At A Glance
Addressable advertising helps you reach addressable audiences with relevant messages across digital, TV, and streaming. As signals fragment across browsers, apps, and platforms, AI customer segmentation and privacy-first identity separate guesswork from accuracy. Experian brings trusted data, identity resolution, and activation partnerships together so you can connect with people in ways that feel relevant, respectful, and measurable.In this article…
A decade ago, you could buy media by broad categories and call it a day. But today, your audience lives in a curated world. They watch what they want, skip what they don’t, and expect what they see to match their interests. Research shows that when ads are tailored to households, people pay more attention, stay engaged longer, and are more likely to remember your ads.
That shift in expectations is why addressable advertising continues to grow. It’s a practical response to how media works today, with audiences moving fluidly across platforms, streaming spread across services, and measurement spanning screens and environments. Under these conditions, reaching the right people depends on clarity, not approximation.
Artificial intelligence (AI) strengthens that clarity. When applied responsibly, AI helps connect signals, deepen audience understanding, and deliver relevant messages while protecting consumer data. The result is advertising that feels more human, not less.
What is addressable advertising?
Addressable advertising is the ability to deliver personalized ads to specific individuals or households and measure results using privacy-safe data and identity. It works across digital, connected TV (CTV), linear TV, and over-the-top (OTT) streaming and relies on strong identity resolution and accurate data inputs to ensure your audience definitions remain consistent across channels and over time.
Benefits of addressable advertising
Addressable advertising changes how advertising performs by delivering messages to defined audiences, reducing wasted impressions, and making results simpler to measure.
| Benefit | What it means for you |
| Clarity | Reach the right audience with the personalized messages they want, instead of hoping the right people are watching |
| Efficiency | Avoid wasted impressions by focusing spend where interest already exists |
| Higher ROI | Improve conversion by delivering messages that feel relevant |
| Omnichannel consistency | Carry the same message across digital and TV without starting over |
| Measurable impact | Connect exposure to actions so performance is clear |
| Privacy and compliance | Activate audiences responsibly using privacy-safe data, clear governance, and compliant practices |
These are some of the reasons that addressable advertising has moved from a niche tactic to a core strategy. When audiences are clear, identity is connected, and measurement is built in, advertising becomes relevant, accountable, and easy to improve over time.
Addressable advertising vs. traditional advertising
Unlike traditional advertising, addressable advertising doesn’t depend on broad exposure or assumptions. It’s personalized by design and measurable by default, making it possible to connect ad exposure to outcomes. Another distinction is in how addressable delivers advertising to audiences and how performance is measured.
| Traditional media buys | Addressable advertising buys |
| You pay for broad reach | You pay for relevant reach to defined audiences |
| Ads run by placement or program | Ads are delivered to known households or individuals |
| Personalization is limited | Personalization is built into delivery |
| Measurement indicates trends, not who actually acted | Measurement connects exposure to actions by linking ads to defined audiences across channels |
But before you can activate addressable advertising, you need to understand who you’re actually trying to reach.
What is an addressable audience?
An addressable audience is a group of people you can identify and reach using data-based targeting. In other words, they’re not anonymous “maybe” viewers. They’re a defined audience you can activate across channels.
Here’s what typically builds addressable audiences:
| Factor | What it is | Why it matters |
| First-party data | Data from your own relationships (site activity, app activity, CRM, emails, purchases) | It’s your most direct view of existing customers and prospects |
| Third-party household and individual data | Demographic, behavioral, lifestyle, interest, and intent attributes from trusted providers | It fills gaps so your audience definitions don’t collapse when your own data is limited |
| Identity resolution | A privacy-first way to match people across devices, households, and channels | It improves accuracy so you don’t over-message the same people or miss them entirely |
| Contextual signals | Page-level, content, or viewing context where ads appear | It reinforces relevance in the moment and complements addressable targeting when identity signals are limited |
How Experian helps with addressable audiences
Experian helps you build and activate addressable audiences at scale without losing accuracy or trust. With more than 3,500 syndicated audiences available, you can activate consistently across 200+ destinations — including social platforms like Meta and Pinterest, TV and programmatic environments, and private marketplaces (PMPs) through Audigent.
That means reaching people based on who they are, where they live, and their household makeup, using data governed with care. Our approach is built on accuracy first, which is why Experian data is ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset for key demographic attributes.
