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As the days get longer and the weather warms up, spring’s revitalizing energy naturally leads to realignment. For marketers, it’s the perfect moment to reevaluate strategy, especially as consumer behavior changes ahead of summer and brings a renewed interest in travel, outdoor activities, and social events. Making seasonal adjustments to your marketing strategy helps you adapt to these shifting behaviors, capitalize on 2025 marketing trends, and keep your brand relevant year-round.
When it comes to your marketing strategy, spring cleaning means clearing out outdated tactics, optimizing what works, and making room for smarter, more connected solutions. Take the time to ask yourself questions like:
- Are our audiences still relevant?
- Are we activating our data across the right channels?
- Are we collaborating with the right partners and using the right data clean room providers?
If there’s room for improvement, now is the best time to audit, refine, and refresh your marketing strategy before the high-stakes summer and winter seasons. With identity resolution, data enrichment, data clean room collaboration, and omnichannel activation through Experian, you can clean up what’s outdated and prep your strategy for summer success!
Rethink your data and identity resolution strategy
Your data is foundational to your strategy and is a great place to start your marketing strategy spring cleanup. If your customer information is outdated, incomplete, or fragmented across systems, every campaign built on top of it risks underperforming. Before jumping into segmentation, activation, or partnerships, assess the health of your data and identity infrastructure. This is your deep clean and an essential first step in ensuring everything else works better.
With signals disappearing, buying channels proliferating, and customer journeys getting more complex, the key to maintaining addressability is investing in persistent identity, complete consumer data, and collaborative measurement strategies that can weather these changes.
Here are some ways to rethink your marketing data management and identity strategies for the current environment.
Set the data foundation
A solid identity resolution strategy starts with high-quality, unified data. Consider a comprehensive refresh of your customer records by auditing and enhancing what you have for accuracy and depth.
As you’re thinking through spring marketing ideas, it’s an ideal time to enrich your first-party data by appending missing details, removing outdated records, and ensuring you enter summer with reliable, up-to-date profiles.
Data enrichment
Customer data naturally degrades, and eventually, you’ll need to dust it off by supplementing consumer records with current, high-quality insights and attributes. Experian data enrichment can help you seamlessly refresh records with updated demographic and behavioral data, giving detailed insights for precise targeting and relevant campaigns.
With over 5,000 attributes available, covering everything from age and income to shopping habits and media preferences, you can maintain the deepest, most up-to-date view of your consumers through every season.
Offline identity resolution and append
Offline identifiers — like names, physical addresses, and phone numbers — are the most persistent identity markers as they rarely change compared to digital cookies and device IDs. They’re essential for a stable identity foundation, and you can use them to develop a consistent, unified view of each household and individual.
Use this season to audit and tidy up your offline records. Are key identifiers missing? Are you relying on outdated addresses or duplicate names? Experian’s Offline Graph serves as the foundation to help unify those fragmented pieces, resolving identities across households and individuals to create a clean, consistent view of every customer. Think of this step as scrubbing baseboards or cleaning behind the fridge. It’s often overlooked but a prerequisite to a thorough spring refresh.
You can also use Offline Identity Append to append missing identifiers to improve match rates, boost data accuracy, and ensure addressability so that when summer campaigns launch, you’re ready to confidently meet your audience where they are.
Digital resolution via Digital Graph
This next step is like replacing your air filter each spring. You won’t see it, but you’ll definitely feel the difference in performance. Digital resolution ensures persistent, accurate targeting across devices and channels in a fragmented omnichannel environment.
Experian’s Digital Graph facilitates easy consumer identification and connection across the digital ecosystem. Our graph links digital identifiers like mobile ad IDs (MAIDs), connected TV IDs, and hashed emails to consumer profiles. So, when a customer interacts on a smartphone, a smart TV, and a laptop browser, those actions can all be tied back to the same individual or household in your database.
Collaborate securely in data clean rooms to close gaps
Matching partner data within your own secure space, a trusted third-party clean room, or Experian’s privacy-safe environment is an essential next step in your marketing spring cleaning strategy. But what is a data clean room?
A data clean room is a privacy-first way to enhance marketing data in a secure environment that allows brands and partners to match and analyze data without exposing personally identifiable information. It’s almost like organizing a shared closet. You both bring what you have, sort it safely, and leave with something more valuable without mixing up or exposing what’s personal. Secure collaboration enriches your understanding of consumers, boosts match rates, and ensures the highest data security standards.
Here are key data challenges you can tackle through data collaboration—whether in a clean room or across your broader data strategy.
Lack of insights or usable data
Without third-party cookies, marketers run the risk of losing valuable consumer insights. Collaborating with key partners lets brands enrich their first-party data and obtain a more comprehensive view of customer behaviors for informed decision-making.
Let’s say, for example, that an advertiser with sales data but no exposure data struggles to attribute sales to specific campaigns. By collaborating securely with a measurement partner who provides exposure data, the advertiser can confidently link sales to ad exposure and optimize future campaigns with an understanding of who saw their ad and made a purchase.
We anticipate that data collaboration will be a key marketing trend in 2025 alongside signal loss.
Low or no match rates
When businesses handle matching internally, discrepancies like name variations (e.g., John Doe vs. Jonathan Doe) or mismatched identifiers (hashed emails vs. MAIDs) often result in poor match rates. Experian’s identity resolution capabilities, meticulous hygiene processes, resolution logic, and comprehensive identity graphs significantly enhance these match rates.
For example, if a data provider had physical addresses and a demand-side platform (DSP) had email addresses, they couldn’t collaborate with different identifiers. Using Experian Collaboration, however, their data could be resolved with offline identity data from our graph, enabling them to share their collaboration data and improve their marketing efforts.
Data security
When it comes to data collaboration, protecting your proprietary and customer information is non-negotiable. That’s why Experian operates with some of the industry’s strictest data security, privacy, and compliance protocols.
We support identity resolution and data collaboration within the most secure environments available — data clean rooms built to prevent sensitive customer data from ever being exposed. Instead of moving or sharing your raw data, we ensure all records are anonymized before any analysis occurs.
Additionally, Experian’s clean room integrations with trusted partners give clients flexibility without compromising compliance. All solutions are designed to meet GDPR, CCPA, and industry-specific data governance standards, with full audit trails and customizable access controls.
Connect and activate
Once your data is clean, enriched, and resolved, the next step is to activate it efficiently across the channels where your audiences spend time. This step is like putting everything back in place after a deep clean so everything is functional, easy to access, and ready to deliver results.
As you get ready to put your spring marketing ideas into motion, it’s time to streamline your activation approach and make sure your customer data is working hard for you.
First-Party Onboarding
With Experian First-Party Onboarding, you can ship data where needed using flexible data solutions for your activation strategy. This step is like labeling and organizing your freshly cleaned marketing closet, so each audience segment is ready to deploy wherever you need it.
We make it easy to:
- Understand your customers on a deeper level
- Seamlessly onboard your customer data for use across programmatic, social, and advanced TV platforms
- Combine your first-party data with Experian syndicated audiences for enriched targeting
- Deliver those audiences to any destination that accepts Experian Audiences — whether a DSP, social platform, or publisher
- Increase match rates, extend reach, and lower activation costs
Transact in the ecosystem with the Experian ID
To aid in the activation process, Experian ID is a unified identifier that acts as a privacy-safe bridge between fragmented emails, device IDs, and addresses, helping you activate audiences across all media channels.
Experian ID keeps your data protected and connected whether you send it to DSPs, social platforms, or data clean rooms. This allows for secure activation and performance tracking across the ecosystem without exposing personally identifiable information (PII).
Like sealing and storing your seasonal belongings in airtight containers, Experian ID keeps your data clean, safe, and always ready for use.
Use fresh audience insights to inform segmentation
After deep-cleaning your data, enriching profiles, and resolving identities, you’ll want to ensure your segmentation reflects that renewed foundation. Just like clearing expired ingredients from your pantry, spring is an ideal time to toss outdated audience definitions and replace them with insights that are fresh, relevant, and ready to perform.
With Experian’s modern audience tools, you can create smarter segments, power omnichannel strategies, and continue reaching high-value consumers even in cookieless environments.
Our marketing data management tools make it easy to:
- Build detailed, personalized profiles using over 5,000+ behavioral and lifestyle marketing attributes that go far beyond basic demographics.
- Choose from 2,400+ pre-built syndicated segments or collaborate with Experian to create custom audiences tailored to your KPIs and campaign goals.
- Append fresh attributes to your CRM to keep profiles accurate, performance-ready, and reflective of current consumer behaviors and life stages.
