• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 26, 2011

As advertisers begin to focus on loyal and affluent consumers, Martini Media will launch a private advertising exchange that targets online ads to households with an annual income of more than $100,000. The platform -- MartiniLIVE -- will attempt to reach consumers buying and sharing the most content online.

Luxury brands are not the only companies that target affluent consumers. Procter & Gamble publicly announced that it would woo consumers making substantial incomes because these consumers buy multiples of one or more items, according to Skip Brand, Martini CEO. "Sometimes this could be a teacher making $42,000 and a plumber making $62,000 raising three kids, and they buy multiple things at once to save time," he said.

Martini ran a test during the past year with a handful of brands, with about $2 million in advertising through the exchange prior to the launch. Brand said the platform provides advertisers with a network to place rich media ads through real-time bidding, targeting both by demographics and context. The platform also provides analytics.

The start-up supported by 20 sales reps limits the sites to 1,000 publishers on the network. Last quarter, the company kicked out more sites than it added. "We kick out sites without a high household income," he said.

For advertisers, the private exchange introduces automated buying for brands wanting to target affluent households. The trading desk can access the lion's share of inventory across the private exchange with RTB on ads using a self-serve platform across the network.

The economy continues to lead U.S. brands toward those who buy more. In August, a study released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and conducted by Ipsos Mendelsohn found that 79% of affluent consumers bringing home more than $100,000 annually use the Internet. Overall, this segment comprises 21% of U.S. households, has 70% of all consumer wealth, and spends 3.2 times more than other Americans on purchases.

This market segment also spends 26.2 hours online weekly, 17.6 hours watching TV and 7.5 hours listening to the radio. The general population spends about twice as much time weekly with TV and radio -- 34 hours and 16 hours, respectively -- and just 21.7 hours on the Internet.