A new study sponsored by behavioral targeting company Tacoda concluded that a behavioral targeting campaign for Panasonic plasma TV sets appeared to make more of an impact on potential purchasers than
did other types of online advertising. For the study, Next Century Media and Insight Express surveyed 1,146 Web users, 375 of whom had been served Panasonic ads--including ads served via
run-of-network buys, contextually targeted ads, and behaviorally targeted ads--and 771 of whom had not been shown such ads. When the respondents were asked whether they had seen ads for Panasonic TVs
within the last 30 days, 36.2 percent of the group served with behaviorally targeted ads replied in the affirmative, compared to 30 percent of the group that had not been served contextually targeted
ads and 22.3 percent of the group served with run-of-network ads. At the same time,
a report released
Friday by eMarketer stated that consumers surveyed by that company indicated that contextual targeting--placing ads relevant to the pages displayed--was more effective than behavioral targeting.
About 62 percent of 1,000 adults surveyed told eMarketer that contextual targeting would be likely to generate a response, compared to only 17.5 percent of respondents who said the same about ads
based on their past behavior.