And when standard customer segments aren’t enough, Experian Partner Audiences expand what’s possible. These unique audiences are available through Experian’s data marketplace, within Audigent for PMP activation, and directly on platforms like DIRECTV, Dish, Magnite, OpenAP, and The Trade Desk.
The evolution of addressability and why it matters more than ever
As the media ecosystem shifts, reaching people across browsers, apps, CTV, and streaming platforms has become more complex. Signals are fragmenting everywhere as expectations for relevant, personalized experiences continue to rise, while reliable identifiers become increasingly challenging to access.
In response, addressability is shifting from a channel-specific tactic to an identity-driven approach to reach and measure defined audiences across screens.
That evolution puts new pressure on performance. Marketing budgets require accuracy and accountability, which means targeting must deliver measurable reach and outcomes you can trust.
At the same time, the growth of CTV and streaming is expanding addressable TV opportunities. As CTV inventory grows, so does the need for cross-channel, identity-based activation that works consistently and supports reach, frequency, and measurement in one connected view. That’s why identity has become the foundation for making addressable advertising work today.
When to apply addressable advertising
You don’t need addressable for everything, but it shines when you need your spend to go farther with accurate targeting and resonant messaging.
| Scenario | Why addressable helps |
| Product launches and seasonal pushes | Reach people who are more likely to care without flooding everyone else |
| High-consideration purchases (auto, travel, financial services) | Focus on likely intent and suppress audiences that don’t fit |
| Cross-channel campaigns (digital, TV, mobile) | Keep messaging consistent across screens |
| When using first-party data with AI | Use AI customer segmentation to scale responsibly and improve performance without sacrificing accuracy |
| Regulated categories | Rely on compliant data practices and clearer controls for regulated industries |
Addressable advertising is one way to put relevance and respect into practice — but it shouldn’t be the only time these principles apply. Marketers are expected to be thoughtful about who they reach, how often they show up, and how data is used across every channel. Addressable simply makes it easier to live up to that standard when accuracy, accountability, and scale matter most.
Addressable advertising and third-party data
There’s a common misconception that third-party data is no longer useful, but what’s really changed is the environment around it.
In the early days of digital advertising, third-party data often felt like the Wild West. Today, modern third-party data is more transparent, better governed, and held to far higher standards with:
- Clear data sourcing
- Documented consent practices
- Regular quality audits
- Strict limits on how data can be used
Used responsibly, third-party data plays a critical role in addressable advertising by complementing your first-party data and keeping audience strategies flexible as signals change.
Benefits of third-party data
When paired with identity resolution, high-quality third-party data helps you:
- Fill first-party gaps: Add demographic, behavioral, and interest-based insight when your own data is limited.
- Expand prospecting: Reach new audiences through modeling and lookalike expansion.
- Enrich segmentation: Combine household, behavioral, and interest signals to tailor creative, offers, and messaging to interests for more accurate and personalized activation.
- Support cross-channel addressability: Maintain consistent audience reach across devices and channels even as individual signals change.
Why work with Experian for your data needs?
At Experian, we approach third-party data with the belief that trust comes first. Our data is privacy-compliant, ethically sourced, and governed by strict standards so you can use it confidently.
Accuracy matters just as much. Our identity and data-quality framework verifies that the data behind your audiences holds up in the real world — a key reason Experian is ranked #1 by Truthset for key demographic attributes.
And because addressable advertising only delivers value when audiences move seamlessly from planning to activation, our audiences are interoperable by design. You can activate them across digital, social, and CTV platforms without rebuilding or reformatting your strategy for each channel.
How AI is redefining customer segmentation
Addressable advertising depends on audiences that stay accurate as people move across devices, platforms, and moments. Traditional segmentation built on static rules and snapshots in time can’t keep up with that reality.
AI customer segmentation analyzes massive sets of household and individual data (such as intent, household demographics, purchase behavior, and content consumption) to identify patterns, predict intent, and group people into addressable audiences.
As the AI advertising ecosystem continues to mature, reflected in industry frameworks like the LUMA AI Lumascape, segmentation and identity have become foundational layers rather than standalone tools. Those audiences update as conditions change, so they stay relevant instead of aging out.
