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Marketers take notice: Increased spending in retail, restaurant and travel help boost recovery but it’s not back to business-as-usual.

The light at the end of the pandemic tunnel seems to be getting brighter every day. COVID cases are falling, and consumer spend is up 5.2% above pre-pandemic levels thanks to shoppers opting to indulge in the things they want instead of only buying essentials. We’re seeing a sharp uptick in year-over-year (YoY) spend in categories that were impacted by the pandemic like apparel, beauty, and footwear, suggesting that consumers are ready to upgrade their looks to reintroduce themselves to the world.

Cardlytics’ Recovery Leading Indicator (RLI) tracks spend in select discretionary categories to help brands measure consumer confidence during the recovery. We took a look at overall spend from February ‘21 to April ‘21 and discovered that the RLI is showing steady improvement, likely aided by the vaccine rollout and better weather.

Key findings:

• While spend is still down YoY, more and more diners are hitting the town instead of ‘add to cart’ as full-service restaurant spend grew 20 percentage points over the last three months. Delivery sales also slipped during the first two weeks of April, marking a shift back to in-restaurant dining.
• Retail shoppers are increasing spend across the board.  While these customers still appreciate online convenience as pureplay e-commerce spend holds steady, they're also venturing out in-person to omni-channel retailers.
• Certain sectors of the economy are getting a boost from unexpected places: Compared to 2019, spend on grocery delivery and restaurant delivery increased 139% YoY and 104% YoY, respectively, showing us that it’s not only urban populations that are enjoying the benefits of shopping and dining from home.
• Travelers are ready to take to the skies and hit the roads as airlines, hotels and car rental companies are seeing significant improvement amongst core travel categories. In the last three months, airline spend is showing marked improvement with spend growing 32 percentage points.

Though showing promising activity, the travel industry is still wrapped in uncertainty so maintaining flexibility is key. Sasha Trifunac, our VP of travel and entertainment partnerships, reminds us that it’s important for marketers to focus on their brand’s unique value. “These days, travel companies want to show they are a safe way to travel, regardless of when, where or why people choose to travel. This means marketers seem to be hedging their bets on messaging. ‘Clean and Safe’ is still commonly part of their messaging and I don’t think that will drop soon, but they aren’t assuming that is good enough to attract customers. ‘Clean and safe’ is effectively a requirement but not a differentiator.”

With consumers still adjusting to the idea of a post-pandemic life, marketers should tailor their offers and ads to match their respective industry challenges. For the restaurant industry, that means taking things one quarter at a time. “There’s still quite a bit of caution,” says Matt Drewes, Cardlytics’ VP of restaurant partnerships, “so marketing teams are only planning one quarter at a time for the most part. While dining rooms are opening, the industry is suffering from a deficiency in staff, adding a “new” constraint on in-restaurant sales, especially for full-service sectors. Marketers are still prioritizing their reduced marketing budgets on highest incremental returns.“

Bottom Line:

As pandemic recovery continues, the second half of 2021 should look very different than the first. An increase in discretionary spend is a good indicator that we’re returning to pre-pandemic spending levels. But, as rural shoppers have shown, that doesn’t mean people are spending the same way they were prior to the pandemic. Marketers should take a close look at their customers’ full wallet spend behaviors to identify opportunities to acquire new customers, build loyalty and ultimately drive spend.  

2021 is a year of firsts for Cardlytics. On the heels of the company's first two acquisitions, Cardlytics held its first Investor Day on June 10, where the executive leadership team shared their vision to become a leading digital marketing platform. Cardlytics investor relations and transparency remain a top priority to creating measurable impact for all.

To unlock growth, we put the needs of customers first.

