identity tools to create targeted audience segments of likely auto intenders. For verticals that have high customer acquisition costs like auto, these insights are particularly valuable, as buyers often struggle to identify their audiences at scale in environments that drive campaign performance.
Experian’s automotive data is one of our most requested audiences from buyers. We match Experian’s high-quality data directly to our platform, often leveraging Experian’s IDs, which leads to greater scale and fidelity. In addition, our platform can curate supply to a granular level to drive results for buyers.
Complying with evolving privacy regulations
With data privacy regulations multiplying—like GDPR, CCPA, and others—how does OpenX’s direct connection with Experian ensure responsible data usage and compliance?
At OpenX, we don’t see privacy regulations as a challenge but rather an opportunity. Instead, it’s a key differentiator for us. We’ve had a strong focus on data and identity since 2017, and we believe that if you’re talking about these topics but not talking about privacy, you’re missing an important piece of the equation.
Regardless of the environment — CTV, mobile, app, or web — in today’s privacy-focused world, success in data and identity is inseparable from a commitment to privacy. We support this obligation with dedicated leadership that helps our partners navigate evolving global regulations, including critical areas like child-directed content under new laws from Australia to Maryland.
Thanks for the interview. Any recommendations for our readers if they want to learn more?
To learn more about our solutions and partnership opportunities, visit the OpenX website or contact your Experian account representative to schedule your free match test.
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About our expert
Brian Chisholm, Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, OpenX
Brian Chisholm is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at OpenX, where he spearheads the curation, data, and identity efforts. He and his team have been instrumental in building out OpenX’s industry-leading curation platform and partnerships.
With more than two decades of experience in digital media, Brian has developed partnerships that leverage and expand OpenX’s core technology assets and deliver material value for the company’s buyer, publisher, and platform partners. Before joining OpenX, Brian held senior roles at innovative startups and digital stalwarts, including Overture/Yahoo, SpotRunner, and Apptera.
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In this article…The rise of omnichannel retailingData and identity-related retail marketing challengesStrategies to help you overcome retail marketing challengesExperian can help advance your retail marketing strategies The questions that keep retail marketers up at night have evolved significantly over the last decade. It wasn’t long ago that marketers would spend their time debating which highway to place their billboard on, whether or not their next TV commercial should be comical or heart-tugging, or even what the optimal time of day was to blast an email campaign to their entire customer list. In 2024, retail marketing has new challenges on the radar. The rise of omnichannel retailing The modern, digital-savvy customer expects a flawless and interconnected shopping experience across touchpoints — one of the many reasons omnichannel marketing is on the rise. Research shows that over half of B2C consumers engage with between three and five channels whenever they make a purchase. For businesses, omnichannel engagement is a lucrative opportunity; McKinsey reports that customers who engage across channels shop nearly twice as much as those using a single channel and usually spend more money. However, the rise in omnichannel engagement also presents several retail marketing challenges, such as the complexity of managing vast amounts of data and piecing together an accurate picture of consumer behavior. Data and identity-related retail marketing challenges Today’s data-driven environment has turned the retail marketing landscape on its head, and businesses have a whole new set of struggles that revolve around identity and data. We identified the top five retail marketing challenges and how to solve them. 1. Knowing what data to capture In the omnichannel era, online and offline data is abundant. When a customer shops at a physical store, they create data points like: What items they purchased What time they visited How long they were there When the same customer shops online, they create a whole new set of data points, such as: What device they used Which items they browsed but didn’t purchase How long they spent on specific pages The vast available data can overwhelm retailers and make it a challenge to determine which data points to prioritize. Start by identifying the challenge you’re addressing. By defining your problem, you can better decide which data is most relevant. For instance, if you’re optimizing the timing of incentives, analyze when customers shop most frequently and customize offers based on individual behavior