At A Glance
Santa may have a sleigh, but marketers have something better: Experian Audiences, delivering accuracy, scale, and 25 new holiday-ready segments to help brands connect with the right shoppers at the right time.In this article…
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:
- The merry makers
- The list-checkers
- The holiday hoppers
- 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:
- NEW! Bakeries High Spend
- NEW! Caterers High Spend
- NEW! Chocolate Candy Box Bag Bar Shoppers 3.5oz Plus
- NEW! Chocolate Shoppers
- NEW! Cocktail Mix Shoppers
- NEW! Frosting and Frosting Mix Shoppers
- NEW! Marshmallow Shoppers
- NEW! Ready-to-Use Pie Crust Shoppers
- NEW! Sugar Shoppers
- 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:
- NEW! Precious Stones Metals Watches Jewelry High Spend
- Big Box/Club Stores Holiday Shoppers
- Black Friday Holiday Shoppers
- Cyber Monday Holiday Shoppers
- Heavy Buyer/Spenders Holiday Shoppers: In-Store or Online
- High Spend Gift Shoppers
- Holiday Shoppers: Apparel (Clothing)
- Luxury Gift Shoppers
- Online Coupon Users
- 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:
- NEW! Bridge and Road Fees Tolls High Spend
- NEW! Hotel High Spend
- NEW! Lodging Hotels Motels Resorts High Spend
- NEW! Passenger Railways High Spend
- NEW! Timeshares High Spend
- NEW! Tourist Attractions and Exhibits High Spend
- NEW! Travel Agencies and Tour Operators High Spend
- Holiday Budget Savvy Airline Travelers
- Holiday Travel – Airline
- 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:
- Cable and Streaming TV Service Subscribers
- Cable Satellite or Streaming Network Subscribers
- Co-Watchers
- Cord Cutters
- Holiday TV
- NFL Enthusiasts
- Paid TV High Spenders
- Screen Size – Large
- Sports Enthusiasts
- 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:
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.
Let’s make your holiday campaigns magical
FAQs
Experian Audiences can be activated on 200+ leading platforms, including social media (Meta, Pinterest, Snap, TikTok), TV and streaming (DirectTV, Dish, OpenAP), programmatic platforms (The Trade Desk, Magnite, Nexxen), and directly within Audigent PMPs.
Experian offers over 3,200 syndicated audiences, ranging from demographic and geographic segments to purchase-based and lifestyle categories. These are ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset for key demographic attributes.
This year, Experian has introduced 25 new holiday-ready audiences, including consumer packaged goods (CPG) segments like Chocolate Shoppers, Ready-to-Use Pie Crust Shoppers, and Cocktail Mix Shoppers, plus new travel audiences.
Yes. If you need something beyond syndicated segments, Experian’s team can help you build and activate custom audiences tailored to your campaign goals on the platform of your choice.
Latest posts
NEW YORK, June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Are Traasdahl, CEO and founder of Tapad, the leader in cross-device marketing technology and now a part of Experian, has been named Founder of the Year by the Nordic Startup Awards. The Nordic Startup Awards' Founder of the Year Award recognizes an individual that has shown exceptional achievements in fundraising, customer growth, financial savvy, and/or leadership throughout the past year. The Nordic Startup Awards evaluates hundreds of players in the startup ecosystem, ranging from investors and founders, to developers and journalists in Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Norway and Finland. Taking place in two stages, each country selects its nominees for consideration for the regional awards which were held in Iceland on May 31, 2016. Traasdahl is recognized for his continuous investment in Tapad as a whole, as well as his dedication to growing and developing Tapad since founding the company in 2010. He has led Tapad from startup through a steady period of growth resulting in an acquisition by the Telenor Group for $360 million in February 2016. "I am truly honored to be named Founder of the Year by the Nordic Startup Awards, among so many other remarkable leaders in the space," said Traasdahl. "That said, this has always been a team effort. We started Tapad with the goal of giving employees unprecedented growth opportunities while developing breakthrough solutions for our clients. This is a win for everyone at Tapad who has committed themselves to these principles over the past four-and-a-half years." Tapad is reinforcing its commitment to fostering entrepreneurship with the launch of their new Propeller Program. Through Propeller, Tapad will host five early-stage companies at Tapad's New York headquarters for a year to set them up for global expansion. In its inaugural year, the first participants will come from Traasdahl's native Norway. For more information on the Nordic Startup Awards, please visit: http://www.nordicstartupawards.com. Contact us today
