Citi has announced the launch of a new commerce media platform designed to help brands deliver more personalised advertising to its US credit card customers.

Citi Commerce Media is a platform that combines first-party transaction data, digital advertising and campaign measurement to enable brands to target consumers based on spending behaviour across categories including retail, travel, dining, entertainment and everyday purchases.

The bank said the platform will leverage insights from more than 70 million US customers and 6.5 billion annual card transactions spanning over 700 spending categories, to help advertisers identify emerging consumer trends and deliver more relevant offers.

The platform will also benefit from Citi's planned acquisition of rewards platform Kard, which the bank said will strengthen its commerce media capabilities and create additional opportunities for brands to engage customers through targeted rewards and loyalty programmes.

Citi Commerce Media offers three core capabilities. It uses transaction data to identify high-intent audiences and purchasing trends, enables brands to reach customers across Citi's digital channels including its website and mobile banking app, and provides closed-loop measurement to assess campaign performance and return on advertising spend.

According to Citi, early campaigns across retail, payments, technology, beauty and wellness sectors have demonstrated promising results, with one online retailer seeing a fivefold increase in incremental return on advertising spend.

Abhinav Anand, head of Value Cards, Lending and Commerce at Citi, said the launch forms part of the bank's wider digital strategy.

“Citi Commerce Media is an important step in advancing Citi's strategy to create more connected, personalised experiences across our commerce ecosystem,” he said. “By leveraging Citi's scale, transaction insights and measurement capabilities, we can help our partners better anticipate consumer needs, reach the right audience at the right moment and drive strong business outcomes while delivering more relevant offers and ads for customers.”

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