Here’s how AI-driven segmentation supports addressable advertising.
| What AI enables | Why it matters |
| Predictive, intent-based audiences | Analyze behavioral and transactional data to group people based on likely next actions |
| Broader audience availability | As more data signals are incorporated responsibly, AI makes it possible to support a wider range of addressable audience options without sacrificing accuracy |
| Deeper insights from data | Discover what people care about, how intent is forming, and which signals are most important with larger, more diverse data sets |
| Real-time audience updates | Keep segments aligned as behaviors change, not weeks later |
| Higher accuracy, less guesswork | Rely on data-driven patterns for decision-making instead of assumptions |
| Ongoing optimization | Refine audiences throughout the campaign lifecycle as performance signals come in |
We’ve used machine learning and analytics for decades to support responsible segmentation — balancing performance with privacy and transparency.
That foundation now supports addressable advertising that adapts in real time while staying grounded in trust.
Addressable TV: Targeting in the streaming era
TV has become an addressable channel powered by data and identity resolution. CTV and OTT streaming are booming, while linear TV continues to decline, reshaping how people watch and how advertising works alongside it. For the first time, CTV spending is expected to outpace traditional TV ad spending in 2028, reaching $46.89 billion and signaling that addressable TV is now central to the media mix.
With CTV and OTT platforms, advertising can now be delivered at the household level. That means two homes watching the same show can see different ads based on who lives there and what they like. This is what makes addressable TV possible.
Benefits of addressable TV
As streaming inventory continues to grow, addressable TV creates new ways to bring relevance and accountability to a channel once defined by broad exposure. Experian links identity data across streaming, linear, and digital platforms to help you manage frequency, attribution, and household-level insights in one connected view.
Addressable TV also raises the bar. To manage reach, frequency, and measurement across streaming and linear environments, addressable TV depends on identity resolution that connects households across screens.
Here’s how addressable TV helps you when identity is in place.
| What addressable TV enables | Why it matters |
| Household-level targeting | Deliver messages that reflect who’s watching, not just what’s on |
| Frequency control across screens | Reduce overexposure and improve viewer experience |
| Cross-channel measurement and attribution | Connect TV exposure to digital actions, site visits, and conversions |
| More efficient use of TV spend | Bring accuracy, accountability, and outcome-based insight to premium inventory and improve reach of streaming-first, harder-to-reach viewer segments |
Ultimately, addressable TV isn’t a replacement for linear TV, but it is an evolution. As streaming becomes the default viewing experience, the ability to engage TV audiences with the same care and clarity as digital is essential.
Use cases for addressable advertising
Addressable advertising works across industries because it adapts to how people make decisions. The examples below are illustrative scenarios that show how addressable audiences, identity resolution, and AI-driven segmentation can come together in practice using Experian solutions.
Retail: Seasonal promotions
A home décor retailer could use identity resolution and AI-driven segmentation to build addressable audiences, such as holiday decorators and recent movers, who are more likely to engage during peak seasonal periods.
Campaigns could then be activated across CTV, display, and social, helping the retailer stay visible across screens while tailoring creative to seasonal intent.
Automotive: In-market car buyers
An auto brand might identify consumers nearing lease expiration using automotive-specific data tied to household and individual attributes.
By suppressing current owners, the brand could avoid wasted impressions and activate addressable audiences across OTT and mobile to reach likely buyers during active consideration.
Financial services: Credit card launch
For a new credit card launch, a national bank could use modeled financial segments to reach credit-qualified prospects.
Addressable digital advertising campaigns could apply frequency controls and personalized messaging, balancing reach with relevance while seamlessly measuring response.
Streaming media: New subscriber growth
A streaming platform looking to grow subscriptions could use an identity graph to exclude current subscribers.
Likely viewers could then be targeted across CTV based on content preferences and viewing behavior, keeping spend focused on net-new growth.
Media and entertainment: Audience expansion for a new release
Ahead of a new release, a film studio could use behavioral and lifestyle data to identify likely moviegoers and fans of similar franchises.
Addressable campaigns across CTV and digital video could help drive awareness and opening weekend attendance.
Travel: High-value traveler acquisition
A travel brand could use travel propensity data and household-level demographics to identify frequent flyers and family vacation planners.
Personalized offers could then be activated across display, social, and programmatic channels to increase bookings while keeping spend focused on higher-value travelers.
How Experian enables more effective addressable campaigns
Addressable advertising is most effective when identity, data, and activation are connected from the start.
Experian brings trusted household and individual data, privacy-first identity resolution, and broad activation partnerships together so you can move from audience insights to activation with minimal friction. Here’s how that comes to life across our core offerings.
