In the commerce media space, few categories of company are in quite as advantageous a position as those which hold the purse strings.
For American Express, the bet is that its unique position as both a card issuer and a merchant acquirer provides an unmatched view into the habits of high-spending shoppers.
This strategy is the foundation of Amex Ads, a just-launched new platform designed to leverage the company’s first-party transactional data. The goal is to offer advertisers a way to prove incremental sales by reaching the right audience at the right time, according to Jacob King, SVP, head of Amex Offers digital media, American Express, in this video interview with Beet.TV.
Leveraging a closed-loop network
American Express has direct relationships with both consumers and the merchants they shop with. This provides a dataset that encompasses spending across categories, both online and offline.
“American Express is a closed loop network,” King said. “We directly acquire our customers onto our network, but we also directly acquire the merchants onto our proprietary network. That gives us the ability to have this really, really rich first-party data. We see what people spend across industry, across category.”
This detailed view allows for precise audience creation, as demonstrated in a pilot program that began in February.
- For launch partner Marriott, King explained, Amex was able to target users who had booked airline travel but had not yet secured a hotel.
- For luggage brand TUMI, a non-endemic advertiser on the initial platform, AmexTravel.com, the network proved it could track and attribute both in-store and online purchases driven by the ads.
“Because we design all of this with a robust, like control test and control framework, we actually can prove incrementality,” King added.
Expanding beyond the transaction
Mastercard, PayPal Ads and Chase Media Solutions are other financial services companies to launch ad networks.
While Amex Ads debuted on AmexTravel.com, King views this as just the starting point. The company’s long-term strategy is to extend the advertising platform across its broader set of “membership services,” reinforcing its identity as a lifestyle brand rather than just a financial services provider.
“A key differentiator for us is … the fact that we are a lifestyle company, not just a credit card company,” he said. This ecosystem includes dining platform Resy, which has 50 million enrolled users, airport lounges, and benefits with health and wellness partners.
These additional touchpoints represent future opportunities for brands to connect with card members. “As you think about the membership services and all the areas that the touch points that we have with our card members, that is really where we’re focused,” King explained. “And so you can see and you can start to imagine where we’re going to take Amex Ads in the future.”
