eXelate’s data eXcellence awards: The Winners

We’re excited to announce the winners for the first ever data eXcellence awards!

Thank you to everyone who nominated. Check out all the awards talk on Twitter and see the pictures below and on our Facebook page!

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Top 3 Publisher Nominations:

Matchflow, Manta, TNS

Winner: Manta

Top 3 Platform Nominations:

Media iQ Digital, Videology, x+1

Winner: x+1

Top 3 eXelate Partner Nominations:

Bizo, Nielsen Online Audience Segments – TV Viewing, MasterCard Advisors

Winner: Nielsen Online Audience Segments – TV Viewing

Top 3 Agency Nominations: 

VivaKi, OMD, Xaxis

Winner: VivaKi

Top 3 Non-Advertising Nominations:

American Society of Clinical Oncology, The Polaris Project/Google Giving, Knewton

Winner: Knewton

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The Path to a New Car: A Word from eXelate’s VP of Auto Sales

This is my first blog post as the automotive guy at eXelate, and being born and raised in Detroit, it’s been all about cars my entire life.  Now that data has become a major factor in targeting automotive shoppers, it just made sense for me to marry my auto marketing experience with smart data.

The auto shopper is one of the most sought after people across the web.   For years, marketers have been trying to figure out who is in-market and who are just tire kickers.  Are they looking for new or used or are they still undecided? And how long will it be until they really get serious and actually pick a model they like enough to go to the dealership to take a test drive?  Is that today or 3 months from now?

This is not a linear process like traditional media has taught us.  The purchase funnel we used to talk about is more of a path to purchase that actually resembles fingerprint technology.   Fingerprints might all look the same at a glance, but each one is different.  Everyone’s vehicle buying situation is unique and constantly changing.  Decisions need to be made for an infinite number of reasons; time frames and patterns are impossible to decipher.

Think about it.  Let’s say it’s January and one person wants a bigger car because they just moved to Buffalo, New York from Jacksonville, Florida and think that driving in the snow will be a challenge.  And another person wants to make sure they have a vehicle with the correct towing capacity for that bigger camper they’ve been eyeing.  Both definite SUV shoppers.  One has an immediate need and the other is still in the planning stages.  Yet you need to make sure you are targeting both individuals throughout their decision making process.  That’s where data comes to the rescue.  People’s online habits can give us clues to make marketing decisions more effective.

While OEMs are looking to target new vehicle shoppers, the auto shopping population has almost 3x as many used vehicle shoppers compared to new.

US Auto Sales 2012 (Source: NADA)

When consumers go to auto shopping and research sites, the sites are designed to reach both new and used shoppers, so almost ¾ of your targeting is to the used buying market.  What if you could use a data source that concentrated on new car buyers and over indexed the marketplace to make targeting more effective?  That’s what eXelate has been doing in the auto vertical and that’s why the data is much more effective.

A recent 90 day Korrelate study found that eXelate data reaches half of all new car buyers.   In 2013 alone, you can reach 8 million auto buyers and 34 million that are in consideration.

This is an exciting time to be in the data business, and the auto industry understands how important it is to reach people throughout the entire path to purchase – wherever that road is to a new car sale.

Frank J. Smychynsky is VP of Automotive Sales at eXelate and is based in Detroit, MI. With over 20 years in the world of cars, Frank is our resident auto expert. Click here to get in touch with him. 

Making Mobile Actionable with eXelate and Drawbridge

The digital world continues to get increasingly complex as consumers continue to utilize different platforms (PC, smartphone, tablet) throughout their digital day. Our latest white paper, The Smart Data Manifesto, laid out how consumers continue to embrace a digital lifestyle by consuming media across PC and mobile devices. One of the key tenants of smart data is that it must be actionable – data that can drive scalable action in a way that maximizes a business objective.

Our recent State of the Industry Survey on audience targeting also provided evidence of the growing importance of mobile platforms as a way to target audiences. The research showed that although 80%+ of the digital advertising ecosystem (advertisers, agencies, platforms) prefer to use the PC platform for audience targeting, mobile platforms are now also used almost 60% of the time – a trend that will continue to grow.

The skyrocketing importance of mobile is undeniable and that is why our partnership announcement with Drawbridge is so exciting. eXelate’s partnership with Drawbridge will make eXelate’s smart data actionable to over 600M mobile devices while providing Drawbridge’s innovative technology the ability to expand their segment availability from 800 to over 8000 segments.