NEW YORK, May 4, 2016 /PRNewswire/ – Tapad, the leader in cross-device marketing technology and now a part of Experian, has been honored with two iMedia ASPY Awards. Announced on May 3rd at the iMedia Summit in Lost Pines, TX, Tapad's 2016 ASPY Awards include "Best Customer Service" and "Best Mobile Partner." In 2015, Tapad's proprietary technology, Tapad Device Graph™, was named "Best New Media Innovation" and Tapad employee Chris Martin was awarded the "Rising Star Award." The iMedia ASPY Awards – determined exclusively by agency votes – recognize the industry's top marketing technology, media companies and publishers for outstanding service to agencies. The award for "Best Customer Service" recognizes Tapad's client services team and their dedication to helping agencies fully understand their consumers' behavior and achieve the best cross-screen campaign ROI through Tapad's Campaign Pulse and TV Pulse analytics reporting. The "Best Mobile Partner" win recognizes the abilities of the Tapad Device Graph™ to deliver unified cross-screen solutions for the company's partners. "We are privileged to have a talented and dynamic group of people on our client services team, and we are honored to be recognized by iMedia Connection and our agency partners," said Tapad Founder and CEO, Are Traasdahl. "We have always strived to provide the best solutions and the best customer support, so it's extremely gratifying to be rewarded for our efforts. If our clients and partners are happy, we are happy." For more information on the iMedia ASPY Awards please visit: http://aspyawards.com. Read the full press release here. Contact us today
Cross-screen marketing tech firm, Tapad, drove unified campaign; partnered with Statiq to measure cross-screen impact on in-store visits LONDON, March 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ – Carat North completed the UK's most comprehensive digital campaign with Tapad, the leader in cross-device marketing technology and now a part of Experian. Coupled with location-based audience data from Statiq, this marks the first time a UK-company has measured the impact of unified, cross-screen campaign on in-store visits. Carat North served display and video ads to grocery shoppers for the leading retailer ASDA from August through October. During the campaign, Tapad utilized Statiq's audience data to measure which users visited a store after being exposed* to the campaign's ad on multiple devices. The digital campaign demonstrated a lift of 59% for in-store visits when users were exposed to ads on three devices over people who were shown an ad only on onescreen. Those who engaged with the ad were also 411% more likely to visit an ASDA store. Of those who were exposed to an ad, 248% were more likely to visit a store. Impressions served to mobile devices saw the highest success rate with an in-store visit lift of 67%. The campaign leveraged Tapad's proprietary technology, The Device Graph™, which Nielsen confirmed Tapad's cross device accuracy to be 91.2%, to serve ads sequentially on connected devices belonging to the same user. CARAT NORTH: "The ability to know which devices belong to our customer, coupled with the ability to deliver the right ad, and right message, wherever they are and on whatever device they're using, has been something this industry has long needed," said Steve Thornton, Digital Account Manager, Carat North. "We're impressed with the results that have come from the work with Tapad and Statiq for this media-first, and look forward to continuing to offer these solutions to clients like ASDA. Matching unified cross-device capabilities with real insights on campaign performance is an invaluable advantage in the marketing world." TAPAD: "This campaign is a perfect example of the capabilities of cross-device advertising," said Are Traasdahl, Founder and CEO, Tapad. "In addition to reaching users across devices, we're able to analyze campaign results and determine how different combinations of ad exposure, creative type or view frequency affected their decision to visit a location." STATIQ: "As a location data specialist, Tapad is our ideal partner – they are an industry leader and by working with them we are able to determine the impact unified messaging has on real world consumer behaviours," said Dean Cussell, Co-Founder of Statiq. "We believe this type of analysis will significantly aid brands in optimising future ad spend." About Carat North Carat North is a leading independent media planning & buying specialist in digital and non-traditional media solutions. Owned by global media group Dentsu Aegis Network, the Carat network is more than 6,700 people in 130 countries worldwide across 170 cities. Carat defined the sector when established as the world's first media independent in 1968 and is now Europe's largest media network, a position held for more than 15 years. For more information visit www.carat.co.uk About Tapad Tapad Inc. is a marketing technology firm renowned for its breakthrough, unified, cross-device solutions. With 91.2% data accuracy confirmed by Nielsen, the company