Santa’s secret weapon? Experian Audiences

If Santa used data to plan his holiday campaign, he’d call Experian. After all, how else could he deliver the right gifts to the right household?

From sleigh bells to savings alerts, the holiday season isn’t just about Christmas. Whether you’re celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Lunar New Year, or simply the season of giving, brands have one thing in common: a need to reach the right audience at the right time, with messaging that resonates.

Retail sales for 2025 are expected to grow 2.7–3.7% YoY, reaching nearly $5.48 trillion, with mobile commerce driving 75% of e-commerce growth. With so many brands vying for attention, delivering the right message to the right audience can be the difference between a one-time click and a lifelong customer.

In this article, we’ll unwrap Experian’s holiday shopping audiences, including 25 new audiences, designed to help you reach the most relevant shoppers for your holiday campaigns. These audiences are available for activation on-the-shelf of most major platforms, including TV, social, and programmatic. You can find the complete audience segment name in the appendix.

2025 Holiday spending trends and insights report

Download our latest report, in collaboration with GroundTruth, for data-driven insights you can use to refine your messaging and reach the right audience in their preferred channels this holiday season.

Deck the data halls: What separates Experian’s syndicated audiences?

Utilize Experian’s syndicated audiences to ensure your marketing messages resonate with shoppers.

• Experian’s 3,200+ syndicated audiences can be sent to 200+ leading social platforms, such as Meta and Pinterest, TV, programmatic advertising platforms, and directly within Audigent for activation within private marketplaces (PMPs).
• Reach consumers based on who they are, where they live, and their household makeup. Experian ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset for key demographic attributes.
• Access to unique audiences through Experian’s Partner Audiences available on Experian’s data marketplace, within Audigent for activation in PMPs, and directly on platforms like DirectTV, Dish, Magnite, OpenAP, and The Trade Desk.

Four audience categories to target this holiday season

Even Santa needs help organizing his list these days, especially with so many kinds of households to deliver holiday magic to. With the U.S. population growing by roughly 21.7 million people in the last decade, there are more holiday tables to set, more last-minute carts to fill, and more families hitting the road than ever before. Experian Audiences and Partner Audiences help Santa (and your brand) get the message just right.

New this season!
Experian now offers Consumer Packaged Goods audiences to help you reach consumers ready to get into the holiday spirit with seasonal baking, cooking, and other goods.

Here are four households on Santa’s sleigh route and how you can reach them with Experian:

1. The merry makers
2. The list-checkers
3. The holiday hoppers
4. The entertainers

Let’s unwrap the segments within each category.

This group isn’t just celebrating; they’re setting the stage. Whether they’re prepping for Friendsgiving or a cozy Diwali dinner, they’re fueling the season with food, décor, and hospitality. Holiday hosts and entertainers allocated more than $260 on food, candy, and decor alone in 2024, and according to GroundTruth, Saturday, December 7, 2024, was the busiest in-store shopping day across nearly every major category. Grocery store sales climbed 2.1% during the 2024 holiday season, and hosting Thanksgiving cost an average of $431.

Here are 10 holiday host audiences to target this holiday season and how you can reach them with Experian:

1. NEW! Bakeries High Spend
2. NEW! Caterers High Spend
3. NEW! Chocolate Candy Box Bag Bar Shoppers 3.5oz Plus
4. NEW! Chocolate Shoppers
5. NEW! Cocktail Mix Shoppers
6. NEW! Frosting and Frosting Mix Shoppers
7. NEW! Marshmallow Shoppers
8. NEW! Ready-to-Use Pie Crust Shoppers
9. NEW! Sugar Shoppers
10. Holiday Shoppers: High Spenders

How to use these audiences

Santa knows this household is hosting the holiday magic, so he loads his sleigh with gourmet cocoa, festive napkins, and extra marshmallows to make sure the party is stocked with seasonal favorites.

A consumer-packaged goods brand launching a new holiday baking product can reach Chocolate Shoppers, Holiday Shopping High Spenders, and Ready-to-Use Pie Crust audiences to connect with high-intent hosts prepping festive desserts.

This household isn’t just shopping; they’re creating the perfect gifts. In 2024, U.S. shoppers planned to spend more than $1,000 on holiday gifts as online purchases surged, totaling $241 billion between November 1 and December 31. Looking to 2025, according to our latest holiday insights, just 22% of consumers expect to spend more, while 27% anticipate cutting back. With consumer confidence still on an uneven footing and inflation having climbed up to 2.9%, shoppers are approaching holiday lists with greater caution. Experian’s purchase-based data shows mass retail remains a bright spot, with value-driven spending holding strong amid recent dips and rebounds, as shoppers cautiously resume purchases. That makes gift-focused households more deliberate with their choices and reinforces that brands emphasizing value and trust will earn lasting loyalty.