We believe that the digital marketing ecosystem will continue to look for companies that are working together to provide multi-platform solutions – those that will go across PC and mobile platforms. Our partnership with Drawbridge is an example of how eXelate’s smart data and analytics combined with Drawbridge’s proprietary technology will make digital media more relevant for consumers and effective for marketers.

We’re looking forward to continuing to innovate in a multi-platform world – mobile, here we come.

eXelate and Bizo Join Data Forces to Create ProSumer Segments

eXelate is excited to announce 10 new targetable segments created by combining eXelate’s most popular premium interest and intent segments and Bizo’s powerful business demographic data (e.g. job function, seniority, industry, company size) on over 85% of the US business population. The newly formed segments, branded Bizo ProSumer Segments, offer a more specific way to target audiences who are likely to buy specific products.

Bizo sources its data from a network of over 4,200 publishers and through various means including registration data, offline business databases, encrypted email addresses, vertical websites and IP data. eXelate’s premium data spans the entire purchase funnel, reaching hundreds of millions of online users worldwide in over 900 demographic, behavioral and purchase intent categories.

“eXelate enables marketers to reach potential customers with highly relevant messages through accurate, actionable and agile 3rd party data. The combination of Bizo’s B2B data and eXelate’s in-market data creates unique, targetable audiences at specific financial levels that can afford luxury items,” says Nancy Neumann, VP of Client Services at eXelate.

“Given the high relative education and affluence level of business professional audiences, Bizo’s audience segments represent some of the highest value consumer segments online,” says Bizo’s VP of Channel Operations Patrick O’Brien.  “Now, by combining our segments with eXelate’s high quality in-market data, we can jointly help marketers reach the audiences they care about most with an even greater level of precision.”

Contact eXelate now to start targeting these segments.

The Smart Data Manifesto: Goodbye Big Data, Hello Smart Data

Today we’re excited to start our series of white papers dedicated to explaining the evolution of Big Data to Smart Data. These set of Smart Data Papers are dedicated to frame our point of view on the need of the digital marketing industry to move away from a constant reliance on Big Data and instead expect and demand Smart Data.

The Smart Data Manifesto is a first in a series of eXelate white papers on the evolution of Big Data to Smart Data. Consumers have embraced a fully digital lifestyle across all screen types – PCs, smartphones, tablets, and TVs. Not only are consumers constantly connected, but they utilize an ever increasing range of services (web, video, social, messaging, apps, email) across screens. This multi-platform behavior has spawned a Big Data tempest and an entire ecosystem dedicated to deriving value from this new natural resource. Unfortunately, Big Data has yet to fulfill its promise of providing a clear and consistent business advantage. The era of Smart Data is here – data that is accurate, actionable, and agile – data that is ready to power smarter decisions. Smarter decisions must clearly drive revenue or market share growth – the primary measures for marketing performance.

This is a first in a series of eXelate white papers that will delve into the different components of Smart Data – accurate, actionable, and agile. These papers will review the why, how, and what of each Smart Data component while also providing best practices for industry professionals.

The time for smart data driving smarter decisions is here – are you ready?

Download the paper here.

Audience Targeting Budgets to Increase by 38%: eXelate and Digiday’s State of the Industry

In March and April of 2013, we again participated in the State of the Industry Survey in conjunction with Digiday. The survey captured feedback from over 650 digital advertising professionals on the importance of audience targeting in launching high-performance direct response and branding digital campaigns. Respondents represented a wide range of industry stakeholders – advertisers, agencies, ad networks, ad exchanges, and demand side platforms (DSPs). The research was driven by the ongoing need to reduce the complexity of the ad-tech ecosystem by providing clarity to the real demands of advertisers and agencies.

A surprising survey insight included the fact that both advertisers and agencies preferred 3^rd party online data as the #1 source of audience targeting data over 1^st party social media, 1^st party custom, and 3^rd party offline data for both direct response and branding campaigns. This result confirms that the audience targeting ecosystem continues to rely on accurate and actionable 3^rd party data pools to power effective audience targeting campaigns.

