Starcount

Introducing Starcount's Connect Platform... The future-proofed, privacy-first data targeting platform. Get in touch to find out more. https://lnkd.in/ekXMEnQP

Mind the Gap: Why aren’t young women investing? 🤔 Despite progress with closing the gender income gaps, according to a Scottish Widows, women still face a 30% gender gap in retirement income. This equates to over 2.2 million women in the UK currently at risk of retiring into poverty. It’s time to rewrite this narrative. ✍ Starcount x The Female Lead joined forces to tackle a significant contributor to this issue: the investment gap. Whilst maternity leave, childcare costs, and career breaks all play a role, we also know women invest far less than men—especially young women. In fact, only 34% of women aged 18–24 invest outside pensions, compared to 64% of men 🤯. Early investment can help women offset career breaks and achieve better long-term financial outcomes so we wanted to look at how to make a change.  Starcount data revealed three key young women’s mindset segments. 👩🍼Resilient Single Mums: Focused on immediate needs and stretching every pound. 🎉Low Income & Fun: Prioritizing entertainment and social experiences over saving. 🤓Educated & Comfortable: Ready to save but intimidated by investing. By tailoring messaging to these segments' current priorities, we can create real change. Campaigns designed to meet women where they are—financially and emotionally—are sparking meaningful conversations about investing. ✨ Let’s bridge the investment gap and build a world where women retire with security and independence. 💪💪 https://lnkd.in/ew7PRRGZ

Christmas is a time for giving—so what's topping the wish list this year? 🤔🎁 If you're eager to connect with the audiences brands need to sway in order to land their products at the top of holiday wish lists, or if you're on the hunt for the perfect Christmas gift for someone special, you've come to the right place. Thanks to our unique data capabilities, we’ve identified four key consumer groups that are driving this year’s gifting trends 🔑. Understanding these audiences will help you fine-tune your campaigns to target exactly what matters most to your customers—and maybe even make it easier for you to pick the ideal gift! 💕 💄Glam Getters: Beauty enthusiasts who love the latest cosmetics and stay on top of trends with fast-fashion retailers. 🏠 Festive Nesters: The ultimate hosts, ready to create cozy, memorable moments with friends and family this holiday season. 🛍️ Designer Dreamers: Fashion-forward individuals who seek stylish yet affordable ways to embrace runway trends, even when they can’t splurge. 🎮 Gaming Masters: Hardcore gamers who crave convenience and rely on delivery apps for their lifestyle needs. By tapping into our insights, you can strategically meet these audiences where they are, ensuring you offer exactly what they’re looking for this Christmas. Don’t miss the chance to make your campaign emotionally resonate. 🎄

Who are the winners of this Black Friday? 🚨🤔 And the results are in…. Black Friday has once again proved its value for retailers as it saw a surge in shopper activity with total retail spend growing📈 +27% week over week, as consumers opened their wallets to take advantage of the offers available. We find that keen-eyed shoppers were focused on 👚Clothing (+32%), 🧑🧒🧒 Children’s Retailers (+35%), 📱Electricals & Technology (+40%), and 💄 Health & Beauty (+36%). For Clothing and Children’s retailers, this was driven by a surge in shoppers entering the category, whilst for Electricals and Beauty their success owed to a significant increase in spend per transaction. The winners amongst the UK’s largest retailers are a mix of brands with a brick-and-mortar presence as well as digital natives. For brands such as Nike, Currys plc, and ASOS.com, this reflects a replication of their success from Black Friday in 2023 where they also ranked amongst the top 10 winners. For the online marketplaces such as Etsy, TikTok Shop and AliExpress their stronger 🦾 performance appears indicative of an evolution of their marketing as well as reflecting changes in shopper behaviour and consumers’ embrace of these platforms. Whilst the high tide raised all ships, several retail segments lagged behind the pack with a more modest growth in sales observed across 🏠 Homewares (+2%), 🐶Pet Stores (+8%), and 🛠️Home Improvement stores (+10%). Owing to their propensity for big box out-of-town locations, many of these retailers may not be positioned to benefit from the increased footfall to the UK’s high streets. Beyond stimulating need states from homemakers and pet parents these retailers may need to focus on understanding the real world user journeys, or lean on their digital presence, to integrate themselves into shoppers plans in 2025. Check out our predictions here - https://lnkd.in/eBvvW28G Want to understand more about your brand, category or campaign’s performance over this holiday season? Get in touch 😄. 