“In order to command a sizeable shift in dollars, the market expects automation, simplicity, measurement, insights and rich creative,” said Michael Akkerman, Chief Product and Strategy Officer, ahead of announcing the new self-service product Cardlytics’ Ad Manager. This new and simplified platform streamlines campaign creation and management. It also provides targeting options that drive business and marketing outcomes, like new business acquisition. The Ad Manager provides a robust reporting suite that makes it easier to digest campaign performance metrics, encouraging further investment in Cardlytics. “The Cardlytics Ads Manager lowers operational overhead and enables scaled performance, no matter who is in the driver’s seat.”

Cardlytics matters.

Ross McNab, President of North American Sales, talked further about Cardlytics’ growth opportunities. This three-pronged strategy focuses on:

1. Harnessing a right-to win strategy by delighting the client and delivering incremental return in a high-quality channel with best-in-class service and insights.
2. Unlocking growth segments through new fit-for-purpose solutions aided by partnerships and the acquisitions of Dosh and Bridg.
3. Driving greater value and engagement through product innovation and an evolving bank strategy to address new market segments and budgets.

“Competing in the broader digital advertising landscape is not just an opportunity, but a mandate,” said McNab. He reinforced that the company is in a growth market with digital ad spend in the US forecasted to grow by 25% to $191B in 2021*.

“The smartest marketers demand proven incremental omnichannel return and this is where Cardlytics shines. Not only do we drive efficiency, but also effectiveness. We create topline impact to our clients' businesses, no matter the sales channels.”

Banks are asking for more of what we do best.

On the bank side, Farrell Hudzik, EVP of Financial Institutions, spoke about the refocus on bank partnerships. "Banks want more and differentiated content and engagement,” said Hudzik. “Cardlytics is investing heavily in major US-based bank partnerships by evolving the bank program, expanding offer and loyalty experiences, and enhancing user experiences and engagement. Additionally, Cardlytics is committed to serving and growing neobank and fintech partners and expects to double the number of signed neobanks by the end of the year.” Hudzik wrapped her presentation by previewing plans for 2022 and beyond.

The Bridg acquisition enables the Cardlytics platform future SKU/transaction integration opportunities. Additionally, Cardlytics will evaluate new products and services to add value for bank partners, bring on local content and commerce experiences, and deepen opportunities with non-bank partners.

The value of Open Banking

Peter Gleason, President of International Operations, gave an update on Cardlytics’ international expansion plans and explained the importance of Open Banking, the European legislation that allows consumers the ability to control and opt-in to sharing their financial data with regulated third parties. 

“Open Banking is important to Cardlytics for two reasons,” said Gleason. “Firstly, momentum is growing and a number of markets around the world have implemented or are in the process of reviewing legislation that mandates Open Banking.” A number of these markets are looking at both the UK’s technical and governance model as a template for their own implementation. “Propositions across the financial institution landscape are emerging, however no one has established a scaled solution for account linked offers, and this is what provides us with a competitive advantage.”

Second to the growing momentum, Gleason also detailed the opportunity that lies in the creation of a new publisher network, which would expand Cardlytics’ monthly active users (MAUs) towards a non-bank customer base. He then went on to share the news of last week’s launch of Cardlytics’ first Open Banking solution with Sainsbury’s and Nectar Connect, which is the first step in executing on this new strategy.

Empowering marketers to better reach all their customers.

The information-packed day focused on Cardlytics investor relations wrapped with a presentation by Amit Jain, Founder and CEO of Bridg. “Bridg is the first platform that addresses the long-standing challenge facing brick and mortar retailers; identifying, understanding and engaging unknown in-store customers,” said Jain. “With Bridg, brick and mortar retailers enjoy the same rich insight into consumer behavior, omni-channel targeting capabilities.”

With a database of customer profiles, Bridg allows for the ability to segment profiles, create audiences, and export those audiences to 200+ marketing destinations for campaign activation. And, given that the Bridg platform tracks those audiences and client POS transactions are ingested on a nightly basis, marketing teams can monitor campaign impact on sales with a closed-loop measurement system.

Cardlytics is investing in the future of digital marketing.

