Same data, finer tuning of the application
The more things change, the more they stay the same — or so they say.
Today I read about a “new” application of data by Simmons (acquired by Experian over a year ago). At first, I was intrigued. Once I dug a little deeper, I was more impressed that they got NBC Universal to buy it.
Basically, the announcement (link below) explains that NBC Universal agreed to license “Behavior Graphics” a product that was launched in 2002 (according to the web site.) The “innovation” is that Nielsen TV diary data is now linked to Simmons behavioral data for a more complete picture of the viewer. Methodology can be found on the Simmons web site.
It’s not that I dismiss this segmentation product, it’s just that its not really revolutionary.
Mediamark Research has been selling behavior based “single source” data since they started back in 1979. I put together countless presentations ranking magazine audiences (then cable, and tv, and now, ISPs like AOL) by propensity for lots of different targeted behaviors.
What is interesting is that some clever person decided to link two disparate databases through a common piece of information OTHER than demographics or neighborhood segmentation assignments.
What is good to take away from this is that just about any common field(s) on two databases could potentially be used to link the two together. Of course, this is called modeling 101. It’s not revolutionary, but it is clever.
source: Business Wire, February 7, 2006.
via: 
HighBeam™ Research
COPYRIGHT 2006 Business Wire
