comScore Launches Audience Advantage(TM) Predictive Modeling Platform to Help Publishers Optimize Audiences for Digital Ad Campaigns

RESTON, Va., Feb. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the launch of comScore Audience Advantage™, a digital audience optimization platform that enables publishers to provide advertisers and media planners with the ability to accurately reach their most valuable audiences. