• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 15, 2021

ENGINE today launched a platform for its media exchange that offers first-party data and integrations for advertisers to develop audience targets, plan media across channels, and take action. The platform launches with an undisclosed agency client to help media buyers seeking one platform to build and target audiences.  

“The transition from planning to activation is virtually seamless because the segments are connected directly to our ecosystem, so there’s no hops or jumps,” said Andy Davidson, head of analytics and data strategy at ENGINE. “When analyzing an auto segment for an OEM, that segment you’re planning media around can be found in our programmatic ecosystem.”

Many times when a marketer plans around an audience, she will need to find a way to activate it in another platform, he said.

Audience Intelligence, ENGINE’s new platform, leverages consumer media behaviors across linear TV, connected TV (CTV), print, radio, digital, social, and podcasts, including content preferences, day parts, digital habits, demographics, and psychographic profiles.

Engine Media Exchange sees daily log-level activity, such as individual devices and events that occur offline. It also uses consumer data from people who agree to take regular surveys. Much of the data is generated through survey-based methods about media consumption and demographics. Then there’s the proprietary taxonomy, about 5,000 B2B and B2C segments, built daily after observing preferences across the web and drawing inferences about what the behavior suggests about a product or service.

Advertisers can activate campaigns against the thousands of target segments — from auto to home buyers to environmental enthusiasts.

The platform reports the percentage of the population who were interviewed, their interests in a specific product or brand, and provides an overall view of their media behavior across channels, such as television, newspaper, magazine, podcasts, social media, and websites. Reported in the dashboard are indices related to the national average. How people feel about each channel, whether they’re attention-grabbing or annoying, Davidson said. It also shows their interests, values, and the importance of their social status.

When asked if the data finds that people with a luxury car also want a high-social status, Davidson said “no.”  “That’s what the dashboard is for -- to provide a snapshot of all the insights,” he said. “You can unpack the luxury segment into two, for example, those who find status important and those who don’t.”