patterns. How Experian’s Activity Feed can help Experian Activity Feed connects online and offline data to promote precise targeting and measurement across mobile, web, connected TV (CTV), and more. We provide addressable insights that work across all channels by integrating real-time device IDs, cookies, and IP addresses. Our case study with Cuebiq, found here, discusses how we used Activity Feed to deliver in-store lift analyses to Cuebiq’s clients. Because our impressive breadth of addressable data works across channels, we’re perfectly positioned to be your comprehensive identity solution, as we’re capable of addressing the entire U.S. population. With access to over 250 behavioral and demographic attributes per individual, our data fills in audience gaps to help you create a complete customer profile. 2. Understanding customer behavior The complexity of modern consumer behavior is growing, and one of the biggest retail marketing challenges is merging all this information into a single unified customer view. With consumers moving seamlessly between devices like tablets, mobile phones, and laptops, retailers face the grueling task of keeping up with their fragmented journey. For instance, a customer may spot a pair of shoes in-store, add them to their cart via mobile due to long cashier lines, and finish the purchase later from their laptop. However, if they cannot be recognized across these touchpoints, they may abandon the purchase out of frustration. Retailers need solutions that link offline customer relationship management (CRM) and purchase data with a customer's online activity, regardless of channel or device. This is where Experian identity resolution and Graph come into play. How Experian’s Graph and identity resolution can help Experian’s identity solutions help brands resolve disparate data by merging fragmented identifiers into a singular customer profile for a 360-degree view. We ensure each touchpoint is connected, whether the interaction happens online or offline, across mobile apps, or in-store. This enables retailers to recognize the same customer across various devices and enhances the customer experience by keeping items in their cart and personalizing their journey across platforms. With Experian’s identity graph, brands can further enrich these customer profiles with digital identifiers that span hashed emails (HEMs), cookies, mobile device IDs (MAIDs), IP addresses, universal IDs, and CTV IDs to create a more accurate, actionable view of consumer behavior. We rebuild the graph weekly, which ensures persistent and refreshed connections between households, individuals, and their devices. This ongoing linkage allows for precise targeting and measurement over time and aligns with privacy standards and compliance obligations. By organizing identity into households and device IDs and enriching them with marketing data, brands can gain deeper customer insights, addressability across devices, and the ability to measure the impact of their retail marketing strategies. 3. Building trust between consumers and your brand Trust is the foundation of online relationships, and consumers who trust your brand are likelier to share their data. To establish this trust, retailers must collect customer data transparently and respectfully. According to Experian data, 80% of consumers believe more transparency around the use of their information fosters greater trust in a business. Additionally, the same data revealed that 56% of companies plan to invest more in transparency initiatives, such as consumer education, clearer terms of communication, and consumer control over personal data. Experian’s commitment to data accuracy and transparency further strengthens this trust. Our data is ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset, which means you can power smarter insights, targeting, and measurement using the highest-rated, most reliable data to build customer profiles. 4. Establishing customer loyalty with retail marketing Today’s consumer has many opportunities and choices available at their fingertips, which makes it harder for retailers to build and maintain customer loyalty. Signal loss and the rise of omnichannel media consumption have made it even more of a challenge to keep loyal customers. By using data and insights to interact with people more meaningfully, you can overcome these difficulties to provide a more personalized, relevant experience and establish loyalty. Experian’s new Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes solution makes it easier to do just that. Experian’s Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes solution Using our Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes, you can gain comprehensive insights into consumer behavior by combining offline and digital data through our Living Unit ID (LUID). Our Digital Graph provides robust digital identifiers like MAIDs, CTV IDs, HEMs, and universal IDs, while our Marketing Attributes offer detailed consumer insights spanning age, gender, purchase behaviors, and content consumption habits. With this data, you can create relevant messaging and informed audience segmentation to enhance your personalization and targeting efforts across all digital channels. Using our solution can help you deliver what customers need when they need it — like winter gear before a ski trip or swimwear before a beach vacation. These personalized experiences drive additional revenue and build lasting relationships that keep customers coming back, establishing a strong foundation of loyalty in an increasingly competitive market. 