At A Glance
The Device and Account Sharing (DASH) study, developed by the ARF, provides insights into how American households consume TV and digital media. By combining DASH data with Experian Marketing Data, advertisers can create audience segments based on real-world viewing habits, helping campaigns reach the right people with greater accuracy. This collaboration provides a clearer, evidence-based view of how people watch TV today.Viewers shift between streaming services, live TV, and on-demand content across multiple devices, making it harder to know exactly who sees your message. Instead of wondering if your ads are reaching the right viewers, it’s important to have a clearer understanding of viewing behaviors so you can focus your efforts on the audiences that matter most to your campaign.
Experian has collaborated with The Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) to create new opportunities for marketers. By combining data from the ARF’s DASH (Device and Account Sharing) study with Experian Marketing Data, we’ve developed a new way for you to understand and reach modern TV viewers. Instead of estimating who might see your message, you gain a clearer view of viewing behavior and can align activation with the audiences that matter to your campaign.
What is the DASH study?
The DASH study, developed by the ARF together with the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) and seven industry sponsors, including Experian, provides a detailed picture of how American households consume TV and digital media. This research offers an unbiased and accurate view of media habits, measuring everything from device usage to streaming account sharing.
When this viewership data is combined with Experian Marketing Data, it allows for the creation of unique audience segments. These segments are built on real-world media and device usage, providing a more accurate representation of how people watch, share, and engage with TV content. This combination of identity and connectivity helps marketers understand exactly how people engage with media, technology, and their favorite brands.
“Television viewing behavior has undergone a massive transformation, making it challenging for advertisers to reach their target audience and optimizefrequency. These audiences give advertisers invaluable tools for managing their campaigns in an increasingly fragmented environment.”
ExperianDoug McLennan, Director of Product Management
How do DASH audiences help?
By using the DASH study, Experian developed TV audience segments that reflect how people truly interact with content. These audiences provide the insights you need to align your campaigns with actual media consumption habits, helping you reach viewers with more relevant messages.
This approach moves beyond basic demographics. It allows you to connect with people based on specific behaviors, such as co-viewing, screen preferences, or household streaming habits. The result is a more focused and efficient advertising strategy that delivers better outcomes.
“DASH has established itself as a reliable and unbiased calibration set, a “true North”, for media measurement. Our collaboration with Experian puts the power and precision of DASH in the hands of marketers and advertisers as well.”
ARFPaul Donato, Chief Research Officer
Which audience segments help you target viewers more effectively?
These audience segments make it possible to find specific types of viewers and align your marketing campaigns with their media usage. Whether you’re connecting with people who are receptive to ads, households that enjoy shows together, or individuals who are frequent streamers, you can approach campaigns with greater accuracy and confidence. We’re pleased to introduce these segments and continue our partnership with the ARF, creating new opportunities to help you build effective connections with your target audiences.
Explore some of our key audience segments:
- Ad Acceptors: Viewers who are more open to watching advertisements.
- Ad Avoiders: People who actively try to skip or block ads.
- Co-Watchers: Households where multiple people view content together.
- Solo Watchers: Individuals who typically watch TV by themselves.
- Paid TV High Spenders: Households that subscribe to multiple paid TV or streaming services.
- Large Screen Viewers: People who primarily watch content on large television screens.
- Small Screen Viewers: Individuals who prefer watching on smaller devices like tablets or phones.
How can I use these audiences?
Experian’s DASH audiences are available in your demand-side platform (DSP) of choice, ready for activation across all offline and online channels. This easy access means you can build more effective campaigns without changing your existing workflow.
Using these segments, you can manage your advertising with greater confidence. You gain the tools needed to navigate the fragmented media environment and ensure your campaigns are seen by the right people. This targeted approach helps you maximize the impact of your marketing efforts and achieve your goals. Strengthen your TV planning and activation with DASH audiences.
Are you ready to connect with your audience in a more meaningful way?
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FAQs
Experian combines its Marketing Data with insights from studies like DASH to create audience segments based on real-world behaviors. This allows advertisers to align their campaigns with how people actually consume content.
