TRA Obtains Second Ad Targeting Patent

US media measurement and analytics firm TRA has secured a patent for using anonymous consumer purchase behavior data to target television and other ads. The firm is currently involved in a legal row with WPP over alleged infringement of another patent.

TRA received its first patent, entitled: 'Analyzing Return on Investment of Advertising Campaigns by Matching Multiple Data Sources', last year. This covers the firm's Media TRAnalytics software, which matches TV data from set-top boxes (STBs) with CPG purchasing data, in order to target ads according to the products households buy.

The dispute with TRA investor WPP arose when the latter's Kantar Media subsidiary launched RapidView, a solution which TRA says has been positioned to directly compete with its own product. WPP denies these allegations.

TRA has requested that the Federal Court in Manhattan instruct WPP to stop selling RapidView. However, earlier this month, Judge Shira Scheindlin ordered both parties to enter mediation before proceeding to trial.

Separately, TRA's new patent - 'Using Consumer Purchase Behavior for Television Targeting' - has been secured to enable the anonymous data collected from households to be used for media planning, ROI and ratings analytics.

Chairman and CEO Mark Lieberman comments: 'This second patent reflects TRA's philosophy to be the innovators in this space. As the leader in developing accountability solutions for the advertising industry, an important strategy in protecting our shareholders' investment is securing patents around the world.'

Web site: www.traglobal.com .

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

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