Feature Story

Media planning is a science -- and some say, an art -- that has seen growth and increased discipline over the last few years through the introduction of new technology that has enabled audience segmentation and audience profiling. This means simply that we are moving away from serving ad impressions to serving ads to people who have an interest in seeing them.

If you combine the best attributes of behavioral targeting with a number of different technologies including progressive optimization and the more advanced audience profiling engines you can accomplish what we call audience screening. Audience screening allows the advertiser to identify the audience represented from an impression on a network or a portal and determine if that audience member is more or less likely to act in response to an advertisement than the general audience. If the audience member is regarded as highly desirable, then the ads are exposed. If the audience member is not deemed highly desirable, then they are not exposed to the ad and the next sequential audience member is evaluated for desirability and match to the potential customer base for the advertiser.

The audience screen model actually identifies this information in real time and can be updated faster and with more detailed accuracy. Audience Screening can take into account audience profile data, preferably in conjunction with industry reliable sources such as Claritas or Simmons, and merge this with data referring to the page where the ad is shown, the category of the site and more recent events (i.e., News, et cetera). In addition, the "traditional" targeting metrics such as frequency caps and successive messaging can be overlaid to determine the most effective model for reaching and converting customers while limiting budget exposure.

The technology for audience screening is beneficial to the publishers because it allows them to further segment their audience without the weight of customer surveys and deeper analytics packages being overload in their existing inventory. The technology works simply with a pixel tag being placed on the publisher's site and a simple database feed being established whereby the technology owner can amass a wealth of information concerning past habits and click streams as well as the syndicated data sources being used to categorize the audience members, or potential customers.

The payoff for audience screening is that publishers can help media planners be more efficient. If you can eliminate audience members who will in all likelihood not respond to the advertiser's message, why not? If you can adjust the client's messaging on the fly to assure a higher response rate, why not? It will improve the client's ROI and your standing in their eyes.

Feature Whitepaper

Heath Podvesker, Vice President of Client Services at [x+1], explains why creatives should have access to more customer data and how in-market testing can provide invaluable learnings when coupled with market research.

Download The Paper: "Left and Right Brain Marketing"

Upcoming Events

		iMedia Brand Summit September 10-13, 2006 Hyatt Regency Lake Las Vegas Las Vegas, NV
		DMA06 October 14-19, 2006 Moscone Center San Francisco, CA
		Emetrics Summit October 16-18, 2006 Sheraton Premiere at Tysons Corner Washington D.C
		Forrester Consumer Forum October 24-25, 2006 Palmer House Hilton Chicago, IL

Recent News

"…[x+1]'s technology should feel pretty intuitive to most buyers and planners. The concept of increasing the variables by which an advertiser can identify and analyze consumers is a no-brainer... that takes some real brains to execute.

If you've experienced the effectiveness of behavioral and contextual marketing firsthand, you know there's one real drawback: setting client expectations for conversions and ROI impossibly high. Well, here's a way to deliver beyond what's expected -- the new-fashioned way."
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NEW YORK (August 1, 2006): [x+1], which helps marketers increase website and online advertising conversion rates, today announced that Stephano Kim has joined the company as Senior Vice President of Business & Corporate Development.
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Jason Shulman, [x+1] CRO, interviewed at the Internet Retailer 2006 Conference & Exhibition. "Marketers are faced with a conversion problem...message segmentation by audience is the solution". Download here.