NeoEdge Takes On comScore

NeoEdge Networks will announce today a service to collect survey data to support some of the advertising technologies and online games it develops and supports.

The NeoEdge survey, dubbed "NeoMom," takes on comScore and focuses on females ages 25 and 54. The survey topics are geared toward consumer products. Gathering survey data for the first report begins in January.

A series of seven or eight survey questions will appear as a Flash file in an ad slot in games that run on the NeoEdge network. The questions will range from "What toothpaste do you use?" to "Who influenced you to buy the toothpaste?" to "What would it take you to switch?"

The survey lets NeoEdge have a conversation with consumers and gives advertisers a window into preferences of potential customers. "We have the audience and they love giving us feedback and information," said Ty Levine, VP of marketing at NeoEdge, Mountain View, Calif. "Our plan is to share the data with advertisers and brands."

The average casual game player on the NeoEdge network, including Yahoo Games, iWin, iWon, PCHGames, Lycos Gamesville, plays for 45 minutes per session. Players often are willing to answer questions during satisfaction surveys at the end of games.

The questions will appear in what Levine calls the "natural breakpoints" in the game platform where gamers would typically see an ad. It's served up through a Web-browser control in the game with the survey built as a flash object. The platform reads an XML document configured with the questions and/or multiple choice answers.

Pre-programmed code points the insertion technology to the exact point in the game. The platform collects the data and pushes it through to servers and into either the SQL relational database that stores the data or the online analytics processing (OLAP) database analyzes the information and forms the results.

The OLAP database sorts and processes the information into geographic location and other demographics, explains NeoEdge's Chief Technology Officer Dave Simons.

Levine said NeoEdge could expand into other demographics. The survey roadmap includes men and younger female audiences. "Our salespeople have mentioned this to P&G and other consumer goods companies, and we are told the clients' eyes light up," he said.

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