Financial services companies’ use of personal data to make relevant offers is a fascinating emerging topic. See today’s Wall Street Journal article on how Visa and Master Card are using credit cards to target online advertising—and there’s also some interest down the road in using information from DNA databanks to target people online(!).

The following post presents some highlights of how American Express is drawing on what it knows from its “closed loop” of cardholders and merchants to present relevant offers on the social sites cardmembers use. The post was my October 5, 2011, contribution to the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) Blend site. The MENG Blend is a blogging initiative featuring bloggers from multiple marketing disciplines and industries. I blog on online marketing and social media.

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