Together, these tools help sharpen your segmentation strategy and ensure up-to-date audience insights power every campaign. Let’s break down how smart combinations and contextual precision can further elevate your segmentation.
Combine our identity graphs and Marketing Attributes for sharper targeting
Combining Experian’s identity graphs with Marketing Attributes gives you both the who and the why behind your audience and helps you act on that insight with precision. It’s like giving your closet a total spring refresh — not just purging what doesn’t fit but also organizing what’s left into ready-to-wear outfits.
- Digital Graph + Marketing Attributes: Link real-time digital behavior (like CTV, mobile, or web activity) with rich consumer insights to create segments that perform across channels, from mobile to CTV to social.
- Offline Graph + Marketing Attributes: Tie persistent offline identifiers like name and address to behavioral and lifestyle data, making it easier to plan full-funnel strategies from direct mail to digital display.
This approach gives you the clarity and flexibility to build richer personas, reach more qualified audiences, and target with confidence across any environment.
Activate smarter with Contextually-Indexed Audiences
Spring cleaning your strategy also means letting go of legacy tools, especially those relying on cookies or outdated tracking methods.
With Experian’s Contextually-Indexed Audiences, you can reach consumers based on the content they’re engaging with, not their identifiers. We map millions of websites to real audience segments so you can target high-intent consumers in a privacy-safe, way.
For example, an automotive brand looking to reach high-intent luxury EV shoppers can activate Experian’s “in-market for a luxury electric car” segment. With contextually-indexed targeting, that brand’s ads will appear on websites that over-index for visitors in that audience — such as premium car review sites or sustainability-focused blogs — without relying on user identifiers.
This allows the brand to scale performance safely and efficiently in cookieless environments while achieving strong engagement metrics.
Activate across channels with confidence
After refreshing your data, segmentation, and partner strategies, the final step in your spring cleaning is putting all that prep work into action — efficiently and at scale. Think of this as your final sweep: optimizing where and how you activate your audience to ensure every touchpoint is aligned, accurate, and impactful.
With your updated segments and sharpened identity framework in place, you can reach consumers across display, mobile, connected TV (CTV), and emerging digital channels. Experian provides the tools to activate seamlessly — backed by privacy-safe, high-quality data and flexible integration options.
Third-Party Onboarding: Expand reach with external data sets
Experian’s Third-Party Onboarding capabilities make it easy for brands to augment their first-party data strategies on their preferred activation platforms with easy access to high-quality, activation-ready third-party audiences.
For you, this means you no longer have to manage the onboarding process yourself or worry about compatibility. Instead, you can:
- Enhance your first-party targeting with third-party data that’s already privacy-safe and activation-ready.
- Reach more qualified consumers by layering in external behavioral, lifestyle, or intent signals.
- Maximize scale across your preferred platforms using Experian’s established integrations and ecosystem support.
With Experian as your trusted partner, your audience strategy becomes more flexible, more scalable, and more effective, giving you the power to engage the right consumers beyond your own CRM.
Start preparing now for summer campaigns
You’ve cleared out the clutter, restocked your toolkit, and optimized your data strategy, and now, you’re ready to get ahead of the summer rush. While summer is go-time for high-impact marketing campaigns, now is the time to clean, organize, and prepare.
Another reason to start now? Tariffs, inflationary pressures, and changing consumer confidence are already impacting product demand, budget planning, and go-to-market strategies for the rest of the year. Brands need to be ready and agile in the face of economic turbulence.
So, think of this as your final recap checklist before the season (and the economy) changes: a set of intentional steps that ensure all your prep work translates into real performance when it counts.
Start now to:
- Cleanse and enrich your data: Make sure outdated records don’t weigh down your summer outreach. Refresh profiles with Experian’s latest attributes to stay aligned with consumer behavior.
- Solidify your identity resolution strategy: Transition to persistent, privacy-safe identifiers like Experian’s unified ID to maintain addressability across devices and channels.
- Collaborate with key partners: Run pilot campaigns with trusted collaborators to augment your data and maximize scale ahead of peak season.
- Refresh audience segments: Update personas and segments based on the latest data insights.
- Trial omnichannel strategies: Use spring to test messaging across display, CTV, social, and mobile so your summer creative hits with precision.
- Confirm measurement readiness: Double-check attribution and analytics tools so you can optimize in real time and prove ROI.
- Tailor creative to the season: From backyard barbecues to road trips, ensure your messaging taps into the themes and activities consumers care about most this summer.
