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
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Cross-device matching and pixel-based foot traffic attribution reporting empower digital marketers with greater control of location-based campaigns.RALEIGH, N.C. (PRWEB) AUGUST 04, 2020 Tapad, part of Experian a global leader in digital identity resolution, and Reveal Mobile, a leader in location-based marketing, today announced a collaboration that combines Tapad's digital cross-device matching technology and pixel-based attribution features with Reveal Mobile’s VISIT Local, the software that hundreds of digital agencies and brands use for location-based analytics. The partnership is designed to drive improved performance by optimizing ad targeting and messaging for location-based campaigns. Powered by Tapad’s privacy-safe cross device matching, marketers using VISIT Local to power location-based campaigns can enhance how they reach shoppers. When one member of a household shops for groceries, clothes, household goods or any other consumer item, a conversation between multiple members of the household typically takes place beforehand. With cross device matching, marketers can reach everyone who has influence over what to buy and where to buy it. VISIT Local users can expand location-based services with a single click to include devices that share the same household, including targeting across multiple devices owned by the same user, allowing advertisers to maximize messaging and increase their share of wallet among consumers. “VISIT Local has always given our customers access to high-intent location-based audiences. With the addition of cross device matching from Tapad, advertisers can boost audience sizes up to 300 percent while maintaining full confidence in quality and relevance,” says Brian Handly, CEO of Reveal Mobile. “VISIT Local users can now apply multiple criteria and attributes to a single location-based audience, giving them the advanced control and transparency they need.” As reliable attribution becomes increasingly complex for marketers and ad buyers who need to prove value, the addition of Tapad’s pixel-based foot traffic attribution to VISIT Local enables the measurement of actual campaign effectiveness by tying ad views to in-store foot traffic. This new feature, which will be available in VISIT Local this fall, lets Reveal Mobile customers understand who visited a retail location as a result of being served an ad, providing a more accurate view into return on ad spend during and after advertising campaigns. “Tapad’s goal is to empower marketers with digital advertising efficiencies at scale across devices,” says Mark Connon, COO of Tapad. “With cross device matching and pixel-based foot traffic attribution, marketers using VISIT Local can better address the consumer’s preferences and habits, and deliver them consistently actionable information on user behavior. These capabilities advance location-based advertising in ways marketers need and want.” In addition to these new features, VISIT Local’s location-based audience builder now enables marketers to create custom audiences made up of people who have visited different places on different dates. This gives VISIT Local users the ability to segment and create the most highly targeted audiences possible. For example, a marketer who wants to advertise for a chain of restaurants can easily target visitors of different competitors in different cities. Or a marketer who wants to advertise vacation destinations can target people who have been to various resorts at different times of year. Or a marketer who wants to advertise the release of new music can target people who have been to concert venues in different cities on different dates. “Many of our customers need to create highly custom audiences so they can run experiments, test messaging, and run increasingly competitive campaigns,” says Handly. “Everyone who uses VISIT Local can now apply multiple criteria and attributes to a single location-based audience, giving them the advanced control and transparency they need.”To learn more about Tapad’s digital identity resolution products, visit our identity solution page. To learn more about Reveal Mobile’s location-based marketing offerings, visit http://www.revealmobile.com. About TapadTapad, Inc. is a global leader in digital identity resolution. The Tapad Graph, and its related solutions, provide a transparent, privacy-safe approach connecting brands to consumers through their devices globally. Our one-of-a-kind Graph Select offering enables marketers the flexibility and freedom of choice to correlate devices to varied objectives, driving campaign effectiveness and business results. Tapad is recognized across the industry for its product innovation, workplace culture and talent, and has earned numerous awards including One World Identity's 2019 Top 100 Influencers in Identity Award. Headquartered in New York, Tapad also has offices in Chicago, London, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo. About Reveal MobileReveal Mobile is a leader in location-based marketing, analytics, audiences, and attribution. Creator of VISIT Local, VISIT Match and VISIT Data, the company’s products help digital agencies, brands and retailers of any size leverage location data to understand and reach the right audiences. Reveal Mobile is CCPA compliant and a member of the Network Advertising Initiative, which conducts an annual privacy certification. The company is based in Raleigh, NC. For more information, visit https://revealmobile.com. Contact us today
Overview Chartable leverages The Tapad Graph to improve cross-device attribution rates and remove non-addressable IPs for clients. Challenge Chartable needs to differentiate between consumer and potential business IP addresses to provide accurate household modeling and reduce excess data for their customers. Podcasting generally only has access to IP addresses as a form of digital ID which limits its ability to connect activity to individuals and extend it across all devices. The Tapad + Experian solution Using Tapad, now a part of Experian, Chartable is able to cut through the noise of IP data and discard any addresses deemed a shared IP or business. Then, Tapad + Experian connects individual users to their other digital IDs and users in their household; creating a richer attribution model for Chartable customers. Increase in podcast attribution rates Contact us today
With the growth of digital marketing and the targeting capabilities associated with online outreach, many predicted that this would mark the end of direct mail advertising. But if Millennials have anything to say about it, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Yes, believe it or not, Millennials are driving the resurgence of direct mail advertising, and many leading brands are now pivoting their omnichannel marketing plans to include direct mail. And with the USPS reporting more than 75.7 billion in marketing mail volume in 2019, this trend shows no sign of slowing down. Including direct mail in your plans may give your brand a better chance of reaching your audience. Why? 1. Millennials actually like getting mail.While most of us have decried “junk mail” as being environmentally unfriendly or just a pain to deal with, Millennials actually enjoy physical mail. Valassis recently cited research from USPS Customer & Market Insights stating that Millennials spend the most time sorting mail (about six minutes compared to the average, which is four minutes), plus they’re opening mail and reading it (at eight minutes versus the average of seven minutes). Valassis also conducted a study that showed that 68% of Millennials read print ads or inserts from retailers, and 64% prefer getting them through the mail. So, while digital outreach may be convenient, it hasn’t completely decimated the desire for that old-school, hands-on experience of opening and reading something that’s addressed to you. 2. Millennials respond to a multi-channel approach.Oftentimes, marketers think of omnichannel as being a combination of digital and TV, but when you add print into the mix, it can make an even bigger impact on Millennial audiences. Valassis found that 60% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase after seeing an ad when it’s presented across both offline and online channels, while 72% of Millennial parents say print ads encourage them to go online and make a purchase from that retailer. 3. Millennials think physical mail makes for a more personal approach.You’d think that e-mail would feel more personal, but with the influx of spam most people get, that’s just not the case. In fact, 67% of people see physical mail as being more personal than an e-mail, with seven out of 10 saying they prefer receiving actual mail over digital mail. And for marketers looking to make a one-to-one connection, this is music to their ears. With changing marketing plans, the mailbox has less competition than the inbox. Getting a catalog at their door with the perfect offer at the perfect time helps the marketer make the direct connection. 4. Direct mail lasts longer than digital mail.That may seem like an obvious statement, but there’s more to it than you think. When an e-mail arrives in someone’s inbox, it’s easy to ignore it, read the subject line and forget about it, or even just randomly delete it, if spam filters don’t take care of that on their own. But the average lifespan of a piece of direct mail is 17 days, which may account for how direct mail generates purchases five times larger than e-mail campaigns. It’s harder to ignore when it’s in your house and you have to physically handle it as opposed to just clicking a mouse to get rid of it. 5. Millennials trust direct mail.It’s true—research shows that 90% of Millennials think direct mail advertising is reliable. Plus, Millennials are 24% more likely to show mail to others, compared to 19% of non-Millennials… which means if they find a deal they like in the mail, they’re probably going to spread the word. Contact us today