Who is at risk of a Revolut-ion? 🤔 🔓Unlocking £5.5bn in Customer Spend With their recent win of a trading license from the City watchdog, Revolut is set to disrupt the investment space by offering UK and EU-listed stock trading directly on their platform. This positions Revolut to tap into the £5.5bn+ their customers currently allocate to other investment platforms annually, according to Starcount data. The Opportunity?💡 Analysis of 13 leading investment platforms shows significant customer crossover, especially with legacy platforms like Vanguard and Hargreaves Lansdown, where Revolut customers deposit £7.5k and £6.5k annually on average. By matching their low costs and convenience, Revolut could entice these investors to consolidate their portfolios on a single, seamless platform. Crypto’s Influence💰 Interestingly, three of the top five platforms overlapping with Revolut—Binance, Coinbase, and Crypto - are crypto exchanges. This overlap represents around 25% of their customer base, signalling the potential to position Revolut as the go-to platform for both traditional and crypto investments. The Key to Winning🔑 Success hinges on understanding customer investment objectives and delivering the tools they value most with efficiency, ease of use, and a comprehensive offering. By leveraging their existing brand traction and customer loyalty, Revolut could become the ultimate destination for multi-asset trading. How far can this Revolution go? 🤓

🚨 It’s Black Friday! 🚨 The biggest shopping weekend of the year is here, and the stakes have never been higher for brands looking to make an impact. 🛍️ 📈 At Starcount, we’ve shared our top tips on how to maximise your Black Friday and Cyber Monday success 🤓💰 . From understanding your audience to standing out in a crowded market, this post is packed with insights to help you crush your goals Read the blog here - https://lnkd.in/eBvvW28G But the story doesn’t end there – stay tuned for what our data reveals about consumer trends, behaviours, and surprises once Black Friday weekend is over 👀

Last year, more than half of shoppers planned to cut back’ according to a YouGov survey, Starcount data reveals that was simply not the case. Brands were effective in encouraging shoppers to open their wallets with over a double-digit surge in Christmas spending last year versus the previous 📈 . Our latest blog post ‘Deck the Halls with Boughs of Optimism🎄’ explores how consumer mindsets and motivations change in the final weeks leading up to Christmas… 🎁 - Take advantage of the say-do-gap  🎁 - Understand the power of offline and online in the festive season 🎁 - Find out how to influence purchases by short-cutting decisions Click here to read more…. https://lnkd.in/eyfT7-Ms

What are the benefits of using Starcount US data? 🤔 ✅ Omnichannel use: Use zip codes for geo-activation to find audiences and target them across CRM, DM & Door Drop, CTV, Radio, OOH, Digital & Paid Social. Alternatively, find Starcount segments in digital buying platforms mapped to addressable IDs. ✅ Multiple Data Sources: Connecting the gap between insight and activation we bring together data from multiple sources including social media, demographics and spend using geography to understand audience behaviours and where best to reach them. ✅ Custom Built audiences: If you can't find what you’re looking for in the extensive taxonomy, audiences can be custom-built to fit your campaign brief and pushed directly to your SeatID creating bespoke segments to beat the competition. https://lnkd.in/e36M7vww

Navigating the New Wave of Third-Party Cookies Is online privacy becoming a luxury? A recent article by Performance Marketing World states a growing trend among publishers is forcing users to make a tough choice: accept third-party cookies or pay for access. Full article here: https://shorturl.at/5d0KX While this approach might provide a financial benefit for publishers, it raises critical questions:  Is it fair to make consumer privacy a trade-off for financial burden?   What does the future of online look like for privacy-conscious consumers? As more regulations for privacy come into effect how will publishers respond? With regulators now stepping in, the debate is heating up.  Striking the right balance between monetisation and respecting user privacy isn’t just a legal challenge—it’s a trust challenge.  Our thoughts? Consumers are used to paying for an ad-free experience.  But the idea of consumers paying for their OWN personal data (that doesn't belong to the publisher) to be exploited, feels a huge step backwards. When the industry anticipated the full demise of third-party cookies, there were a number of exciting and innovative solutions that entered the market - Starcount included. Our blog post Thriving in a Cookieless World explored the pros and cons of each. Read more here - https://lnkd.in/evrPBN39 With this exciting wave of new data solutions, we have proven there are alternative solutions to target consumers based on their real, dynamic behaviours to still benefit from reaching relevant audiences at scale. In our opinion, this is an unfair move from publishers and doesn't champion our industry as respectful of data ethics and the progress made. What are your thoughts? Are we solving a problem or creating new barriers? Let’s discuss...

At our latest Masterclass Future-Proofing Advertising for a Privacy First-World, Rowena Humby, delved into the deeper meaning of “Data is the new oil” by Clive Humby OBE. Normally understood as data is valuable, the additional definition speaks to the process of extracting and refining data to unlock its true potential. Just as oil needs to be processed and refined, data needs an innovative refinement to produce actionable insights. The approach of Geo-Behavioural does just that for media and will empower brands in the future to connect with their audiences at scale on a more meaningful level.