Lotame reported Tuesday that buying of high-quality, third-party audience data rose 25% globally in the second half of 2021, compared with the same time period in 2020. 

The company specifically highlights the business-to-business space in North America, when the year-over-year (YoY) performance skyrocketed. For example, B2B Seniority Executives rose 519%, B2B Functional Area IT rose 339%, and Small B2B Decision Makers rose 43%. 

When asked to cite the most surprising increase, Brian O’Connor, general manager for Lotame’s Data Exchange, pointed to the B2B space.

“The B2B audience products we put in market typically has not been close to the top as we saw in the second half of 2021,” he said. “This is when trying to reach decision makers of B2B type products. This continues in the trend we have seen that B2B marketers are not really digital first, but they are shifting dollars.”

Audience segments related to reaching National Football League enthusiasts jumped 831%. “We found a lot of clients wanting to augment their spend during games on linear TV, he said. “These brands are spending a lot looking to supplement their strategy by reaching during NFL game enthusiast.”

The data used to find an NFL enthusiast come from many sources, he said. They have a Sunday NFL ticket, purchases NFL gear, and more.

Brands interest in audience data for Household Income between $150,000 and 250,000 rose 302%, C-Level Executives rose 112%, Job Seekers rose 118%, Household Income between $60,000 and 75,000 rose 54, and Green Living rose 41%.

In 2021 alone, the U.S. drove overall global data sales, followed by increases in EMEA, APAC and LATAM.

Throughout the year, U.S. Hispanics or Spanish Speakers audiences remained one of the most popular. In the second half of 2021, U.S. Hispanics Parenting spend rose 1,173%.  

As advertisers continue to invest in their audience strategy, they increasingly augment first-party data with third-party data. The IAB State of Data Report 2021 confirms that ad spend is continuously being allocated to third-party audience data, increasing 3.3% to $12.3 billion YoY. 

Individual global markets that yielded some of the highest second half of the year growth include UAE, which rose 295%; Mexico rose 222%; Singapore rose 137%; Japan rose 99%; Brazil rose 62%, and Italy rose 38%.

O’Connor said Lotame in 2021 focused on growing the company’s international markets.