At A Glance
AI can make your holiday advertising more efficient, but identity makes it accurate. This season, the brands that connect their AI tools to a strong identity foundation will see measurable performance.Originally appeared in Adweek
This holiday advertising season, identity is the real differentiator
Marketers are betting big on AI to run their holiday advertising, using it to build predictive audiences, generate creative at scale, and optimize media buys in real time. The draw is clear: greater efficiency, delivered at scale.
But here’s the problem: without a solid identity foundation, AI is just guessing. And in a year when consumers are cautious and competition is fierce, guesses won’t deliver the outcomes you need.
Experian’s 2025 Holiday spending trends and insights report shows that success this season will depend on connecting the right data to the right audiences in real time.
Are shoppers really using AI to make holiday purchases?
Not yet. Only 12% of consumers plan to use AI tools to shop this season, mostly for finding discounts. Instead, trusted influences (like retailer websites, product reviews, and recommendations) still guide buying decisions.
For marketers, that’s a signal to focus on credibility and connection. AI can support your holiday advertising strategy, but trust still wins the sale.
Consumer sentiment heading into the holidays is low, but that could mislead marketers
How marketers are really using AI in holiday advertising
Behind the scenes, AI is working overtime. Teams use it to segment audiences, test creative, and optimize media in real time. These capabilities are powerful, but only if they’re grounded in accurate, persistent data.
Think about the typical holiday shopper. They may browse a product online, validate it in store, and finally purchase days later from a different device than they used while browsing. If AI isn’t anchored in identity, it struggles to connect those touchpoints. Instead of amplifying relevance, it amplifies noise.
Why identity is the GPS for AI-driven holiday advertising
Identity is what turns AI from a blunt instrument into an accurate tool. By unifying fragmented signals across channels and devices, identity provides the consistent consumer view that AI needs to be effective.
With that foundation, AI can do more than churn out models. Instead, it can:
Identify the right audiences and filter out waste
Personalize with context, not just scale
Measure real outcomes, linking exposures to visits and purchases
Identity doesn’t just improve efficiency; it creates accountability. And in a season where every holiday advertising campaign dollar is scrutinized, accountability is the difference between investment and waste.
How to turn complexity into clarity this holiday season
This year’s holiday advertising season is complicated. Marketers are confident, consumers are cautious, and AI is somewhere in the middle. The challenge isn’t just speed or volume, it’s accuracy.
By pairing AI with identity, you can adapt to real behavior instead of assumptions. You can build campaigns that are consistent across connected TV, retail media, and social platforms. And you can prove results when it matters most.
AI isn’t a holiday miracle. But when it’s powered by identity, it can give you clarity in a noisy season and proof of performance when budgets are under scrutiny.
What’s the real takeaway for marketers this season?
Don’t assume AI alone will save your holiday advertising strategy. It won’t. Consumers still trust human voices more than machines, and your AI models are only as strong as the data beneath them. Identity is the difference between guesswork and accuracy, between activity and impact.
This holiday season, the winners won’t be the brands that simply spend more or automate faster. They’ll be the ones that put identity at the core of their AI strategy and meet consumers where they really are.
Download Experian’s 2025 Holiday spending trends and insights report to see where consumers are spending and how identity can help your holiday advertising campaigns more effective.
FAQs
AI works best when it’s grounded in accurate data. Without identity, it can’t connect actions across devices or channels, which limits its effectiveness.
Identity creates a single, persistent view of your audience. That means AI can personalize content, measure conversions, and cut waste with far greater accuracy.
It’s the data layer that connects people across their devices, browsers, and behaviors—so your campaigns reach real individuals.
By tying exposure to verified outcomes—like store visits or purchases—using identity-linked data. That’s how Experian helps brands move from impressions to impact.