Here are 10 list-checker audiences to consider this holiday season:

1. NEW! Precious Stones Metals Watches Jewelry High Spend
2. Big Box/Club Stores Holiday Shoppers
3. Black Friday Holiday Shoppers
4. Cyber Monday Holiday Shoppers
5. Heavy Buyer/Spenders Holiday Shoppers: In-Store or Online
6. High Spend Gift Shoppers
7. Holiday Shoppers: Apparel (Clothing)
8. Luxury Gift Shoppers
9. Online Coupon Users
10. Post Holiday Shoppers

How to use these audiences

Santa knows this household goes big when it comes to gifting, so he makes sure their stockings are filled with trinkets, timeless watches, and the kind of treasures that twinkle under the tree.

A luxury jewelry brand launching a limited-edition holiday collection can activate Precious Stones Metals Watches Jewelry High Spend and Luxury Gift Shoppers audiences to reach buyers who believe in gifts that sparkle.

This household is on the move. From planes and trains to jam-packed highways, travel is back in full force. In 2024, a record 119.3 million Americans traveled during the holiday period, surpassing pre-pandemic levels. Road trips remained the most popular mode, while air travel hit a new high with 7.85 million flyers.

Here are 10 holiday travel audiences to target:

1. NEW! Bridge and Road Fees Tolls High Spend
2. NEW! Hotel High Spend
3. NEW! Lodging Hotels Motels Resorts High Spend
4. NEW! Passenger Railways High Spend
5. NEW! Timeshares High Spend
6. NEW! Tourist Attractions and Exhibits High Spend
7. NEW! Travel Agencies and Tour Operators High Spend
8. Holiday Budget Savvy Airline Travelers
9. Holiday Travel – Airline
10. Holiday Travel – Train

How to use these audiences

For this household, Santa swaps his sleigh for the train car – booking them on a magical Polar Express journey complete with cocoa, carols, and a golden ticket to holiday wonder.

When brands want to deliver the same magic, a travel package could bundle tickets to a railway’s Polar Express immersive experience with air travel and lodging, activating the Hotel High Spend, Travel Agencies High Spend, and Passenger Railways High Spend audiences to reach travelers seeking an unforgettable holiday adventure.

This household knows how to celebrate from the couch. Whether it’s football, holiday movies, or once-a-year specials, the screen is their gathering place. On December 25, 2024, Americans streamed more than 50 billion minutes of content, making it the most-streamed day in U.S. television history. From dazzling halftime shows to nostalgic holiday classics, entertainment is the heartbeat of the season.

Here are 10 entertainer audiences to target:

1. Cable and Streaming TV Service Subscribers
2. Cable Satellite or Streaming Network Subscribers
3. Co-Watchers
4. Cord Cutters
5. Holiday TV
6. NFL Enthusiasts
7. Paid TV High Spenders
8. Screen Size – Large
9. Sports Enthusiasts
10. Streaming Video: High Spenders

How to use these audiences

Santa knows this audience loves flipping between a holiday classic and the big game. That’s why he delivers gifts for households craving the latest binge-worthy content. It could be a subscription or a big-screen update wrapped with a bow.

These audiences represent a golden opportunity to pair campaigns with highly engaged moments. A beverage brand can target NFL Enthusiasts during a holiday football broadcast with ads for limited-edition game-day packs.

Sleigh your campaign goals this holiday season with Experian Audiences

The holiday season is the busiest time of year for brands – and for Santa. That’s why he relies on Experian to make his list, check it twice, and be sure every sleigh stop is spot-on. Experian’s data, ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset, allows brands to reach people based on demographic, geographic, and behavioral attributes (e.g., websites visited and purchase history). By using Experian Audiences in your holiday advertising campaigns, you can reach holiday hosts, gift-givers, entertainers, holiday travelers, and many more.

Where can you activate Experian Audiences?

Find our audiences available directly on over 30 platforms including:

• Basis
• FreeWheel
• Magnite
• Nexxen
• The Trade Desk
• Viant
• Microsoft Advertising and more

Just as shoppers seek the perfect gifts, with the right strategy, your holiday advertising campaigns can capture the right shoppers. Need a custom audience? Reach out to our audience team and we can help you build and activate an Experian audience on the platform of your choice.

Want to activate an Experian syndicated audience on Meta, Pinterest, Snap, TikTok or on a platform not listed above? Contact us today.

Additionally, work with Experian’s network of data providers to build audiences and send to an Audigent PMP for activation.

You can activate our syndicated audiences on-the-shelf of most major platforms. For a full list of Experian’s syndicated audiences and activation destinations, download our syndicated audiences guide.

Explore our other seasonal audiences that you can activate today.

Activate holiday audiences today with Audigent

Planning a performance-driven push this holiday season? Audigent will build customized deals that combine premium Experian syndicated or Partner Audiences and inventory into a single, streamlined deal ID – tailored to your campaign needs. Plus, our powerful supply-side optimization ensures your campaigns deliver top marks in performance.

Connect with the Audigent team today at AudigentAgency_Brands@experian.com to get your holiday campaign wrapped and ready to go.