Spring is the warm-up. Summer is the performance. Start today to improve your marketing data management and overall strategy, and you’ll be ready to hit the ground running.
Let’s plan your seasonal strategy together
Whether you’re looking for more spring marketing ideas or want to launch a high-impact summer campaign, Experian is ready to help. From strategy to segmentation and data clean rooms to real-time activation, we partner with you to build a marketing engine that performs now and keeps growing through the seasons.
Connect with us today, and let’s turn your seasonal refresh into long-term momentum
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How Experian can help businesses with their data acquisition needs through Marketing Attributes Experian's Marketing Attributes allow businesses to license Experian's data attributes in part or full to provide reliable and accurate data solutions. These solutions assist companies in finding, reaching, and influencing their customers. They are supported by rigorous quality and privacy controls which has earned Experian a #1 data accuracy ranking by Truthset helping our clients reach people based on who they are, where they live, and what they do. Download our Marketing Attributes one sheet Experian has built a strong foundation of consumer behavioral and demographic data with over 5,000 attributes available across over 15 categories and verticals, helping our clients gain deep insights into their consumers. Below we go through five common use cases we have seen using Experian’s data to power various business initiatives. Exploring everyday use cases for Experian's Marketing Attributes 1. Understand areas of the country where your products or services are underserved For instance, a brand offers a diverse range of products that cater to various market segments and audience personas. They seek to gain a deeper understanding of geographic distribution to refine their marketing strategies. Specifically, they aim to identify which market areas are currently underserved, presenting a valuable opportunity for targeted marketing campaigns to boost product adoption in regions that have not fully embraced their offerings. Utilizing Marketing Attributes from Experian, the brand can access detailed data aggregated at the geographic level. This data provides crucial insights into markets where their products have seen limited adoption yet show a strong potential for success based on the preferences of their target audiences. This approach will help the brand strategically direct its marketing efforts to areas with high growth potential. Learn how Swiss Sense drove market-specific growth strategies with Experian 2. Better understand consumers who purchase within a category Brands frequently operate based on assumptions regarding their customers' preferences and interests, yet they may lack the comprehensive data necessary to substantiate these beliefs. Experian's Marketing Attributes provides brands with access to extensive data across 15 diverse verticals and categories. This wealth of information allows businesses to develop a holistic understanding of their customer base, enabling them to validate their assumptions and uncover valuable insights into customer behaviors. By utilizing this data, brands can significantly enhance their marketing strategies, refine their product offerings, and implement personalized tactics that resonate with their audiences on a deeper level. 3. Reach a new segment of the market for a new product offering Introducing a new product to a new segment of the market presents unique brand challenges. Without any historical customer data to draw upon, companies lack vital insights that could help them identify and reach their target audience. This absence of foundational knowledge makes it challenging to understand consumer preferences, craft suitable messaging, or determine the most effective channels for connecting with potential customers. To navigate these hurdles, brands frequently turn to Marketing Attributes for consumer research within the new segment. Analyzing demographics, common behaviors within a geographic region, or previous purchase behaviors can uncover patterns and preferences among potential customers. This deeper understanding enables them to create tailored audience models, allowing brands to develop and activate customized messaging based on common interests, identify channels consumers are most likely to engage by using TrueTouch data from Experian. 4. Create custom lookalike models based on your current customers We have found brands trying to launch an acquisition campaign to look at consumers whose behaviors and interests closely mirror those of their highest-converting customers. However, they often lack the necessary data to find new customers that look like their most loyal base. To address this gap, they turn to Marketing Attributes in combination with Experian’s Offline Graph or Digital Graph, which allow them to pinpoint and analyze the key characteristics and behaviors that define their top customers and reach these consumers on digital or offline channels. Marketing Attributes power the insights into their client’s behaviors and Experian’s Offline or Digital Graph create the linkage to their customer base. Using these insights, the brand can develop a distinct audience model tailored to reflect their most successful customers' unique traits and preferences. This customized approach will help them reach potential new customers who will likely engage and convert. 5. Develop unique audience products We have seen clients use their own first-party data alongside Experian Marketing Attributes and other data sets they own or lease. With Experian's Offline Graph or Digital Graph, they can connect the different data sources together to create a tailored audience solution that meets the specific needs of the brand's clients and the requirements of their market segment. 