• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 16, 2007

It's a safe bet that consumers who gravitate toward a specific Asian carmaker's site also frequent sites devoted to independent movies. Meanwhile, moms who research motorcycles online--at a particular manufacturer's Web site--also tend to have school-age children. These are just two insights gleaned from a month-old partnership between behavioral targeting company Tacoda and comScore Networks, designed to give Tacoda's brand clients a better bead on target consumer behavior.

The multi-year licensing deal, which Tacoda announced Monday, gives the company and its clients access to comScore's panel-based audience and demographic information, often detailing consumer behavior on company sites outside the realm of Tacoda's network of some 4,500 sites.

Now, Tacoda can take its findings--like soccer moms' Easy Rider fantasies--and provide them to advertisers considering placing their ads on, say, Harley-Davidson.com.

"comScore gives a lot of information on marketers' sites, whether ecommerce or information sites, and ecommerce purchases," explained Dave Morgan, Tacoda's co-founder and chairman. Morgan would not say how much Tacoda is paying to license comScore's data--only that it is a "substantial" investment.

Tacoda's ad network--which launched in 2005 for brand advertisers--has access to a slew of top-tier sites, including NYTimes.com, MSNBC.com and USAToday.com, and reaches 120 million monthly Web surfers.

"Our goal is to synthesize the combined information and offer it to advertisers in a way that will help improve their creative approach and media planning," said Curt Viebranz, who replaced Morgan at CEO of the company last July. "Using comScore's data, we are already gaining new insights into how advertisers should think about their markets."

Tacoda faces loads of competition from--among other rivals--Yahoo, which late last year revamped its behavioral targeting platform. Additionally, Microsoft recently began selling marketers the chance to reach targeted consumers across its Web properties.

Tacoda will not charge existing clients extra for the insights gathered from comScore's data, according to Morgan. "It's just added to the package we offer," he said.