Key highlights from the eXelate and Digiday State of the Industry survey include:

• Audience targeting continues to grow with more than 80% of advertisers and 90% of agencies, ad networks, ad exchanges and DSPs utilizing the capability
• Over 60% of advertisers prefer 3^rd party online data for audience targeting, followed by 1^st-party CRM data
• Over 80% of the ecosystem reports that audience targeting is an effective marketing strategy
• 3^rd party online data is the highest ranked data set for both direct response and branding campaigns for both advertisers and agencies, outperforming 1^st-party social, custom and CRM data, as well as 3^rd-party offline data
• More than 69% of respondents report they plan to increase their audience-targeting budgets, with an average budget increase of 38%

“Despite the ongoing debate on 3^rd party cookies and data, it is clear that all parts of the digital advertising ecosystem – advertisers, agencies and platforms, increasingly rely on, and prefer the efficacy and reach of, 3^rd party data,” stated Khurrum Malik, CMO (eXelate).

See the presentation:

Click here to view the full results.

Jumptap and eXelate Join Forces to Bring Online Data into Mobile and Across Screens

As Seen On: Jumptap.com

We’re happy to announce a new partnership with eXelate, the leading smart data and analytics engine, to help advertisers deliver highly-targeted mobile ad campaigns by bringing PC-based online consumer behavioral and purchase data into the mobile realm and reach audiences across screens.

In an increasingly multi-screen world, it’s critical for advertisers to think about mobile audience behavior holistically; true intent deciphered through mobile, online and offline behavior. Jumptap is expanding itsAudience+ Targeting Platform by leveraging eXelate’s data and insights on online purchase intent, household demographics and behavioral propensities across 500M online consumers worldwide. As a result, advertisers will be able to target and reach mobile audiences at key points within the decision making and purchase process.

To link to eXelate’s data, the company drops Jumptap pixels within its publisher network. When eXelate receives a request from a user’s device, it sends Jumptap an eXelate user ID, along with an IP address. Once the sync is made, the online data is available to Jumptap whenever it ‘sees’ the user in its network.

“As the world’s content consumption becomes more fragmented across screens, a significant opportunity exists to unite audience behavior for more relevant, holistic messaging,” said Adam Soroca, Chief Product Officer at Jumptap. “eXelate is well-known for its expansive data in the online realm, and we’re honored to be their first mobile partner. This partnership supports Jumptap’s mission in driving a unified audience across screens.”

“Our partnership with Jumptap supports eXelate’s commitment to helping marketers identify and reach their audiences through a data-driven approach,” said Nancy Neumann, VP of Platform Sales, eXelate. “The mobile and online industries are beginning to converge, and we’re thrilled to be working with Jumptap at this exciting time.”

Hybrid Car Interest in the US Growing in Most Urban Areas

Hybrid and electric vehicles are perhaps the most talked about automotive sectors. With every major automotive manufacturer throwing their hat into the ring, as well as a host of smaller companies, hybrid sales are expected to skyrocket over the next decade. Market analyses predict hybrid sales increasing by 400% over the next 5 years, from 826,800 hybrid and electric cars in 2012 to 3,530,000 in 2017.

Until recently, the West Coast has been the home of most hybrid sales. In San Francisco, hybrids make up over 10% of all automotive sales! In anticipation of the expected growth, Sean Cook at eXelate analytics explored the origin of interest in hybrid vehicles today.

As you can see, this map is highly revealing. Hybrid interest is intensely focused around urban areas. There’s the expected interest in San Francisco and New York, but America’s major interior metropolises are also displaying huge interest. Salt Lake City, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Atlanta and others are all displaying unexpected levels of interest in hybrids.

Significant interest exists in the Rust Belt where American manufacturers are ramping up production of Hybrid models. No doubt many people see not only a newer and better technology, but also the hope for economic opportunity as hybrids replace traditional models across the US, much like the rise of the flat screen TV. On the other hand, a north to south belt across the central Midwest has a number of counties, displayed in orange, where we saw no interest in hybrid vehicles at all.

While most hybrid purchases still occur in West Coast markets, the value of a hybrid vehicle is becoming apparent to urbanites across the country, and marketing needs to be focused on urban areas which even a few years ago were unlikely to produce results.

