• by Wayne Friedman , January 7, 2009

LAS VEGAS - So-called "hypertargeting" of digital users may be broadly available, but not all publishers, marketers and agencies are ready--or willing--to use it.

James Semenak, principal consultant of eBusiness and digital media of Teradata Corp., says where the current business can find tens--if not hundreds--of consumer "segments" to target users, he can see the day where that number grows exponentially.

"The introduction of more behavioral data in real time is changing the nature of the industry," he said at a panel at the International Consumer Electronics Show called, "Hypertargeting: Ad Networks, Ad Serving and Ad Targeting." "People will be moving to thousands of segments. It'll be a tough transition."

In the world of behavioral targeting, Dean Carignan, director of advertising business strategy for entertainment and devices for Microsoft Corp., noted that the company will soon offer a research tool called "engagement mapping" that can follow users' behavior in seeing ads and whether it leads them to buying a specific product.

Right now, digital media agencies are focused on other basic digital research areas, such as behavioral and contextual targeting.

"There is always this struggle between behavioral and contextual targeting," says Grace Liau, director of media operations and technology for Publicis Groupe's Digitas. "For example, if we find someone who is reading an article on saving money, what that does mean? How do we serve the creative?"

Liau believes there should be a combination of the two. Yet problems remain: Different publishers put different criteria on certain definitions of targeting. Liau says she is looking to establish "baselines" for analysis.

Some panelists say targeting can go too far, especially when you have consumers who are ready to buy. "When you get too focused on the precision of who the consumer might be, sometimes you get too far down the funnel," says Kathy Kayse, executive vice president of digital ad sales for Discovery Communications.

Still, Ari Bluman, president of North America operations for 24/7 Real Media, believes that power in data will ultimately help marketers. "There is a ton of data, and there is science around it," he says. "Managing that data has been difficult for some. But we are never at a loss for data in the business. It's about harnessing it. There is zero need to guess."

Other panels wondered whether digital advertising sales reps were ready to use hypertargeting data in their day-to-day efforts, and whether big marketers were ready to accept it.

Says Teradata's Semenak: "That's the biggest barrier right now."