offers the largest in-market opportunity for marketers and technologies to address the ever-evolving reality of media consumption on smartphones, tablets, home computers and smart TVs. Deployed by agency trading desks, publishers and numerous Fortune 500 brands, Tapad provides an accurate, unified approach to connecting with consumers across screens. In 2015, Tapad began aggressively licensing its identity management solution, the Tapad Device Graph™, and swiftly became the established gold-standard throughout the ad tech ecosystem. Tapad is based in New York and has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit,Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, San Francisco and Toronto. TechCrunch called the powerhouse Tapad team "a hell of a list of entrepreneurs who created some of the most valuable online advertising companies of the last decade." Among Tapad's numerous awards: EY Entrepreneur of The Year (East Coast) 2014, among Forbes' Most Promising Companies two year's running, Deloitte's Technology Fast 500, Crain's Fast 50, Entrepreneur 360, Digiday Signal Award, iMedia ASPY Award, and a MarCom Gold Award. Read the full release here. *Tapad utilized Statiq's audience data to measure which users visited a store during, or within one month of, being exposed to the campaign's ad on multiple devices. Contact us today
Appendix
Here are the complete audience segment names (taxonomy paths) for all audience segments discussed in this blog post.
The merry makers
- Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Bakeries High Spend
- Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Caterers High Spend
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > CPG Engagement > Chocolate Candy Box Bag Bar Shoppers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > CPG Engagement > Chocolate Shoppers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > CPG Engagement > Cocktail Mix Shoppers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > CPG Engagement > Frosting and Frosting Mix Shoppers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: High Spenders
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > CPG Engagement > Marshmallow Shoppers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > CPG Engagement > Ready To Use Pie Crust Shoppers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > CPG Engagement > Sugar Shoppers
The list-checkers
- Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Precious Stones Metals Watches Jewelry High
- Retail Shopper: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Big Box/Club Stores Shoppers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Black Friday
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Cyber Monday
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Heavy Buyer/Spenders: In Store
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Heavy Buyer/Spenders: Online
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Shopping Behavior > Gift Shoppers High Spend Spenders
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Apparel (Clothing)
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Luxury Gift Shoppers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchased Based > Shopping Behavior > Online Coupon Users
- Retail Shoppers: Purchased Based > Seasonal > Holiday Shoppers: Post holiday
The holiday hoppers
- Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Bridge and Road Fees Tolls High Spend
- Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Hotels High Spend
- Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Lodging Hotels Motels Resorts High Spend
- Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Passenger Railways High Spend
- Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Timeshares High Spend
- Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Tourist Attractions and Exhibits High Spend
- Purchase Predictors > Shoppers All Channels > Travel Agencies and Tour Operators High Spend
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Budget Savvy Airline Travelers
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal > Holiday Travel – Airline
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Seasonal> Holiday Travel – Train
The entertainers
- Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Cable and Streaming Service Subscribers
- Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Cable Satellite or Streaming Network
- Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Co-Watchers
- Television (TV) > Household/Family Viewing > Cord Cutters
- Publisher Derived > IAB Television > Holiday TV
- Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Activities and Entertainment > NFL Enthusiasts
- Television (TV) > TV Enthusiasts > Paid TV High Spenders
- Television (TV) > Viewing Device Type > Screen Size – Large
- Lifestyle and Interests (Affinity) > Sports and Recreation > Sports Enthusiast
- Retail Shoppers: Purchase Based > Entertainment > Streaming/Video/Audio/CTV/Cable TV: Streaming Video: High Spenders