Identity resolution with Consumer Sync
Consumer Sync connects devices, emails, digital identifiers, and offline data into a single, privacy-safe identity foundation. This connection helps your audiences stay consistent across streaming, linear TV, mobile, and digital despite changing signals.
Audience insight and segmentation with Consumer View
Consumer View supports clear segmentation, prospecting, and enrichment across industries. It combines demographic, behavioral, and interest-based data to help you build accurate, intent-driven audiences that reflect real people, not assumptions. Data is continuously updated and governed for accuracy.
Omnichannel activation with Audience Engine
Audience Engine enables direct activation of Experian audiences across CTV, digital, social, and programmatic platforms. It supports suppression, frequency management, and cross-channel consistency to keep messaging aligned and exposure controlled.
More efficient media through curation and Curated Deals
Curation combines data, identity, and inventory through Experian Curated Deals. These deal IDs, available off-the-shelf or privately, make it easier to activate high-quality audiences and premium inventory in the platforms you already use without custom setup.
AI-enhanced segmentation and optimization
Our AI-enhanced models analyze large data sets to create and refresh addressable audiences in real time, supporting intent-based targeting and ongoing optimization throughout the campaign lifecycle. These models work seamlessly with demand-side platforms (DSPs), ad platforms, and data clean rooms, so audience insights flow directly into activation and measurement without added complexity.
Seamless integration with your ecosystem
As an advertiser, you want addressable advertising to fit naturally into how you already plan and buy media. That’s why integration matters as much as insight.
Experian integrates with leading DSPs, ad platforms, and data clean rooms, so you can activate addressable audiences in the environments you already use without reworking your strategy or adding complexity. This approach helps you:
- Build and activate addressable audiences: Reach the people you want with accuracy and respect.
- Activate across channels: Keep messaging consistent across digital, TV, and streaming.
- Optimize with data ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset: Improve performance using the industry’s most reliable data.
When identity, data, AI, and activation come together, addressable advertising does what it’s supposed to do: deliver relevance naturally, measure impact clearly, and give you confidence in every decision along the way.
That’s the foundation for campaigns people want to engage with.
Start creating campaigns audiences want to see
Experian can help you apply addressable advertising in ways that respect consumers, perform across channels, and stand up to real-world measurement.
Connect with our experts today to explore how addressable audiences, AI-driven segmentation, and identity-powered activation can work together in support of your goals.
FAQs about addressable advertising
Addressable data-driven advertising involves delivering personalized ads to specific individuals or households using privacy-safe data and identity.
An addressable audience is a defined group of consumers you can identify and reach based on known household or individual attributes.
Advertising becomes addressable when it’s possible to identify the audience by linking devices and households to people through identity graphs. This allows you to measure ad performance at the audience level and provide more personalized advertising.
Addressable advertising isn’t just for TV; it also works across digital, mobile, streaming, and social channels.
AI improves addressable advertising by analyzing large data sets to predict intent, build more accurate audiences, boost performance over time, and improve your ability to find and build your audiences.
Yes — identity resolution and first-party data are key to cookieless addressability.
Experian supports addressable advertising by providing trusted consumer data, privacy-centric identity resolution, and curated audience segments that activate across CTV, digital, mobile, and streaming platforms.