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Download our Offline Graph + Marketing Attributes one sheet Combining Experian's Digital Graph with Marketing Attributes The uncertainty around third-party cookies in Chrome and the overall decline in signal complicates the industry’s ability to reach the right consumer. Omnichannel media consumption results in scattered data, making it harder for marketers and platforms to understand consumer behavior and reach them across channels. These challenges call for a comprehensive solution. Our Digital Graph and Marketing Attributes solution addresses these challenges by providing identifiers for seamless cross-channel engagement. By adding Marketing Attributes, like demographic and behavioral data, marketers and platforms also gain a better understanding of their customers. This solution uses Experian’s Living Unit ID (LUID) to combine offline and digital data, giving customers deeper insights into consumer behavior, greater audience reach, and improved cross-channel visibility. Transform insights into loyalty with Experian’s Marketing Attributes Experian's Marketing Attributes enable businesses to gain valuable insight into their prospects and customers. Through this deeper understanding, they can deliver personalized experiences while successfully navigating the complexities of data acquisition and privacy. This helpful information allows brands to make strategic, informed decisions that enhance their marketing efforts. Ultimately, these insights foster more substantial, meaningful connections between businesses and their customers, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction. Get started today Latest posts
Setting sail For hospitality and travel marketers, understanding which marketing efforts lead to actual bookings can be a tidal shift. Windstar Cruises—renowned for its intimate yachts and off-the-beaten-path itineraries—wanted data-driven visibility into how digital media placements translated into confirmed reservations. Windstar turned to the strategic media expertise of MMGY, a leading integrated marketing company dedicated to the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries and Experian's marketing data and identity solutions to bridge this gap. Together, they developed a closed-loop attribution system that directly tied digital campaigns to offline passenger bookings. The challenge: Blind spots in the booking journey Windstar Cruises had plenty of top-of-funnel metrics—impressions, clicks, website sessions, cruise quote requests—but struggled to connect these indicators to confirmed reservations. Without that link, it wasn't easy to pinpoint which audience segments were most valuable in their marketing campaigns or accurately measure return on ad spend (ROAS). Traditional attribution methods and limited booking system data painted an incomplete picture, leaving Windstar to wonder which media channels and audience strategies were truly driving revenue. MMGY and Experian: Bridging data gaps to power attribution Comprehensive pixel tag MMGY designed an online-offline measurement strategy and coordinated with Experian to deploy pixels across Windstar's digital media placements. These pixels captured valuable event-level data—ad exposures, clicks, site visits, and more—so that every interaction could be matched back to a future booking if it occurred. Identity resolution and data enrichment Using the Experian identity graph, Experian matched Windstar’s reservation data with its extensive consumer database. This approach provided a precise, individual-level view of how digital interactions translated into real-world sales. By combining pixel data (which identifies who viewed specific ads) with reservation data (which shows who ultimately made a booking), the solution delivered a comprehensive, end-to-end, multi-touch perspective on the customer journey. Advanced audience segmentation Utilizing MMGY’s powerful Terminal audience modeling platform—which integrates MMGY Travel Intelligence performance and intent data, Experian’s consumer intent data, and the client’s first-party data— MMGY in conjunction with Experian’s marketing analytics team developed custom audiences designed to drive incremental traveler growth. These audience segments identified travelers most likely to engage in the unique travel experiences Windstar offers. 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This level of attribution was only possible because we helped Windstar measure and connect the right data points. 13:1 ROAS: By investing $1.48 million in highly trackable, data-informed media, Windstar achieved an impressive 13:1 return on ad spend. Data connectivity gave Windstar the clarity needed to target the right audiences and channels—turning every $1 of spend into $13 of bookings. Actionable cost per booking benchmark: Armed with the ability to map ad spend to individual bookings, Windstar’s average cost per booking settled at $236. With insight into which audiences and placements performed best, Windstar adjusted its strategy in real-time, lowering acquisition costs across the board. High-value reservations: Attributed bookings were, on average, $500 higher in value than non-attributed bookings. By focusing on the right customer segments and messages—determined through precise measurement and segmentation—Windstar secured more bookings and maximized revenue per guest. Terminal Audiences outperformed: For Terminal-targeted segments, the ROAS soared to 28:1 with nearly half the cost per booking compared to non-Terminal