Cardlytics has been steadily working towards driving transformation in the digital marketing space. With a strategy in place that incorporates the unique value of both Dosh and Bridg, Cardlytics is on the fast track to monumental growth. Relive the excitement and watch the presentation in its entirety, on demand.

*Source: www.emarketer.com

Atlanta, GA – June 7, 2021 – Cardlytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDLX), one of the largest digital advertising platforms, today announced the appointment of Peter Chan as its Chief Technology Officer. Chan joins Cardlytics from Amazon to lead all engineering and technology as the company continues its evolution and integration following the recent Dosh and Bridg acquisitions. Based in San Francisco, Chan will lead the technology organization as it continues to transform the Cardlytics self-service advertising platform to empower marketers and enhance the bank customer experience. Prior to joining Cardlytics, Chan worked at Amazon as the Director of Product Management and Engineering for its advertising services group, in addition to serving in various leadership roles throughout his 15-year tenure with Yahoo.

“I couldn’t be more excited to be joining Cardlytics, an advertising platform that solves real marketer problems with customer-centric tech innovation,” said Peter Chan. “The recent acquisitions of Dosh and Bridg opens an entirely new dimension of what we can achieve for brands, financial services, and their shared customers. I look forward to supporting the team in finding new ways to iterate and evolve the product, engineer for empathy, and power an even greater, data-safe marketing solution for the advertising community.”

“Over the past 18 months, we’ve expanded our team by more than one hundred employees, with key senior hires - like Peter - joining with experience from top tech companies, including Amazon, Facebook, Pinterest, and Google,” said Lynne Laube, Cardlytics CEO and Co-Founder. “Peter’s expertise in this space makes him an incredible asset as we continue to evolve our platform to create long-term value for our advertisers and financial services partners. I’m thrilled to welcome him to Cardlytics.”

Most recently, Chan was the Director of Product Management and Engineering at Amazon. In that role, Chan was responsible for leading product management, engineering, and applied science to scale while driving growth of the global marketplace for Amazon Advertising. Prior to that experience, Chan was VP, Engineering at Yahoo and served in various leadership roles during his 15 years with the tech company, working across priority projects like the Gemini Ad Network, Yahoo Ad Exchange, and the Yahoo Search Marketing platform all while increasing responsibility within the engineering department and leading global teams.

With the acquisition of Dosh and Bridg, Cardlytics strengthened its technology and marketing services for advertisers to better connect with its engaged audience of more than 168 million monthly active users. This metric puts the platform on par with some of the biggest players in the digital marketing space, including Facebook, Amazon and Google. Cardlytics also has purview into 1 in 2 card swipes across the United States and powers $3.4 trillion dollars in annual spend across its partners.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) is a digital advertising platform. We partner with financial institutions to run their rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen relationships. In turn, we have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money. We use these insights to help marketers identify, reach, and influence likely buyers at scale, as well as measure the true sales impact of marketing campaigns. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, and Visakhapatnam. In March 2021, Cardlytics acquired Dosh, a transaction-based advertising platform. In May 2021, Cardlytics acquired Bridg, a customer data platform. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.

Atlanta, GA – June 2, 2021 – Cardlytics, Inc., (NASDAQ: CDLX), one of the largest digital advertising platforms, today announced it will present at the BofA Securities 2021 Global Technology Conference.

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Lynne Laube, and Chief Financial Officer, Andy Christiansen, will present on Wednesday, June 9, 2021 at 3:15 p.m. Eastern Time and it will be webcast live. The live audio webcast will be available on the Cardlytics Investor Relations website at http://ir.cardlytics.com/. After the event, an archive of the webcast will also be available for a limited time on the Cardlytics Investor Relations website.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) is a digital advertising platform. We partner with financial institutions to run their rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen relationships. In turn, we have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money. We use these insights to help marketers identify, reach, and influence likely buyers at scale, as well as measure the true sales impact of marketing campaigns. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and Visakhapatnam. In March 2021, Cardlytics acquired Dosh, a transaction-based advertising platform. In May 2021, Cardlytics acquired Bridg, a customer data platform. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.