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Brand and tech leaders share insights to guide marketers forward Cannes Lions 2025 brought its usual charm, rosé, and lively discussions, but what stood out was a shift in tone: brand and tech leaders aren’t talking in theories anymore – they’re rebuilding how advertising works. From identity to outcomes, the consensus was clear: marketers need bold, structural changes to thrive. At Experian, we spoke with leaders from Ampersand, Butler/Till, Comcast Advertising, Fox, OpenX, Optable, Snowflake, VideoAmp, and Yieldmo. Their message? Foundational change, not incremental tweaks, is the way forward. Here are five moves marketers and CMOs should be making right now. 1. Make identity the foundation, not an add-on Identity must be the core of your marketing strategy, not an afterthought. Building a strong identity framework from the outset ensures that your data and tech stack work seamlessly across channels. This means investing in first-party data assets and identity resolution tools that inform every campaign and tactic. Identity isn’t just a feature; it’s the base layer of everything successful marketers do today. "There’s no AI strategy without a data and identity strategy. Marketers who want to stretch every media dollar and personalize each touchpoint need a unified, deeper view of the consumer – insight they can carry straight into downstream ad platforms.”David Wells, Snowflake Next step: Treat identity resolution as a prerequisite to every campaign, not a task to address later. Align your data management platform (DMP), customer data platform (CDP), and collaboration partners around a unified identity spine (Experian’s or your own) to ensure data flows uninterrupted from planning to reporting. 2. Curate, don't automate. Programmatic is getting personal Programmatic advertising remains relevant, but its purpose is evolving from mere automation to intelligent, data-driven curation. This shift requires moving beyond static site lists to dynamic, page-level contextual engines that determine, in real-time, which impressions to display. Today, it’s about carefully selecting and curating inventory to ensure transparency, quality, and relevance for your audience. Marketers are increasingly turning to private marketplaces (PMPs) that offer curated, brand safe inventory and clear supply paths to deliver meaningful results. Expect continued growth in curated PMPs, AI-assisted forecasting, and supply-side innovations that combine premium connected TV (CTV) inventory with deterministic data. The goal is to reach the right viewer and understand exactly how and why they got there. “What we’re talking about right now is almost like curation 2.0, which is bringing more of the capabilities that historically sat with the demand-side platform (DSP) into the hands of the supply-side platform (SSP) – that is, supply-side targeting, or what we call data-driven curation."Matt Sattel, OpenX Next step: Audit your supply chain. If you can’t clearly explain every step from bid request to delivery, explore curated deals or direct SSP partnerships that align with your quality and transparency standards. 3. Connect teams like you connect data Fragmented results often stem from fragmented teams. Persistent silos (like TV buys on one floor, digital on another, and data science somewhere else) slow down budgets and create inconsistent messaging. Forward thinking organizations are restructuring teams around unified KPIs and shared data. When planners, buyers, and analysts work together (or at least share dashboards), campaigns move faster and creative stays consistent. “We restructured our teams to focus on all forms of video – linear, streaming, and online. This allowed us to embrace partners who cross over these verticals and technical approaches.”Gina Whelehan, Butler/Till Next step: Map your current workflow end-to-end. Where does a brief stall or data stop flowing? Restructure teams or create shared success metrics to eliminate bottlenecks. 4. Turn disconnected data into unified insights Marketers have spent years gathering massive amounts of data, but hoarding data isn’t a winning strategy. The future belongs to those who can collaborate with partners to connect and utilize data effectively, all while respecting privacy and security. Rather than chasing the next data source, leading marketers are finding ways to safely connect data already available in-house or via partners. This might involve data clean rooms, secure data sharing agreements, or joint analytics initiatives – but the common thread is working together on data, not operating in isolation. “We've been encouraging marketers to tie in first-party data and to really utilize that data and to work with trusted sources and deterministic sources in order to overcome a lot of the challenges around signal loss with cookies, in particular. The other way is also clean rooms. Clean rooms really enable the opportunity to collaborate in a private, safe way, and connecting to those more deterministic sources in order to deliver the results that advertisers are looking for.”Carmela Fournier, Comcast Advertising Next step: Identify gaps in your first-party data. Then, collaborate with a provider like Experian to safely match data sets and unlock insights without exposing sensitive info. 5. Focus on outcomes, not clicks Impressions, clicks, and other output metrics have been the currency of marketing for decades. But the consensus at Cannes is that those proxies aren’t enough – business outcomes are what matter now. Marketers must shift their focus to measuring real results, such as sales lift, new customer acquisition, lifetime value, or brand impact, rather than getting bogged down in intermediate metrics. This move to outcome-based measurement changes how campaigns are planned and judged: success is defined by the value created, not just the volume delivered. Unified, identity-based analytics are finally making it possible to see who saw an ad and what they did next, across TV, CTV, and digital. That