audiences. This outcome illustrates how advanced data segmentation and connectivity deliver more profitable guests at lower acquisition costs—further proof that continuous optimization grounded in real data pays off. What this means for travel and hospitality Windstar's success story illuminates a bigger truth for the travel and hospitality industry: closing the attribution loop is no longer optional. In a fiercely competitive marketplace, brands need concrete proof that their marketing investments drive awareness and translates into real revenue. By marrying MMGY's travel-specific marketing acumen with Experian's marketing data and identity solutions, travel brands can: Invest with confidence: Marketing investment flows to the most effective channels and placements based on actual bookings, not superficial metrics. Refine strategies: Real-time attribution data creates a feedback loop marketers can use to iterate on messaging, creativity, and targeting for even stronger results. Capture higher-value guests: Pinpointing and appealing to likely travelers allows marketers to increase booking volume and total revenue per booking. Charting a course for data-driven success By seamlessly linking digital exposure to confirmed reservations, Experian and MMGY gave Windstar Cruises the compass they needed to navigate the complexities of digital marketing confidently. This new level of insight is empowering Windstar to double down on the campaigns, creatives, and segments that move the needle the most. For travel and hospitality brands worldwide, data-driven attribution goes beyond simply understanding what happened—it’s about shaping what comes next. When marketing decisions are guided by real customer journeys and precise ROI metrics, brands can make more innovative investments, foster stronger guest relationships, and chart a course toward sustainable growth. Ready to embark on your own data-driven journey? Contact us to learn how Experian and MMGY can help you create impactful, measurable marketing strategies. Contact us About MMGY MMGY is a leading integrated marketing company dedicated to the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries. With deep expertise spanning research, brand strategy, media planning, and creative execution, MMGY helps global travel brands forge meaningful connections with consumers. By utilizing data-driven insights, cutting-edge technology, and decades of experience, MMGY delivers strategic programs that capture attention and drive measurable results for its clients—ensuring that every marketing investment is tied to clear business outcomes. Latest posts
Linear TV advertising — also known as traditional or broadcast TV advertising — refers to scheduled ad programming broadcasted over traditional channels. While it doesn’t dominate the spotlight as it used to, it’s still a significant force in advertising today because of its vast potential to reach broad audiences and create memorable moments through high-profile events. Broadcast and cable TV, both forms of linear TV, still account for around 24% and 26% of U.S. TV viewership, respectively. As marketers look for ways to combine traditional and digital strategies, knowing how linear TV still fits into the mix can create value for brands and provide new opportunities for broader reach and engagement. This article explores the relevance and benefits of linear TV and how traditional broadcast television can complement digital platforms alongside changing viewing preferences. Linear TV vs. digital channels Even though linear TV has maintained impressive viewership, it’s impossible to ignore the growing influence of advanced TV platforms like OTT (over-the-top) streaming services and connected TV (CTV). These digital channels have changed how audiences consume content, complemented traditional linear TV, and created new marketing opportunities. Each offers unique advertising value, and knowing how linear and certain forms of advanced TV stack up can help advertisers make informed choices about where to focus their efforts. Linear TV Linear TV is regularly scheduled programming on networks like ABC or NBC. The name refers to its linear delivery of content on a set schedule, with all viewers tuning in at the same time. It's great for reaching large audiences during live events or prime-time shows but lacks the precise targeting options available on digital platforms. Targeting: Advertisers can only target broad demographics (age, gender, location) but not specific interests or behaviors. Ad format: Ad formats typically take the form of non-interactive ads, usually 15-, 30-, or 60-second spots shown during commercial breaks. Viewer engagement: Viewing is passive, as ads are shown at fixed times and cannot be skipped. OTT OTT refers to streaming services that bypass traditional cable or satellite to deliver content through the internet on platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Peacock. Content is available on-demand and accessible on devices like laptops, tablets, smart TVs, and smartphones. OTT is flexible, so viewers can watch what they want when they want. Targeting: OTT offers precise targeting using interest, viewing behavior, and location data to personalize ads. Ad formats: Formats can include pre-roll, mid-roll, sponsored content, and sometimes interactive ads to drive engagement. Viewer engagement: Viewers can control their experience with the ability to pause, skip, or replay content depending on the platform’s features. CTV CTV refers specifically to televisions connected to the internet through built-in smart features or external devices like Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, or Roku. CTV is a delivery mechanism for streaming OTT content