Equifax said Wednesday it will roll its marketing capabilities, which include credit marketing and financial services data from IXI Services, into a single service offering called Equifax Data-Driven Marketing (DDM).
In doing so, the company hopes to make it easier for marketers to work with its household economic data and tools for analytics, audience segmentation, onboarding and targeting.
“There have been pieces of the equation in various silos across organizations,” said Mykolas Rambus, general manager of DDM. “There’s benefit for our clients in putting it all together.”
DDM simplifies Equifax’s service offering to marketers by making it easier for them to deploy all of its data for omnichannel campaigns in a privacy-compliant way. Equifax’s consumer credit data is heavily regulated by financial bureaus.
“One of the challenges in credit marketing is to not run afoul of guidelines,” Rambus said. “Data is the quality ingredient in the meal, but it needs to be handled by appropriate individuals.”
Marketers had asked for more unified access to Equifax’s marketing capabilities and the ability to activate it across channels, Rambus said. Offering a single point of access to all of its data simplifies Equifax’s offer for marketers.
Equifax also wants to send the message that it is serious about its position as a marketing data provider.
“We want to make it easy for our clients to continue working with us in the various ways they already do,” Rambus said. “This provides them easier access to the assets we have.”
For marketers already working with IXI Services or Equifax, not much will change. Equifax works with many marketers directly but also partners with agencies, consultancies and platforms.
“If you’re working with us for our marketing capabilities, you’re working with DDM,” Rambus said. “It’s way we’re aligning ourselves going forward.”
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Equifax sits in a unique spot when it comes to financial data.
IXI Services, which Equifax acquired in 2011, has longstanding and direct relationships with financial services providers. Unlike other third-party data aggregators like Acxiom and Experian, which gather limited household income and financial data through consumer surveys, IXI receives data directly from financial institutions, which it can segment in a more granular way. IXI cleans and aggregates that data for marketers to deploy in their campaigns.
As one of the three largest consumer credit bureaus in the US, Equifax sits on 820 million global consumer credit profiles, from which it can aggregate insights to use when creating audiences for marketers.
“DDM is about the holistic view that Equifax brings to the conversation about how marketing is changing and can succeed going forward,” Rambus said. “This continues to deepen our commitment and visibility within the broader marketing ecosystem.”
