• by February 13, 2001

By Adam Bernard

Possibly more than any other profession, advertisers are dependent on demographic research. They're always looking for new ways to find their target audience. It's a tough task, and one of the truest locators of that audience is the U.S. Census. Where else can you find out how the dollars spent per household on video items in Jones county, GA compare to the national average?

The only drawback is that the Census only happens once in a decade.

This year, however, advertisers are in luck. The results of the United States Census 2000 will be released by the U.S. Census Bureau in phases, starting next month and continuing through March 2003. And one website plans to make it available to marketers free of charge.

Currently, FreeDemographics.com, a product of SRC, offers unlimited access to U.S. Census 1990 data and U.S. Census 2000 Dress Rehearsal Data and plans to make the new reports available on the site a quickly as they are released.

Olivia Duane, executive VP of SRC, says, "the data is not available at a household level, but at a neighborhood level and above, so companies wanting to better understand their market can see how neighborhoods are changing and their makeup."

"There's no degradation of integrity, it's simply more accessible," she says. "We're not polluting the end user with more information than they need, just providing them with the right information. Anyone can better understand the makeup of the market they're going after."

- Adam Bernard may be reached at AdamBernard@mediapost.com