Scarlett Burks:

And practical ways to boost campaign performance. Welcome to today’s podcast. I’m your host, Scarlet Burkes. I’ve had the pleasure of working with both our guests today for many years. Leah Quinn is product director for Acxiom Audiences, and Linda Harrison is data strategy director and Acxiom Data Guru. I decided I would scan LinkedIn to learn something new about each of them before today’s podcast. I didn’t actually learn a brand new thing, but I was reminded of some things I hadn’t thought of in a while. Linda was previously very involved in Cat Rescue. I understand there’s even a great story about 200 cats in your car at one time. Tell us how you came to foster Siamese cats in your past and what analogies you see between that and your role and data strategy.

Linda Harrison:

Well, thanks for having me, Scarlett. I became involved with Cat Rescue through a series of events where I saw an ad in the newspaper for volunteer request to help out on an adoption day. Then, I went to the shelter and started helping out cleaning cages, taking pictures of the animals. It just snowballed from there. We had a Siamese cat. When you get a purebred animal at an animal shelter, it’s a little bit rare. I looked up where there was a Siamese rescue organization, and then they reeled me in. I ended up doing Siamese Cat Rescue for several years. Acxiom has a great way to find people like me that are easily swayed into helping out with volunteer organizations, and that’s through a series of social, environmental, and government-type audiences. That’s a great way to find volunteers, people who are likely to donate, things like that where you’re looking to expand your audience in that way.

Scarlett Burks:

I’m thinking there are probably many days when you feel like you’re herding cats. Would that be a fair statement?

Linda Harrison:

It is. I did have over 200 cats in my car. I took the seats out. I had a minivan so that I could do more dog and cat rescue. I had them all in individual cages during Katrina. It worked great. Everybody was quiet until the Humane Society director would go, “Meow. Meow.” Then, they would all start meowing.

Scarlett Burks:

Oh, my!

Linda Harrison:

It takes a village.

Scarlett Burks:

I can only imagine. Well, I actually knew Leah was very healthy and a committed fitness enthusiast, quite possibly to maintain her sanity as a working mo of. Four very active kids. But I was also reminded that she was a certified personal trainer. Leah, what parallel would you draw between personal fitness and the fitness of a brand’s data?

Leah Quinn:

I would say there’s probably three basic parallels there that run between the two. One is starting with the basics. In both your personal fitness and determining the fitness of your brand, you need to find your starting point. Your personal fitness: that’s taking walks, basic movement. For a brand, evaluating the fitness of their brand looks like understanding their data better. What are their consumers? Who’s buying their brand? In both those situations, after you get to that starting point, you can then move forward and determine what your strengths are and where improvements can be made.

The second thing that I would add is if you don’t change, you won’t grow. It’s evident in both situations. From a personal level, you can’t keep doing the same thing over and over and expect to continue to get results. A brand is the same way. You have to constantly evaluate if you are achieving your goals. Are you getting responses back to your messaging? If the answer to those is no, then evaluate what you need to do different. For a brand, this could be something as simple as you might think that your target audience is females in their forties. But once you start to understand the fitness of your data, it may find that your target audience or the people responding are actually different. Then, you can course-correct and make changes to your messaging.

Scarlett Burks:

The pandemic was a great reminder to us that sometimes the behavior of your audience changes because of outside influences. It’s not a static thing. You have to constantly monitor it.

Leah Quinn:

Yes, I agree.

Linda Harrison:

Not only monitor your data but also do comparisons over time and then compared to your peer group or the national average for different things. Acxiom has a tool we call a data portrait analysis that helps you understand… If I’m an AARP-type client, I’m going to have a head nod when I say, “Yeah, a lot of your people are over age 55.” That’s not a big surprise. But they’ll find nuggets of information about the health of their data. You do have quite a few people in the 40-to-49-year-old range that you could really leverage and go after and find more people like that. Maybe there’s something unique about the people that join AARP early that you want to try and find more of those types of people.

Leah Quinn:

Yeah. That’s a great example, Linda.

Scarlett Burks:

Then, you had a third thing about data fitness for us, Leah.

Leah Quinn:

Yes. The third one would be to have patience. I know we’re humans. We expect instant gratification, but change takes time. Whether it’s a matter of starting your exercise plan or your personal fitness journey, you need to have patience just like a brand that’s making changes to their messaging and their target audience and trying to improve the health of their brand. Patience is key. It could take messaging the right people with messaging that matters seven times before someone actually clicks on that link. But the consistency in your fitness journey will always pay off.

Scarlett Burks:

Yes. Some 10-day exercise plan to total fitness is probably not going to work. I hear you. I need to commit for the long haul.

Leah Quinn:

Just hang on a little longer.

Scarlett Burks:

There you go. There you go. Acxiom has some new audience offerings we want to talk about today. The first being college students, depending on which study you use, there are somewhere between 16 and 20 million college students in the US at any given time. Deciding where you go to college is just the first step. Leah, why are college students so important to brands?

Leah Quinn:

College students are a market of people that are ready to buy. They’re ready to go out on their own. They’re ready to make decisions on their own, and they’re highly influential. It’s an opportune time for brands to get in front of these people where they’re moving out from their parents. They’re starting to make decisions on their own. They want that independence. It’s a great time for brands to make that connection and start to build loyalty.

I have a perfect example. My bank is a perfect example of this type of building loyalty over time, starting with a college student. When I had graduated from college, I was ready to just be completely independent. I was like, “Well, I’m going to take my car loan out on my own.” I wasn’t getting any banks to agree to that. The bank that I’m with today offered me a loan. It was so important for me to have that independence. Over the years, they’ve continued to nurture this relationship. I tell you what, I don’t think I’ll ever leave them. They’re not even located in Texas. I don’t think I’ll ever leave them, though. They started so young.

