This article covers:
• What Marketable State means and why it matters
• The three sources StellarAlgo uses to determine marketability
• How Canadian privacy rules (CASL) affect marketability
• What happens when no marketability data is available
• Where to find Marketable State in Segment Builder
TL; DR
Marketable State tells you whether a fan has given consent to receive marketing communications. StellarAlgo determines this from up to three sources: your ESP subscription data, customer files you provide directly, and (for Canadian properties) ticket purchase history. If none of these sources have consent data for a fan, that fan is automatically marked as ‘Do Not Contact’ as a safety measure.
What Is Marketable State?
Marketable State is a field on every customer record in StellarAlgo that indicates whether that person has given consent to receive marketing emails. It's used to help you build segments that respect your fans' communication preferences.
You'll see one of these values:
Express Consent: The fan has actively subscribed or opted in. They're marketable.
Implicit Consent: Canadian properties only. The fan purchased a ticket within the last two years, which counts as implied consent under CASL.
Not Marketable: The fan has unsubscribed, or their consent has lapsed.
Do Not Contact: No consent data exists for this fan. StellarAlgo defaults to ‘Do Not Contact’ as a safety measure to protect you from contacting fans without known consent.
Where Does Marketable State Come From?
StellarAlgo calculates Marketable State from up to three data sources. If a fan has data from multiple sources, the most specific source takes priority.
Data Source | How Marketable State Is Determined | Possible Values |
ESP Subscription Activity | Based on the fan's most recent subscribe or unsubscribe event in your ESP (e.g., Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Braze, Constant Contact, HubSpot). | Express Consent (subscribed) |
Customer Source File | If your organization provides a customer file with consent data (e.g., an NBA Fan Asset or similar CRM export), StellarAlgo uses the marketable state values you supply directly. | Express Consent |
Ticket Purchases | Under Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL), a ticket purchase within the last two years counts as implied consent. This applies to both primary buyers and secondary holders (resale or forward). | Implicit Consent (purchased in last 2 years) |
Other data sources in StellarAlgo - retail, CRM, food & beverage, and web activity - do not currently contribute to Marketable State. If a fan is only known through one of these sources, their Marketable State will be NULL.
The ‘Do Not Contact’ Default
Important: If a fan has a valid email address but no marketability data from any of the three sources above, StellarAlgo automatically assigns them a Marketable State of ‘Do Not Contact’. This is a safety-first approach to ensure you never accidentally email fans who haven't given consent.
This means that if your organization has not implemented ESP subscription tracking or provided a customer source file with consent data, all your fans will show as ‘Do Not Contact’, even if they may be subscribed in your ESP. If this looks wrong, contact your StellarAlgo Customer Success Manager to confirm that your marketability data sources are properly configured.
Per-Property Marketable State
If your organization operates multiple properties (teams, brands, or venues), a fan's Marketable State is tracked separately for each property. A fan might be subscribed for one team's communications but unsubscribed from another.
In Segment Builder, you can filter on overall Marketable State (across all properties) or on Email Marketable State for a specific property. See the ‘Where to Find It’ section below.
SMS Opt-In
In addition to email marketability, StellarAlgo also tracks SMS opt-in status for each property. SMS consent is separate from email consent. A fan can be marketable for email but not opted in for SMS, and vice versa.
You can filter on SMS Opt In under Customer → Property in Segment Builder.
Where to Find It in Segment Builder
There are three places you'll find consent-related filters in Segment Builder:
Customer → Compliance → Marketable State: This is the overall Marketable State across all properties. Use it when you want to filter your entire audience by consent status.
Customer → Property → Email Marketable State: This is the per-property Marketable State. Use it when you need to filter by consent status for a specific team or brand.
Customer → Property → SMS Opt In: This filters by SMS consent for a specific property.