ZIP-based Ad Targeting Launch

In the US, ClearSight Interactive has announced the launch of ClearProfile, an audience targeting suite based on billed as the first of its kind.

ClearProfile spots prospective customers based on offline demographic and psychographic purchase propensities plus geographic factors, allowing advertisers to target display ads. The firm says that 'unlike most of today's behavioral targeting', the product's dataset 'profiles over 40 million online users who have granted permission to receive relevant marketing communications'. Cookies are not used to identify an individual's personal behaviour: instead, ClearProfile models IP Address geo-locations to neighbourhoods using registration data submitted by surfers 'opting in', and integrates it with traditional offline aggregated data indexed at the Zip+4 and census block level. Inappropriate IP addresses such as those corresponding to business locations can be filtered out, the company says, leaving what it calls 'sticky' IP addresses only.

Clients can take advantage of more than 180 audience targeting segments built with the help of exclusive data partnerships; or they can create custom profiles using their in-house data, which can be modelled to find matching profiles among browsers. Pre-defined segments use demographic details ranging from the presence of children in the household and home ownership to psychographic attributes such as automotive preferences, financial investment activity and frequent travel behavior.

Privacy campaigners already have issues with the 'opt-in' process. According to www.mediapost.com , Jeff Chester, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Democracy, says his organization plans to ask the Federal Trade Commission to examine ClearSight's practices.

CEO Tom Alison says the company honors opt-out requests and removes around 1 million people a month from its database. He comments: 'We've invested a lot of R&D to find a privacy compliant way to utilize for online advertising all the data advertisers and agencies use for TV, radio, direct mail branding and market-share oriented advertising. We all know that birds of a feather flock together and that every advertising campaign should allocate some funds to heavy-up on heavy buyer areas. Personally, I like to fish where the fish are. ClearSight can identify the hot spots.'

Co-founder and SVP of Marketing Operation Tim Daly says that 'while online advertising has aggressively pursued individual-level behavior, in reality, relevant, effective marketing can be achieved for many products and brands through traditional neighborhood clustering techniques that have been utilized offline for over 25 years.'

The product will initially be available from Rocket Fuel's targeting and optimization platform and on LucidMedia's demand-side platform (DSP).

ClearSight Interactive is privately held, with headquarters in Foster City, CA and offices in New York and Philadelphia, and is online at www.clearsightinteractive.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.