intel drives smarter budget shifts and tighter creative feedback loops. “Outcome-based measurement is table stakes in today’s media ecosystem, and Ampersand has woven it into almost everything we do. Thanks to Experian’s strength in identity, audience insights, and outcome measurement, we can give advertisers the attribution they need at every stage of the funnel.”Justin Rosen, Ampersand Next step: Identify metrics that matter to your bottom line, then find a partner who can measure them accurately. If measurement stacks don’t talk to each other, they’re holding you back. Preparing for the challenges ahead The common thread across these five moves is connection – connecting data, teams, and outcomes. Marketers who act on these imperatives will be ready for whatever new screen, format, or privacy rule comes next. Experian can help you: Establish an identity spine Enable secure data collaboration in or out of clean room environments Curate premium CTV inventory with deterministic audiences Measure business outcomes across every channel Ready to make your next bold move? Let's start a conversation Latest posts
Marketers are searching for better ways to connect with their audiences across screens and prove results. Optimum Media is at the forefront of this development, helping brands plan, activate, and measure campaigns across linear TV, addressable TV, connected TV (CTV), digital, and social platforms. To support this approach, Optimum Media partners with Experian, combining their subscriber data with Experian’s trusted audience and identity solutions. Together, we help brands not only find the right consumers but also understand their behaviors and measure real outcomes. Here’s how Optimum Media and Experian are working together. Build a complete customer view with rich data from Experian Optimum Media starts with strong first-party data, including viewership and exposure information from millions of households. However, reaching a deeper understanding of these audiences requires more than what subscriber records alone can offer. Through Experian’s Marketing Attributes, Optimum Media gains access to thousands of demographic and behavioral attributes to its data sets. These attributes—such as income ranges, lifestyle interests, and retail purchasing behaviors—help advertisers build a more complete view of the consumer. "We work with trusted partners like Experian to deliver the additional audience insights—like demographics and lifestyle—that are critical for our clients' success."Natalia Irmin, Sr. Director, Strategic Partnerships, Optimum Media Combining Experian’s Marketing Attributes with Optimum Media’s subscriber footprint helps brands segment audiences more precisely, develop refined media plans, and tailor messaging based on the real behaviors and interests of consumers. Move beyond basic targeting with Audience Engine To support more personalized and scalable targeting, Optimum Media uses Audience Engine—Experian’s self-service platform for audience management and activation. Through Audience Engine, Optimum Media can: Access Experian’s syndicated audiences Not just what’s available directly on their platform. Build custom segments Using Experian’s demographic and behavioral insights. Tap into our data marketplace To explore additional segments from Experian and our Partner Audiences through trusted third-party providers. These tools give Optimum Media and its clients the ability to move beyond basic targeting. Whether a brand wants to reach families preparing for back-to-school shopping, in-market car buyers, or upscale consumers planning home renovations, Audience Engine makes it possible to identify and activate those audiences with greater accuracy—based on real data, not guesswork. Extend campaign reach with Experian’s Digital Graph While Optimum Media has a substantial owned footprint, they often work with advertisers who need to extend reach beyond traditional subscriber bases. To support this, they rely on Experian’s Digital Graph. Our Digital Graph connects mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), IP addresses, CTV IDs, and hashed emails into unified household and individual profiles. This enables Optimum Media to identify and reach audiences outside of their network with the same level of accuracy as inside it. For even deeper audience insights, Digital Graph can be bundled with Marketing Attributes. This combination helps advertisers go beyond basic targeting to include real-world behaviors like shopping habits, travel preferences, and lifestyle characteristics. The result: campaigns that do more than deliver impressions—they connect with the right households across any channel. Turn viewership into measurable business outcomes One of the biggest challenges in multiscreen advertising is connecting exposure to real business results. With Experian’s solutions, Optimum Media can: Plan based on audience behaviors across screens, not just age and gender demographics. Activate household-level audiences across linear, CTV, digital, and social. Measure campaign performance using unduplicated reach, frequency, and attribution across devices. By offering advertisers access to a more complete consumer profile and maintaining consistent measurement across channels, Optimum Media and Experian help clients make better decisions about where to spend and how to adjust strategies over time. Why the Optimum Media and Experian partnership delivers Deeper audience understanding: By combining first-party viewership with Experian’s demographic and behavioral data, advertisers gain a fuller picture of who they are reaching. Seamless cross-platform execution: Identity solutions like Digital Graph allow brands to reach audiences across multiple devices and channels without losing precision. "Optimum Media has been instrumental in helping Experian strengthen the precision, quality, and real-world applications of our data. Their ongoing feedback is invaluable in making sure our solutions continue to meet client needs and perform at the highest level."Chris Feo, Chief