• by Masha Geller , September 9, 2003

The behavioral targeting bug has bitten USAToday.com. The company announced yesterday morning at the first annual IAB Advertisers Forum in New York, that it has signed a deal with Tacoda Systems' Audience Management System to allow its advertisers to combine demographic and behavioral user data to target segments of USATODAY.com's audience.

"This will put USATODAY.com in a position that no other publisher is in today," said Dave Morgan, CEO of Tacoda. "Nobody can give the advertisers the ability to create a custom targeting segment on the fly. To target ads against a target audience that the advertiser wants, not just the one that the media company has created."

Using gender, household income and zip code in conjunction with recent behavioral activity on the site, USATODAY.com has created seven pre-packaged segments of its most valuable readers. There are five categories based on the behavior a customer exhibits while reading USATODAY.com: Bulls and Bears (Self-directed Investors), Lookers and Bookers (Travelers), Armchair Athletes (Male Sports Fans), E-fluentials (Technology Early Adopters), Tire-Kickers (Auto buyers); and 2 demographic categories based on self-reported data: Women and Affluent Households.

In addition, USATODAY.com will offer advertisers the ability to "Create Your own Segment" so advertisers can combine the specific behavior and/or demographics that they are targeting into one custom segment. Targeting against both demographic and behavioral user data has proven to lift response to online ad messages by upwards of 2500%.

"Our new segments offer advertisers another method to reach the customers they are targeting on USATODAY.com. In addition, our new 'Create Your Own' segment capabilities enable advertisers to take advantage of USATODAY.com's broad national reach yet serve ads and promotions only to site visitors who meet very specific marketer needs," says Lorraine Ross, vice president of advertising for USATODAY.com. "The audience segments can also be refined or even redefined in a matter of minutes. No other media company in the country offers this kind of flexible, real-time segmentation."