to the TV screen, making it like an intersection between traditional TV and digital streaming. Targeting: Similar to OTT, CTV allows precise targeting based on viewer data such as preferences, behaviors, and geographic location. Ad formats: Includes pre-roll, mid-roll, post-roll, and, in some cases, interactive ad features like clickable banners or in-ad actions. Viewer engagement: Engagement levels are higher than linear TV, as viewers are often more active participants who can pause or interact with ads. A brief comparison: Linear TV, OTT, and CTV The main differences between OTT and CTV are in their delivery and access. OTT refers to the streaming services providing content, regardless of the device, while CTV refers to the internet-enabled TV screens through which OTT content is consumed. They’re complementary, with OTT defining the content and CTV shaping the viewing experience on the largest screen in the house. Each TV platform has its own strengths. Linear TV is great for reaching a broad audience with memorable ads, while OTT and CTV offer more precise targeting and greater viewer engagement. Advertisers should consider using a mix of these platforms, taking advantage of each one’s benefits to create a well-rounded advertising strategy. Benefits of linear TV in the modern advertising landscape While consumer behavior has shifted toward digital content consumption, the sheer scale and influence of pre-scheduled, real-time broadcast TV advertising makes it a powerful tool for brand advertising within a broad media strategy. When integrated with digital strategies, linear TV can widen your reach, foster brand safety, and boost viewer engagement, to name a few benefits. Mass reach and brand visibility Broadcast TV advertising has a massive reach, especially during live events and news broadcasts. It delivers content to large, diverse audiences at once — something digital platforms, with often fragmented and niche targeting, cannot achieve on the same scale. To put things in perspective, there are nearly as many linear TV viewers today (228 million) as social media users (236 million), according to eMarketer. This helps marketers earn brand visibility and recognition across broad demographics and make an impact on their target audience. Advertisers can also use linear TV to reach multiple individuals in a single household, making it an efficient way to run household-focused marketing campaigns. Linear TV advertising increases the likelihood that a diverse audience residing in one household will see your content. Brand safety and controlled environment One of linear TV's most important advantages is its controlled, brand-safe environment. Unlike digital platforms, where ads can appear alongside user-generated content or in unpredictable and sometimes risky settings, linear TV offers a more curated environment. Advertisers can be confident their message will be delivered in a professionally regulated context so viewers develop a positive, reliable brand association. Diversify your marketing mix Some demographics are underserved by digital channels and are more likely to see ads on linear TV than on an internet-connected device. Top U.S. advertisers obtain more impressions among adults over 55 using linear TV ads, with Baby Boomers spending an average of 5 hours and 46 minutes daily on linear TV. This highlights why it’s so critical to diversify your marketing mix with various channels that help you tap into audiences your competitors may not be. Preferred hosting for major events Digital platforms are hosting more live events every year, but linear TV is still the most successful and reliable medium for major events like elections, breaking news, award shows, primetime TV, and the Super Bowl. In fact, linear TV dominated the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, with major networks achieving off-the-chart ratings and more than 42 million cable viewers nationwide. Guaranteed ad exposure While many digital platforms allow viewers to skip ads, linear TV ads have stayed unskippable and ensured viewers receive full exposure to marketing content. With traditional TV ads reaching as long as 60 seconds, this guaranteed viewership is a chance you can’t miss to capture your audience's attention. Viewer engagement and ad recall Paired with CTV, linear TV is exceptionally good at engaging viewers and facilitating strong recall with high-quality content. A recent study by Brightline found that, even in 2024, linear TV maintains the highest ad attention with an attention rate of 54.5%, surpassed only by premium CTV with a 56.1% attention rate. When viewers are highly engaged with TV programming, they’re also more likely to remember the aired ads, which boosts ad effectiveness and sales potential. According to a Comcast Advertising study, long-form TV and streaming ads are also twice as memorable as short-form mobile digital ads. This study revealed that TV ads garnered more visual attention than digital mobile ads, as participants watched 71% of the TV ads compared to the 30% they watched on mobile. Ads viewed in the TV environment even resulted in 2.2x higher unaided recall and 1.3x greater purchase intent than mobile digital ads. Traditional TV advertising, combined with digital, creates a full-screen, lean-back viewing experience that makes lasting impressions and elevates consumer memory. Current trends in TV advertising While it's true that linear TV is facing a viewership decline as audiences shift to digital platforms, it’s not disappearing entirely. Advertisers are finding new ways to innovate within the confines of linear TV and using advancements in targeting, content delivery, and OTT platform integrations. Free ad-supported television services (FAST) For