Latest posts
Distribution via LiveRamp enables seamless cross-device customer experiences through more platforms NEW YORK, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ – Tapad, now part of Experian and the leading provider of unified cross-device marketing technology solutions, today announced an expanded partnership with LiveRamp™, an Acxiom® company and leading provider of omnichannel identity resolution, to make the proprietary Tapad Device Graph™ accessible beyond Tapad-hosted direct integrations. Through LiveRamp, Tapad's Device Graph Access now extends to more than 400 ad tech and mar tech platforms. Tapad's Device Graph™ enables marketers to understand, monetize and measure consumer engagement across all digital channels, and Tapad's unified consumer view is recognized as one of the most accurate, scalable cross-device solutions in the market today. Through the expanded partnership with LiveRamp, the Tapad Device Graph can be distributed to the hundreds of platforms used to reach consumers on digital channels and measure campaign performance – even as devices are added daily to Tapad's extensive graph. "Increasingly, marketers want access to cross-device targeting and measurement capabilities within their preferred platforms," said Anneka Gupta, chief product officer of LiveRamp. "Our expanded partnership makes it easy for marketers to access Tapad's graph through the rapidly growing set of integrations available in our partner ecosystem." This is the latest of several initiatives between the two technology platforms designed to make the integration of cross-screen platforms seamless, privacy-safe and easy to use for dynamic and engaging marketing efforts. "During the past year, Tapad has expanded its global presence and rapidly grown its data business – Tapad Coral – doubling the number of companies integrating our device graph into their platforms and growing our annualized run rate by 210%," said Pierre Martensson, GM of Tapad Coral and APAC. "Our expanded partnership with LiveRamp positions us to meet the increased demand for Tapad Device Graph Access and enable new platforms to apply our graph with unprecedented speed." Contact us today
Cross-Screen Pioneer Explores the Power of Connected Cars as a Vehicle for Customer Engagement LAS VEGAS, NV — (October 26, 2016) –Kate O’Loughlin, GM of Media for Tapad, addressed the J.D. Power Automotive conference audience today in Las Vegas, NV. With more than 1,400 participants representing every facet of the automotive marketing profession, the conference has become the industry's leading marketing event. Bringing the unified, cross-screen perspective to the stage, O’Loughlin discussed the vital role of connected cars in the consumer engagement process. She is a founding member of Tapad which launched the world’s first cross-screen marketing technology in 2010. Tapad was acquired by the Telenor Group early in 2016. Key points from O’Loughlin’s J.D. Power 2016 address included: The marketers who deliver relevant and engaging content in a privacy-safe setting will be in the strongest position to navigate the proliferation of connected devices, including the connected points in cars. As automakers innovate the technology in cars, marketers need to be prepared for the size and diversity of data available for understanding consumers. It’s going to be increasingly difficult to wade through the data, so now is the time to build a solid framework for understanding the person behind the data. Marketers who evolve — and take a holistic approach — to their campaign measurements will achieve marked improvements in efficiency and an enhanced understanding of their core audiences. Actionable brand engagement metrics like Viewable Exposure Time (VET) will continue to overtake traditional advertising performance metrics. VET evaluates the optimal amount of time an ad is present on a screen to incite consumer action. In early testing by Tapad, campaigns that employ VET see conversion rate performance improvements from 13 to 60%. The consumer-centric technology solutions of the future need to be as scalable as they are affordable. Learn more about Tapads’ recommended Viewable Exposure Time metric contact us today! Contact us today
NEW YORK, Sept. 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ – Tapad, the leader in cross-device marketing technology, today announced a new metric for cross-device marketers, Viewable Exposure Time (VET). Viewable Exposure Time measures across screens and ad formats, identifying the optimal amount of time a consumer spends with an ad before they take action. The announcement coincides with Unify Tech '16, Tapad's third-annual cross-device summit during Advertising Week NY. Frequency caps are currently used to ensure that dollars aren't wasted on redundant ads. Viewable Exposure Time evolves the frequency capping approach to include accelerating a consumer's ad exposure rate up to the optimal time spent with the brand. VET is used in affinity, digital transaction and offline purchase models as a key indicator of marketing budget well-spent. Beta users of VET span every vertical, though interest is especially high from CPG, Automotive, Telecommunications and Retail. Viewable Exposure Time unifies and upgrades marketers' predictors of advertising success by leveraging cross-screen engagement across digital and television, with vendor-agnostic viewability scores for video, rich media and display. "Today's current measurement options, like click-through rate (CTR) and TV gross ratings points (GRP) tell an incomplete story," said Tapad GM of Media Kate O'Loughlin. "Tapad is focused on measuring what really matters to marketers – building an efficient connection with a customer. Innovation in metrics was long overdue." More than just a measurement tool, Tapad also provides clients with VET activation. Factoring in time spent with ads in viewable seconds and minutes, these analytics inform marketers about which audiences are underexposed, enabling them to adjust campaigns and deliver according to optimal viewable exposure time. This effectively increases conversion rates at the lowest cost. Contact us today