• by Joe Mandese , April 2, 2024

Of all the data partnerships consumer credit ratings bureau TransUnion has struck since commercializing an audience targeting database more than two years ago, the one being announced this morning likely will have the most profound impact on the way old school planners and buyers think about identifying, targeting and reaching consumers.

That's because TransUnion's new deal integrates its "identity spine" as a new tab within MRI-Simmons' audience segmentation database, reports and tools, which more or less still are the go-to insights media planners and buyers start with.

The deal works the other way too, integrating MRI-Simmons' media audience, product usage and consumer lifestyle data directly into TransUntion's "TruAudience" data marketplace, enabling advertisers, agencies and media sales organizations to target 80 million streaming households in the U.S.

In other words, TransUnion's data has just been fuel-injected into the mainstream media planning process. Or in slightly more technical mumbo-jumbo, TransUnion's consumer identity graph and MRI-Simmons audience segments have boosted their "data interoperability without sacrificing the quality of our consumer signals," boasts MRI-Simmons' Senior Vice President of Business Development and Product Strategy Josh Pisano.

In terms of the practical application of this integration, it will appear relatively seamless to rank-and-file planners, who will simply gain new tabs for segmenting people, but they'll be doing it with one of the most indelible consumer identity signals ever conceived -- ones derived from people's credit ratings -- at a time when other parts of the constellation of identity graphs appear to be deteriorating, or at least "deprecating," as digital IDs and cookies either phase out or erode.

“With the concurrent forces of media fragmentation, data deprecation, and privacy changes coming to a head, our customers are seeking sustainable solutions for the future of audience-based marketing,” explains TransUnion Senior Vice President of Media & Entertainment Julie Clark.