Citi is turning its view of how consumers spend into a new advertising business. Drawing on billions of transaction data points, the bank’s U.S. card business has launched Citi Commerce Media, a platform designed to connect consumer brands with its cardholders.
Citi will target ads to customers on its app and website, as well as across other digital properties and social media platforms. For example, a customer with a history of spending on expensive vacations could see a 10% off offer from a travel company while scrolling on Facebook.
Citi has already run pilot campaigns for retail, payments, technology, and health and beauty brands. The company says those trials generated an average 15% increase in spending among customers who saw the ads compared with those who did not.
Sorting Through the Data
Citi said its platform draws on data from 6.5 billion annual transactions spanning more than 700 spending categories. That gives advertisers a broad view of consumer spending patterns and can help identify potential purchase intent, while allowing brands to tailor offers based on customers’ spending behavior.
“Citi now enters the ring with a commerce platform to expand their rewards platform, following the acquisition of Kard, a commerce media and rewards fintech,” said Brian Riley, Co-Head of Payments at Javelin Strategy & Research. “They will run head-to-head with top competitors like Chase and Capital One. This move fits directly into Citi’s new focus on consolidating the card business, in an effort to heighten their focus and take advantage of their longstanding commitment to cards and iconic merchants.”
A Growing Market
Citi is entering a market that other financial institutions have already begun to explore. JPMorgan Chase and PayPal launched advertising businesses in 2024, while Mastercard and American Express introduced similar offerings last year.
Abhinav Anand, Citi’s Head of Value Cards, Lending and Commerce, told CMO Insider that the earlier entrants helped demonstrate demand for these services. Citi plans to compete with established retail media networks as well, including those operated by retailers such as Walmart.
Financial institutions have a potentially different advantage from traditional media networks. They can draw on spending activity across a broader range of merchants and categories, rather than data generated within a single retail ecosystem.
The move is also part of a shift among major card issuers, which are expanding beyond traditional credit card products and building broader ecosystems aimed at increasing customer engagement and retention. Riley’s report, Rewiring the Credit Card Value Proposition: From Best Card to Best Relationship, dives into these very trends.