5. Finding your technology solution Retailers need to integrate technology to make their data actionable and use it to streamline the customer experience. They need to integrate data storage platforms with fulfillment and reporting solutions, such as email service providers, display networks, and marketing intelligence tools. Whether retailers are exploring the industry or gearing up to make a substantial investment in the right technology partner, it’s vital to ensure you evaluate potential partners equally and consistently. Experian works with major platforms, marketers, and agencies, meaning we have existing partnerships across the ecosystem for you to connect with that can bring your consumer data to life and meet your needs. Our offline and digital graphs are baked into partner integrations so customers can achieve higher match rates that improve addressability. Strategies to help you overcome retail marketing challenges When it comes to modern retail marketing, you’ll need to take a strategic approach to handle emerging challenges. Here are five retail trends of 2024 to consider integrating into your retail marketing strategy: Use predictive analytics: Data can be overwhelming, but you can analyze historical purchase patterns to capture and prioritize the most relevant data for your retail marketing efforts. Optimize omnichannel campaigns: Cross-channel data integration can help you ensure consistent messaging, provide a seamless experience, capture a unified view of customer interactions, and improve engagement. Personalize experiences with AI: Utilize AI data capture across touchpoints to create personalized recommendations and tailored experiences that resonate with individual customer preferences and behaviors. Adopt dynamic pricing: Use real-time data to adjust prices based on customer behavior and market conditions so your pricing strategies align with current demand and maximize revenue. Invest in customer experience tech: Virtual fitting rooms, augmented reality, and other advanced technologies allow customers to engage with your brand across platforms, which can improve their shopping experience. Utilize Experian’s retail media network (RMN) solution Experian’s solution for RMNs is another tool for overcoming retail marketing challenges. We empower RMNs to better understand their customers with unified views of online and offline behavior across channels and extend their reach across environments. Using our top-ranked identity and audience services, we can help RMNs access expanded customer insights, enhance cross-channel audience targeting, and improve real-time measurement and attribution to enable precise, streamlined, personalized omnichannel campaigns. Our solution’s integration with major platforms improves data match rates and addressability so retailers can overcome data fragmentation and optimize their retail marketing strategies. Experian can help advance your retail marketing strategies Experian can help retailers effectively use data and insights to interact with customers and prospects meaningfully. Our data and identity solutions help you deliver relevant, impactful messaging to ensure the customer who puts shoes in the cart at the store is the same customer who wants to finalize their transaction later that evening online. As the holiday season approaches, it’s time to refine your retail marketing strategies and connect authentically with shoppers. With over a billion consumers preparing to shop, Experian offers 19 new syndicated audiences available for activation across major ad platforms, including TV and programmatic, to help you reach the most relevant prospects. Whether you’re targeting discount seekers, last-minute gift-buyers, or frequent travelers, our audiences align with diverse shopping styles and preferences. Choosing the right audience segments aligns your holiday marketing efforts with consumer expectations and maximizes impact. With our tools, you can seamlessly connect with the same customer across various channels, whether they’re shopping in-store or online. Embrace the holiday season confidently, and let Experian help your retail marketing strategy shine. Get started with us today Latest posts