Atlanta, GA – May 14, 2021 – Cardlytics, Inc., (NASDAQ: CDLX), one of the largest digital advertising platforms, today announced it will present at the 16^th Annual Needham Virtual Technology & Media Conference.

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Lynne Laube, and Chief Financial Officer, Andy Christiansen will present on Tuesday, May 18, 2021 at 3:45 p.m. Eastern Time and it will be webcast live. The live audio webcast will be available on the Cardlytics Investor Relations website at http://ir.cardlytics.com/. After the event, an archive of the webcast will also be available for a limited time on the Cardlytics Investor Relations website.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) is a digital advertising platform. We partner with financial institutions to run their banking rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen banking relationships. In turn, we have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money. We use these insights to help marketers identify, reach, and influence likely buyers at scale, as well as measure the true sales impact of marketing campaigns. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and Visakhapatnam. In March 2021, Cardlytics acquired Dosh, a transaction-based advertising platform. In May 2021, Cardlytics acquired Bridg, a customer data platform. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.

ATLANTA, June 03, 2021 -- Cardlytics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDLX), one of the largest digital advertising platforms, will host a virtual Investor Day on Thursday, June 10. The company's executive team is scheduled to begin presentations at 9:30 a.m. ET. The Investor Day is expected to last approximately four hours.

Presenting executives and key topics to discuss will include:

• Lynne Laube, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer and Andy Christiansen, Chief Financial Officer
• Opening remarks
  
• Michael Akkerman, Chief Product & Strategy Officer
• New user experience and self-serve platform targets
• Bridg and Dosh supplemental efforts for the Cardlytics core product
  
• Ross McNab, President of North America Advertising
• Sales deep dive, including integration strategies for Dosh and Bridg
• Progress and opportunities with advertising agencies and CPGs
  
• Farrell Hudzik, Executive Vice President, Financial Institutions
• New opportunities with top bank partnerships and neo banks
  
• Peter Gleason, President of International Operations
• International business update
• Open Banking and new pilot opportunities
  
• Amit Jain, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Bridg
• Bridg platform overview
• Future vision for Cardlytics and Bridg

To register in advance, visit the event link on the Cardlytics investor relations website. The event can also be accessed on June 10 through a live webcast, which will be available on Cardlytics’ investor relations website at ir.cardlytics.com. A replay will also be archived on this website.

About Cardlytics
Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) is a digital advertising platform. We partner with financial institutions to run their rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen relationships. In turn, we have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money. We use these insights to help marketers identify, reach, and influence likely buyers at scale, as well as measure the true sales impact of marketing campaigns. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, and Visakhapatnam. In March 2021, Cardlytics acquired Dosh, a transaction-based advertising platform. In May 2021, Cardlytics acquired Bridg, a customer data platform. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.

Atlanta, GA – May 18, 2021 – Cardlytics, Inc., (NASDAQ: CDLX), one of the largest digital advertising platforms, announced today that it will host a virtual Investor Day on Thursday, June 10, 2021.The company's executive team is scheduled to begin presentations at 9:30 a.m. ET. Presenting executives include:

• Lynne Laube, Co-Founder & CEO
• Andy Christiansen, Chief Financial Officer
• Ross McNab, President of North America Advertising
• Michael Akkerman, Chief Product & Strategy Officer
• Farrell Hudzik, Executive Vice President, Financial Institutions

The event can be accessed through a live webcast, which will be available on Cardlytics’ investor relations website at ir.cardlytics.com. A replay will also be archived on this website.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) is a digital advertising platform. We partner with financial institutions to run their banking rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen banking relationships. In turn, we have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money. We use these insights to help marketers identify, reach, and influence likely buyers at scale, as well as measure the true sales impact of marketing campaigns. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in London, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin and Visakhapatnam. In March 2021, Cardlytics acquired Dosh, a transaction-based advertising platform. In May 2021, Cardlytics acquired Bridg, a customer data platform. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.