Business Officer, Experian With a single, trusted partner offering both identity and audience solutions, Optimum Media avoids the complexity many advertisers still face when piecing together different data sets and vendors. “Having Experian’s identity and audience solutions under one roof makes it easier for us to plan, reach, and measure across every channel. It’s a complete solution that simplifies advertising and improves performance.”Natalia Irmin, Sr. Director, Strategic Partnerships, Optimum Media Start building better campaigns with Experian Ready to improve your audience targeting and measurement strategies like Optimum Media? Connect with our team today to learn how Marketing Attributes, Audience Engine, Digital Graph, and our other solutions can help you build stronger, more measurable advertising campaigns. Connect with us About Optimum Media Optimum Media is a multiscreen advertising business that partners with small and medium businesses, as well as national, political, media and entertainment, and agency clients across the United States. They work with advertisers to develop custom multiscreen advertising solutions powered by proprietary technology and a massive aggregated database of audience data points and TV viewership data. Latest posts
Originally appeared in The Current Forget the cookie delay — AI is already rewriting the rules of advertising. While the industry was busy debating yet another postponement of Chrome’s third-party cookie phaseout, AI quietly became the most disruptive force in marketing. But here’s the twist: AI doesn’t work without identity. If marketers want results — real outcomes, not just impressions — they need to prioritize the data that makes AI go. First-party data strategies are now mainstream. Interoperable identity solutions like Unified I.D. 2.0 (UID2) and ID5 are gaining adoption across the open web. Connected TV (CTV) has grown into a performance-focused, cookieless channel. Contextual and geo-based targeting have become smarter and more scalable. Identity graphs are helping marketers stitch together signals across devices, platforms, and channels. The foundation for a better ecosystem isn’t being built — it’s already here. The AI hype is over — and the stakes are higher It’s no longer buzz. AI is here, and it’s already reshaping how we plan, activate, and measure advertising. We’re seeing the rise of agentic AI: systems that don’t just surface insights but act on them. These AI agents are identifying patterns, building audiences, optimizing media buys, and analyzing performance. AI is helping marketers stop guessing and start improving. But there’s a catch — one we can’t afford to overlook. AI is only as good as the data it works with. “Garbage in, garbage out.” as the saying goes. And in advertising, that means if you don’t know who you’re reaching, even the smartest AI won’t drive results. To unlock AI’s full potential, marketers need a strong, privacy-safe identity foundation. Identity is the fuel that makes AI work AI can personalize creative, optimize in-flight campaigns, and even recommend which channels to prioritize — but it can’t do any of that well without context. And context starts with identity. Identity connects signals from different devices, logins, channels, and interactions to real people. It tells your AI models who you’re talking to — not just what they clicked. That kind of clarity gives AI the power to make smarter predictions, uncover insights, and deliver relevance at scale. Without identity, AI is guessing. With identity, it’s delivering. Identity is the foundation of the outcomes era We’re living in a performance-driven age. Impressions and clicks are no longer enough. Marketers today are being judged by real outcomes: incremental sales, customer acquisition, revenue lift, and long-term value. To measure those outcomes, you need to know who you reached — and whether they took action. Identity makes that connection possible. It links ad exposure to real-world results. It enables accurate attribution across channels. It powers personalization at every stage of the journey, making every impression more valuable. This is the outcomes era, and identity is what makes it measurable. Commerce media and CTV show what’s possible Two of the fastest-growing channels — commerce media and CTV — are great examples of identity in action. Commerce media In commerce media, identity helps retailers and marketplaces organize their customer data, enrich it with external insights, and activate it across their own sites and off-site channels. It makes accurate targeting possible and gives marketers a clear ROI they can prove. CTV In CTV, identity helps solve a fundamental challenge: turning anonymous viewers into addressable audiences. On free ad-supported streaming platforms (FAST), identity solutions resolve viewership to the household level. On logged-in platforms, identity enriches profiles with behavioral and purchase data, boosting demand, improving CPMs, and growing revenue. At Experian, we’ve invested in this future. Our recent acquisition of Audigent brings together data, identity, and activation — under one roof — built to support both AI-driven planning and outcome-based performance. How marketers can win now To stay ahead in a world defined by AI and outcomes, marketers need to: Invest in omnichannel identity To unify signals across platforms and environments. Make identity actionable in real time To inform both targeting and measurement. Utilize first-party data, clean rooms, and privacy-safe partnerships To future-proof performance. Tailor identity strategies To fit their media mix — because what works in CTV may not apply to in-app or web. It’s not about rebuilding everything. It’s about building on what’s already working. Final thought: Identity is the bridge AI is raising the bar, and outcomes are the new standard. But neither works without identity. The marketers who win won’t treat identity as a compliance checkbox — they’ll treat it as their competitive edge. Get started with us today Latest posts