The holiday season is almost here, and knowing how each generation plans to shop can give your holiday advertising campaigns the edge you need. Our recent survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers reveals 2024 holiday shopping trends for each generation and key insights into their anticipated spending levels, preferred shopping categories, and how they look for gift ideas. In this blog post, we'll explore three 2024 holiday shopping trends across generations: Projected consumer spending Top categories on shoppers' lists Preferred channels for researching gifts Download our 2024 report 1. Projected consumer spending Over 1 in 3 Gen Z and Millennials are gearing up to increase their holiday budgets this year, while Gen X and Boomers are likelier to stick to last year's budget. 36% of Millennials and Gen Z plan to spend more this holiday season 45% of Gen X and 52% of Boomers expect their spending to remain consistent with last year What this means for marketers These insights highlight the importance of tailoring your messaging. For Gen Z and Millennials, emphasize value and unique offerings that justify increased spending. For Gen X and Boomers, focus on trust and reliability, reinforcing their confidence in your brand. How Experian can help you target these audiences Experian’s custom and syndicated audience segments, including Holiday Shopper High Spenders and Holiday Shopper Moderate Spenders, enable you to connect with these diverse consumer groups. Our audiences are available on-the-shelf of leading ad platforms to help you reach people across social, TV, and mobile. The election effect U.S. holiday retail sales saw 4.1% YoY growth in 2016 and 8.3% YoY growth in 2020 following presidential elections. There’s a chance that holiday spending increases after the 2024 election, regardless of the outcome. Experian has 240+ politically relevant audiences that you can activate across major ad platforms ahead of the upcoming election. 2. Top categories on shoppers' lists Different generations have distinct preferences when it comes to what they plan to buy. Gift cards top the list for Gen X and Boomers, while Gen Z leans toward clothing. Millennials are looking to splurge on toys, electronics, and experiences. 69% of Boomers and Gen X plan to purchase gift cards 72% of Gen Z will buy clothing 45% of Millennials will buy health and beauty items 25% of Millennials will buy tickets and 22% of Millennials will buy experiences What this means for marketers Align your product offerings and promotions with each generation's preferences to capture their attention. For example, highlighting versatile gift cards may resonate more with older generations, while showcasing trendy apparel and tech gadgets will appeal to younger consumers. How Experian can help you target these shoppers We offer audience segments like Holiday Shoppers: Apparel, Cosmetics & Beauty Spenders, and Toys Shoppers that you can activate to connect with consumers primed to purchase in these categories. We recently released 19 new holiday shopping audiences we recommend targeting to drive engagement and conversions. Download our audience recommendations here. 3. Preferred channels for researching gift ideas When it comes to finding the perfect gifts, Gen Z turns to social media, while Millennials prefer online reviews and video content. Boomers and Gen X are more inclined to visit physical stores for hands-on product evaluations. 29% of Gen Z and 26% of Millennials will look for gift ideas on social media 44% of Millennials will rely on video reviews and product demos on platforms like YouTube 49% of Gen X and Boomers plan to visit physical stores to evaluate products in person What this means for marketers Understanding where each generation looks for inspiration can guide your content and ad placement strategy. To engage Gen Z, focus on social media campaigns and influencer partnerships. For Millennials, consider investing in video content and reviews. For older generations, ensure your in-store experience is optimized to convert browsing into purchases. How Experian can help you engage these shoppers Our TrueTouchTM audiences can help you pair the perfect messaging styles with the right channels and calls to action. Our Social media channel and content engagement audiences can help you reach Gen Z who are likely to be active users on major social platforms and are Black Friday shoppers. For a full list of Experian’s syndicated audiences and activation destinations, download our syndicated audiences guide. Download our new 2025 Holiday spending trends and insights report This holiday season is about more than just transactions – it’s about cultivating meaningful connections with your audience. Download our 2025 Holiday spending trends and insights report, in collaboration with GroundTruth, to access all of our predictions for this year’s holiday season. Download now When you work with Experian for your holiday shopping campaigns, you’re getting: Accurate consumer insights: Better understand your customers’ behavioral and demographic attributes with our #1 ranked data covering the full U.S. population. Signal-agnostic identity solutions: Our deep understanding of people in the offline and digital worlds provides you with a persistent linkage of personally identifiable information (PII) data and digital IDs, ensuring you accurate cross-device targeting, addressability and measurement. Secure connectivity: Bring data and identity to life in a way that meets your needs by securely sharing data between partners, utilizing the integrations we have across the ecosystem, and using our marketing data in flexible ways. Make the most of this holiday shopping season with Experian. Contact us today to get started. Contact us Source Online survey conducted in June, 2024 among n=1,000 U.S. adults 18+. Sample balanced to look like the general population on key demographics (age, gender, household income, ethnicity, and region). Latest posts
