• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, June 26, 2018

Performance marketing agency Fluent has officially tossed its hat into the programmatic ring as a data provider.

It is doing so with the product launch of Audience Now which will make first party data available to the health care industry via a partnership with Acxiom’s LiveRamp data store, where it is now available to marketers and other data buyers.

Fluent spent the past seven years developing Audience Now and its designed to serve the data needs of digital DTC marketers. The offering leverages insights from over 150 million opted-in U.S. consumers, and enables marketers to access audience segments interested in specific conditions and symptoms.

The parties emphasized that the Audience Now data is voluntarily self-reported by opted-in consumers and anonymized. As it is not sourced from medical records or other covered entities, it is not subject to compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.   

The launch of Audience Now follows the recent formation of Fluent Health, the agency’s health marketing division, led by Brian Hogan, the former COO of LifeScript. 

"As programmatic has become more established, pharma and healthcare advertisers are more comfortable” embracing the channel, said Hogan. “There is increasing demand for verified, declared data, particularly in health marketing. Our expertise in engaging opted-in consumers at scale will be an advantage for our clients." 

"We are seeing increased demand for declared data and specifically for specialized audiences such as health interest," stated Jeff Smith, general manager of brands and agencies and CMO at LiveRamp. "We're excited to partner with Fluent to make interest-based segments within the health vertical available to our brand, agency, and platform clients for people-based marketing."