Tax Day is Coming: Top 10 Popular Finance Segments

It’s everyone’s favorite time of year – tax season! With the April 15 deadline 3 days away, we pulled the top 10 most popular finance segments within the Baby Boomer and Gen Y age groups. 3 key findings include:

• Despite charitable donations being the most frequent Gen Y financial activity, they still contribute less than their older counterparts overall.

• Baby Boomers are more interested in Without Children categories as they’re more likely to be empty nesters, while Gen Y takes interest in With Children as they’re most likely starting families.

• Members of Gen Y change jobs much more frequently than their older counterparts, therefore complicating their tax season!

Beyond the Firewall: Why Business Intelligence Matters To Advertising

As Seen In: AdExchanger

Advertisers who fully grasp the interplay between ad tech and Business Intelligence (BI) will maximize customer lifetime value in the accelerating digital world. Here’s why.

In the late ’90s, relational databases and the advent of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) laid the foundation for today’s BI industry. Players like Siebel, Oracle and even JD Edwards pushed enterprises to capture and retain data about their customers to grow their base. Then came a need to analyze and report customer information with BI tools like Cognos and Crystal Reports.

Fast forward to today’s BI market.  One sees a thick ecosystem of software (Microstrategy, IBM, Alteryx, Domo) and services (Accenture, Deloitte), providers who are chasing a multibillion-dollar market dedicated to helping businesses analyze and optimize performance.  BI has evolved from simple reporting to predictive analytics,  demonstrating a hunger to answer as many customer questions as possible – all behind or at the firewall.  It is important to note that a majority of this spend is controlled by enterprise CIOs who are dedicated to maximizing the value of technology investments, but who are also sometimes at odds with CMOs.

Enter the ad tech and digital advertising ecosystem, built to fulfill the needs of the CMO – specifically, the needs of advertisers to improve awareness, consideration, and eventually acquisition of customers through digital channels.  When a potential customer is in the awareness and consideration phase, ad tech nudges the customer forward to acquisition.  But this ecosystem must realize it is only part of the customer journey.  With billions of dollars being spent on improving digital funnel performance from customer awareness to consideration to acquisition, companies across the ad tech industry are wondering if there is more they can do to meet the needs of advertisers worldwide – and not just play outside the firewall.

Imagine a major wireless company; let’s call it Horizon Wireless.  Horizon’s marketing team wants to acquire as many customers as possible, retain them as long as possible, and grow (upsell, cross-sell) their customers – all to maximize customer lifetime value.  In order to meet these goals, Horizon utilizes the ad tech ecosystem to raise awareness and drive consideration for potential customers; however, once Horizon acquires customers, BI plays a larger role in retaining and growing them.

So why should advertisers care about BI?  Three major reasons pop out:

1. Size Matters – The Business Intelligence market isn’t going away.  With analysts sizing the market anywhere from $12B to $30B-plus and growing at double-digit rates, BI will continue to capture enterprise budgets and deepen relationships with both the CIO and, increasingly, the CMO.
2. Expansion – Almost all BI players are recognizing the ad tech impact and utilizing legacy BI/enterprise data with ad tech smart data to drive smarter decisions and accelerate the customer journey.  Why not take first-party customer conversion data and use that to seed online third-party smart data, more effectively targeting many potential customers?
3. New Advantage – Companies that can lay out a strategy and execution plan which demonstrates the right mix of ad tech and BI interplay are poised to flourish, capturing the mindshare and budgets of CIOs and CMOs worldwide.

Some companies are already positioning to take advantage of this trend:

1. Software/SaaS – Industry leaders like Microsoft, Adobe and IBM already see this dynamic and are investing within and outside the enterprise to accelerate the customer journey. Another example is Salesforce’s move to purchase Buddy Media.
2. Services – Players like Accenture and Deloitte are pushing their comfort zones beyond BI and analytics to help clients influence customers earlier in the customer journey.
3. Ad Tech – Companies like comScore are bridging this gap with audience, advertising and digital analytics across the customer journey, while agencies like Merkle and R/GA are moving proactively to carve pre- and post- acquisition inroads with CMOs.  Industry giants like Facebook are already pushing across customer touchpoints by positioning themselves as a one-stop shop for awareness and brand growth.

The time for behind-the-firewall (BI) and beyond-the-firewall (ad tech) collaboration is here. Only those who can bridge the gap and accelerate the customer journey will survive the shifting digital landscape.