Today, Experian is excited to introduce our Offline Graph as a standalone product that clients can license, marking a significant step in our commitment to powering data-driven advertising through connectivity. Offline Graph empowers advertisers and advertising technology companies to build and refine consumer profiles, contributing to data connectivity, more offline audience reach, and improved offline measurement accuracy. As a result of consumers engaging with content across more channels, there are more disparate data points than ever before. When you couple that with ongoing signal loss, the need for a unified identity solution has never been greater. Experian’s Offline Graph offers companies a license of stable offline data points, like name, address, phone number, email, geographic information, date of birth, and additional attributes that provide a complete view of household and individual identities. The Offline Graph integrates known offline identity information from reliable deterministic sources like property ownership records, public records, and marketing data to provide access to all United States consumers and households. How customers can use the Offline Graph A big box retailer fills in the blanks of their existing customer data and builds a database of prospects. A media platform more effectively onboards advertisers’ segments, enabling advertisers to reach more of their customers. A retail brand better understands their customer’s demographic and behavioral make-up, by licensing Offline Graph with Marketing Attributes. A connected TV (CTV) manufacturer increases audience reach and accurately quantifies the campaign impact for their advertising partners. Experian’s Offline Graph is already driving value across industries. Here’s some in-depth client success stories: Fusion92 licenses Offline Graph to help their clients transform their marketing Fusion92 is a marketing partner that fuels business transformation in today’s digital economy and delivers exponential returns for brands. Fusion92 licenses Experian’s Offline Graph to power their strategy: from research and discovery to audience creation, activation, and measurement. With access to our Offline Graph, Fusion92 ensures their clients get the insights, targeting, reach, and measurement they need to achieve their business goals. "At Fusion92, we are always pushing the envelope to develop solutions that lead to success for our clients. Our desire to innovate pushed us to find an industry-leading partner in data and identity. This led to us licensing Experian’s Offline Graph product, which we use to build more complete audience profiles for our clients. In doing so, we help brands target, activate, and measure their marketing campaigns more effectively, leading to superior results.”dave nugent, executive vice president of data and analytics, fusion92 Using Offline Graph to deliver relevant messaging to multiple audience cohorts A leading direct-to-consumer (DTC) company with strong customer relationships built a robust first-party data set, enabling effective customer retention. To attract new customers, they partnered with Experian to access offline identity data from Experian’s Offline Graph. The Offline Graph provides them with the data needed to validate their first-party data and with the keys to unlock new customers. With this data, the DTC company delivered the right message to both sets of consumers: existing customers and new prospects. By integrating Experian’s Offline Graph they broadened their reach, personalized their messaging, and improved their marketing. What sets Experian’s Offline Graph apart from the competition Stability of data: With data from deterministic sources, our Offline Graph ensures that your view of consumers – and your ability to connect with them – is stable over time. Connected digital and offline data: Seamlessly connect offline data with digital identifiers through our Digital Graph, enabling a holistic approach to marketing, while ensuring consumer privacy is prioritized. Tailor made for your use cases: Build the Offline Graph to fit your specific needs, selecting the exact offline identity information required for your campaigns. Expanded consumer insights: Connect more data points to enrich your understanding of consumer demographics and behavior, using Experian’s Marketing Attributes and Audiences data. Offline Graph: Your gateway to consumer connectivity As signals fade, there is a large emphasis on procuring and having accurate consumer data. Experian’s Offline Graph delivers the connectivity and insights necessary to stay ahead. Whether you aim to strengthen your existing data or access entirely new data sets, Experian’s Offline Graph offers a solution tailored to your needs. Transform your data strategy with Experian’s Offline Graph — your gateway to a unified consumer identity solution. Contact us Latest posts