Nielsen and DataLogix are working together to push household-level online ad targeting, using Nielsen’s PRIZM demographic and lifestyle data. The move, both companies say, will improve the ability of online advertisers to reach consumers most likely to buy their products and services.

Quest for Household-Level Accuracy

The combined effort represents the first time brand advertisers will be able to use Nielsen’s PRIZM segmentation at a household-level of accuracy in their online campaigns, according to (pdf) DataLogix.  Under the agreement, DataLogix’s Affiniti Data Platform, which enables media companies and agencies to find internet users based on offline behaviors and attributes, has strengthened its online targeting capabilities by adding Nielsen’s PRIZM lifestyle segmentation, which provides precise lifestyle and product purchase segments.

In the new offering, each household in the Affiniti database will be assigned to one of Nielsen’s 66 PRIZM segments, which group Americans based on demographics, lifestyles, shopping patterns and media preferences. Nielsen PRIZM segments - which have designations such as Blue Blood Estates, Young Digerati, and Country Squires, depending on the lifestyle and demographic represented - have been used for more than 35 years by advertisers and marketers in the US to understand who their best customers are, what these customers are like, and where and how to reach them, writes MediaBuyerPlanner.

'Seamless Integration'

Eric Roza, president of DataLogix, says that PRIZM segments fuel the traditional marketing spending decisions of many of the country’s largest brand advertisers. Affiniti’s “anonymous addressability," large scale, and integration with leading agencies, ad networks and publishers, will let Nielsen offer its clients a “true multi-screen segmentation solution for the first time,” he said.

The system will identify users through retail transactions, using cookies and other data. Only non-personally identifiable information will be used, writes ClickZ.

The move is interesting in that marketers have long touted the addressability of online advertising. Now, advertisers are being offered a way to use “surrogate data” to define online users' behavior, MediaPost reports.

Justin Evans, Nielsen’s SVP of marketing and strategy, added that PRIZM will not replace behaviorally based online targeting, but will ideally complement it, giving online advertisers a 360-degree view of the consumer.