There is a vital revolution going on in the digital world. A revolution to add value for customers.

From a smoother experience when online shopping, to the way we use public transport through apps, over recent years we’ve seen significant steps forward in the fintech world, designed to make our lives easier, quicker, more efficient, and better value.

Banking is no different. This year, consumers have demanded more value from their banks and here at Cardlytics, we’re stepping up to make it a reality.

Being part of this revolution means marrying digital developments and a desire for convenience with consumer rewards, it’s what Cardlytics was created to do. That’s why we’re proud to be partnering with our first ever digitally native fintech brand, Curve, to bring them and their customers the full benefits of Cardlytics’ rewards model.

Our model is designed to give consumers the value they want, future partners the engagement they need, and brands the customer loyalty they crave. This ethos is more important than ever as we set our feet back on the high street.

An exciting player in the fintech scene, Curve combines multiple cards and accounts into one smart card and even smarter app. The unique Curve card allows customers to supercharge their existing banks to the 21st century without ever leaving their bank.

Our partnership will connect Curve’s one million UK customers with our growing roster of over 100 much-loved high-street brands, including Pret a Manger, JustEat, FatFace, Harvey Nichols and Cult Beauty, offering an extensive range of rewards carefully personalised to develop loyalty and improve engagement.

In turn, we’ll have a secure and anonymised view into where and when consumers are spending their money and use these insights to help brands identify, reach, and influence likely buyers at scale, to convert browsers into buyers and occasional shoppers into brand loyalists.

It’s a win-win-win for the consumer, Curve and our roster of brands.

This launch is good news for all. There is healthy tension with every partner striving to deliver the most value and best experience to their customers and this partnership and the new developments Cardlytics is making to the platform can ensure differentiation and customer experience is tailored and resonates.

There is a vital revolution going on in the digital world, and Cardlytics is at the heart.

ATLANTA, GA – May 5, 2021 – Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX), one of the largest digital advertising platforms, announced today the completion of its acquisition of Bridg, a customer data platform. Previously announced on April 13, the acquisition pairs Cardlytics’ advertising platform, with visibility into one in every two card swipes in the U.S., with Bridg’s enhanced SKU-level insights. Together, the combined capabilities are expected to power a more comprehensive view of consumer purchase behavior, accelerating the creation of a holistic, results-driven, self-serve, always-on advertising solution for brands.

“With the loss of third-party cookies on the horizon, now more than ever it’s imperative for brands to have trusted partners who take a privacy-first approach while also delivering deep, robust first-party consumer insights,” said Lynne Laube, chief executive officer and co-founder of Cardlytics. “Not only does Bridg give Cardlytics’ advertisers the ability to understand consumer purchase behavior down to the product level, but it does so with shared consumer privacy best practices at the forefront.”

Cardlytics acquired Bridg for approximately $350 million in cash at closing. In addition, Cardlytics has agreed to make two potential earnout payments in cash and stock on the first and second anniversary of the closing based on Bridg’s U.S. annualized revenue run rate. Cardlytics expects these payments could equal approximately $100 million to $300 million in the aggregate.

This transaction was Cardlytics’ second acquisition this year. The first acquisition of Dosh, based in Austin, Texas, closed on March 5, 2021.

About Cardlytics

Cardlytics (NASDAQ: CDLX) is a digital advertising platform. We partner with financial institutions to run their banking rewards programs that promote customer loyalty and deepen banking relationships. In turn, we have a secure view into where and when consumers are spending their money. We use these insights to help marketers identify, reach, and influence likely buyers at scale, as well as measure the true sales impact of marketing campaigns. Headquartered in Atlanta, Cardlytics has offices in London, New York, San Francisco, Austin, and Visakhapatnam. Learn more at www.cardlytics.com.

ir@cardlytics.com