Audience segments include Ad Acceptors, Co-Watchers, Solo Watchers, Paid TV High Spenders, and Large or Small Screen Viewers, enabling precise targeting based on viewing habits.
By focusing on actual media consumption habits, advertisers can deliver more relevant messages, reduce wasted impressions, and improve the overall effectiveness of their campaigns.
Latest posts
Buyers can now put Experian’s audience and contextual intelligence to work in Google Ad Manager Curation in two ways: through off-the-shelf solutions available directly in Google Ad Manager, or through Custom Curation packages that Experian builds using Google Ad Manager’s inventory supply. Together, these options bring Experian’s consumer data foundation closer to the Google supply agencies already buy, with the flexibility to choose between a ready-to-use solution and an Experian package tailored to specific campaign goals. Why targeting at the source matters Many audience strategies still apply targeting on the buy side, which means signals pass through multiple systems before an impression is evaluated. Each step can shrink the pool of requests where the audience is still recognizable, so a carefully built strategy can reach the auction at a fraction of the scale it started with. Google Ad Manager Curation moves segment evaluation closer to the ad request. When a request matches the selected Experian segment, Ad Manager sends the bid request with the associated Deal ID to the buyer’s DSP. This more direct path can support stronger match and deal-transaction rates, more accurate forecasting, and better access to the audience defined in the strategy. As AI shapes more media decisions, the quality and provenance of the data feeding those systems matter more. Evaluating audience or contextual criteria closer to the source helps preserve the connection between the strategy and the impression being considered. Two ways to get started The right entry point depends on how much customization the campaign requires. Buyers can access Experian solutions off-the-shelf directly in Google Ad Manager or work with Experian to build a Custom Curation package using Google Ad Manager inventory supply. Start off-the-shelf For buyers who want direct, self-service access to Experian audience and contextual solutions. Experian solutions are available off-the-shelf in Google Ad Manager, giving buyers a straightforward way to select the data or contextual strategy that fits their campaign and create packages through Google Ad Manager’s Curation capabilities. Experian Audiences Experian Audiences draw on a deterministic offline identity foundation that represents more than 250 million U.S. consumers and 126 million U.S. households. Buyers can choose from Experian’s Audiences spanning demographics, lifestyle, financial signals, media habits, and household characteristics. That depth adds real-world consumer context beyond digital behavior alone. Contextual Experian contextual solutions give buyers a way to reach relevant environments without relying on identity. Buyers can select contextual audiences aligned to specific interests, categories, and content to inform where media appears. Experian also offers Predictive Indexed, which uses Experian audiences to predict the contextual categories and pages to target based on the likelihood that consumers visiting those environments fall within the selected audience. This gives buyers an audience-informed way to approach contextual activation without requiring identity at the point of activation. Build a Custom Curation package For buyers who need a strategy tailored to specific audience, contextual, and inventory requirements. Experian can build Custom Curation packages using Google Ad Manager’s inventory supply based on the targeting criteria that matter for a campaign. Where off-the-shelf solutions draw on Experian data, custom packages can also incorporate partner audiences and a brand’s own first-party audiences. Packages can combine Experian audiences, partner audiences, a brand’s own first-party audiences, contextual signals, and inventory or site criteria. Experian applies those criteria against Google Ad Manager inventory supply and brings the data, targeting, and inventory together into a single curated deal. This gives buyers a way to combine audience and supply decisions rather than managing each component separately. The approach can be tailored to the campaign. A buyer might start with a defined audience and add contextual or inventory criteria, bring a brand’s established first-party audience into the strategy, or build around specific supply and audience-quality requirements. Choose the path that fits the campaign Both paths do the same underlying thing: they move the audience or contextual decision closer to the ad request, before signal loss builds across the path. Whether a campaign calls for something ready to use or a package built to spec, the result is a more direct line from strategy to impression. Ready to get started? Explore Experian solutions available off-the-shelf in Google Ad Manager or contact your Experian representative to request a Custom Curation package. Latest posts
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