Scarlett Burks:

It’s really that incredible opportunity for that first step of brand loyalty and things you associate with that point in your life. It is critical.

Linda Harrison:

Do we have just people 18 to 24-year-old students who are headed straight to college after graduating high school, Leah, or is there anything else on that file?

Leah Quinn:

We have, in addition to college students that people that we know are associated with the university. We also have potential college students. These are people that we know have graduated in the past couple of years or about to graduate but are not connected to a university and have not started school. Maybe people that have graduated and decided to take a year to work. It’s an opportunity for brands to get in front of these consumers as well. Then, we also have non-traditional, so the changing of the times where not everyone is graduating high school and going right off to college. Some people start their career and then decide to go back later in life. We also have coverage for the non-traditional, which is people that are over 25. They may be parents or may be commuting and working and trying to tackle everything on their own, but they’re also included in this coverage as well.

Linda Harrison:

That’s great. That’s a key audience for a lot of brands out there to find not only young adults and try and get early into their habits and thoughts but also help the continuing-education type student either with more benefits, banking opportunities, cars. Think of all the cars that get sold for commuting purposes, or my dream would’ve been to have my parents get me a car when I graduated from high school or college. That would’ve been awesome.

Leah Quinn:

Yeah, I agree.

Scarlett Burks:

Absolutely. Leah, what more do we understand about these college students than just the fact that they are in college?

Leah Quinn:

Yeah. Our Acxiom College student file is awesome because, aside from just the basics that you would find on other competitors’ college file, where it includes what school they’re associated with and their graduation year, and their major, we also have insight into things like their interest, their buying behavior, their spending power, their household income. Maybe it’s a situation where you want to target people that might need a financial loan. All of these other indicators and the data can help with determining who out of this group you want to message and then how you want to message them to appropriately connect with this population.

Scarlett Burks:

Lots of ways to segment that group and really deliver those relevant offers. That’s awesome.

Leah Quinn:

Yes.

Scarlett Burks:

Here’s a question for both of you. According to the US Census, more than 2.25 million people move each month. What was the bigger life event for you? Going to college or moving to a new home?

Leah Quinn:

I would say mine was definitely moving to a new home. It’s a big undertaking. I don’t foresee doing that anytime soon.

Scarlett Burks:

Absolutely.

Linda Harrison:

Especially with all those kids. That multiplies the moving issue, right?

Scarlett Burks:

Kids, pets, yes. The whole deal.

Leah Quinn:

Stuff. Yes.

Linda Harrison:

Right. Think about all the things you had to do when you moved. It would be things like the advertisers are going to reach out to you for your banking, not you, Leah, but everyone else might change their bank. Your grocery store, even your doctors, depending upon the distance of your move, your TV, if you use a satellite dish, those are all companies that want to get in front of you as you’re getting ready to move or as you’ve recently moved, to try and get your business early and often.

Scarlett Burks:

Right. Yeah. If you’re buying new appliances, which you are many times. Or how about rugs and new decor for a totally different layout than you’ve had before? Really big opportunities.

Linda Harrison:

I would say, for me, going to college was a bigger deal because it really helped me separate from my parents and start my independence. I didn’t get that car loan. But I got all my college supplies, my furniture, my books, new clothes, created a new persona for myself. All that was a big deal for me.

Scarlett Burks:

Both, definitely, pivotal life events for us. Is there anything in particular that you hear advertisers asking for, Linda, when they want to connect with new movers?

Linda Harrison:

Yeah. They want to know the distance of that move. Did they move within the same zip code? That’s less of an event normally. They want to know did they move within the same SCF, which is the first three digits of your zip code, which, again, is a little bit less daunting. Or did they move outside of that market area completely? Now, you’re getting all new relationships. I’m not going to drive back. I used to live in Memphis. Now, I live in Arkansas, but Central Arkansas. I’m not going to drive back to Memphis to see my doctor. I’m not going to drive back there to get my haircut. I changed all those relationships to my new locale.

Scarlett Burks:

Leah, what is better about our new movers offering now than in previous years?

Leah Quinn:

With our new movers offering now, we have increased our coverage. We’re looking at adding about 30 to 50% more new movers. This enables our brands to get a bigger reach and capture more of these people when they’re doing such a big event and really getting in front of them at a pivotal point.

Scarlett Burks:

Reaching more movers. All right. Well, it’s crazy, but we have flown through our time together. My wrap-up question for you today is give us a little insight into your background. What song do you most associate with your college years? I guess what would be the top of your college playlist?

Linda Harrison:

I just know that when I went to college, they were having REO Speedwagon come to the college and play. The girls on my floor played it nonstop. I despise REO Speedwagon for that reason.

Scarlett Burks:

Oh, wow!

Linda Harrison:

I have another name for them.

Scarlett Burks:

How about you, Leah?

Linda Harrison:

That’s not nice.

Leah Quinn:

Oh, gosh. I was just trying to think about that. My roommate listened to Cher a lot.

Scarlett Burks:

Oh, wow!

Leah Quinn:

I was like, “I hear that, ‘Do you believe in life after love,’ coming through my…” or whatever that song was, “coming through my head.” I listened to probably a lot of Dixie Chicks, Ready to Run, those types of things to that point of maybe independence.

Scarlett Burks:

Yes. Yes. Well, it will definitely show my age. But a little Kool & the Gang, Celebrate Good Times. That was our class song my senior year going into sending me off into college. That always brings back that time. Most definitely. All right. Well, thanks so much, Leah and Linda, for today’s conversation. To our listeners, you can find all our Data Guru Podcast episodes on your favorite podcast player or at acxiom.com. Thanks for joining us.