one, linear TV is finding a new lease on life through FAST services; FAST channels bridge the gap between traditional linear TV and contemporary streaming preferences to reshape how audiences engage with ad-supported content. The main appeal of FAST is its ability to deliver curated, genre-specific programming combined with on-demand options. Roughly 70% of streaming users know about FAST and have used it within the last three months. Unlike traditional video-on-demand (VOD) platforms focused on high-profile originals and on-demand access, FAST channels bring back the structured, live grid format that mimics classic TV viewing experiences. Services like Pluto TV, Tubi, and the Roku Channel have captured significant audience share by blending nostalgia with modern accessibility. These agile, scalable platforms help media companies quickly launch new channels, as they did with NBCUniversal’s recent addition of 48 channels on Freevee and Xumo Play. High-impact events Certain genres, like live sports and award shows, continue to dominate on linear TV, including: The Super Bowl Other major NFL games The NBA Finals The Olympics The Oscars The Grammy Awards The Emmy Awards These events attract massive audiences and are a prime spot for advertisers. However, even live sports are transitioning to OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Peacock. Platforms like Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and ESPN+ are starting to secure exclusive streaming rights for major sports events and changing viewership patterns, which creates fiercer competition for linear TV. On the flip side, marketers have new opportunities in OTT environments to enjoy the reach of traditional TV advertising with more precise targeting. Linear programmatic TV While linear TV faces growing competition from digital channels, it’s adapting to meet marketers’ needs through innovations like linear programmatic TV. This approach automates the buying and placement of ads on traditional TV so advertisers can apply data-driven insights for more precise targeting. Unlike traditional linear ad buys, which rely on fixed schedules and broad audience demographics, programmatic technology allows for greater efficiency, flexibility, and strategic alignment. Recent forecasts show linear programmatic TV growing steadily throughout 2025 and being a valuable transitional tool that combines linear TV’s reach with digital platforms’ personalization and measurability. Cloud TV Cloud TV modernizes the traditional TV advertising experience by combining its established infrastructure with the best features of digital streaming and OTT. Companies like Vodafone and Viacom18 are transforming linear TV into a more flexible and scalable cloud-based service that delivers linear content alongside streaming options. Users can now conveniently access live TV and on-demand content from one interface. Currently, platforms like YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV blend linear broadcasts with OTT streaming in the cloud so that viewers can watch traditional TV channels and access on-demand shows all in one place. This means advertisers can deliver targeted, personalized messages to the right audiences without losing the large-scale reach of linear TV and engage people across live TV and digital content. Addressable TV and advanced targeting Linear TV has always been limited by broad targeting, showing the same ad to everyone, no matter who’s watching. Addressable TV changes the game, letting advertisers deliver different ads to specific households during the same program so brands can reach the right people with messages that matter to them. The key to making this work is authenticated audiences. These are viewers who log in to platforms with verified information, giving advertisers better insights into their interests, behaviors, and demographics. This level of audience data allows for smarter audience segmentation and more effective ads based on interests, demographics, and behaviors. With Experian’s addressable TV audiences and strategic partnerships, you can execute highly targeted and measurable TV campaigns. Using reliable first-party data and universal identifiers (like Unified I.D. 2.0), which link consumer profiles across devices and channels, we help brands reach the right viewers on traditional TV and CTV platforms and ensure the right person sees the right ad at the best time without overexposure. How to integrate linear TV with digital marketing strategies Integrating linear TV with digital marketing strategies starts with aligning campaigns with audience behaviors and preferences. Using data-driven insights, brands can ensure their TV efforts complement digital channels to create a unified, impactful experience. Experian simplifies this process with advanced identity resolution and audience insights. Our identity graph and syndicated audiences can help your brand: Link TV ad exposures to online engagement and create a seamless experience across platforms. Measure cross-channel performance and understand how linear TV contributes to digital outcomes. Use enriched audience data to tailor ads that resonate for relevance and consistency across TV and digital. We’re ready to help you maximize the effectiveness of your TV advertising campaigns. Ready to connect with Experian’s TV experts? Partner with a leader in data and identity to achieve the full potential of your television marketing. Our innovative tools and collaborations with top industry platforms provide exciting opportunities for you to reach and engage your ideal audience. Let us help you transform your strategies and maximize your marketing ROI with our advanced TV solutions. Talk to our TV experts Contact us Latest posts