We all know that data is getting to be a critical asset for any organization. And, in 2018, it looks like businesses are putting even more budget behind data management.
In fact, in a report compiled by the Winterberry Group, with research carried out by the IAB DATA Center of Excellence and the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), research found that U.S. firms invest more than $20BB every year in third-party audience data and data activation solutions.
The Data Spend
Companies are spending over $10 billion on third-party audience data and even more – about $10.13 billion – on third-party solutions to activate the data. With financial data from several of the nation’s leading commercial data providers, the report reveals that in 2017 companies are spending on data in the following ways:
- $4.3 billion – supporting data integration, processing, and hygiene
- $4.2 billion – hosting and management solutions
- $1.63 billion – analytics, modeling, and segmentation solutions
Of the $10.05 spend on third-party data, omnichannel took the lion’s share of the spend at $3.53 billion, showing that marketers understand the importance of reaching consumers across devices. This included spending on personally identifiable (“PII,” including name, address, email address) and “non-PI” (interests, preference, and certain behavioral) information that’s used to identify customers and demonstrate ways to engage them.
The report’s findings indicate that for any “data-centric” organization, integrating your data investments, media activation and infrastructure should be the top priority.
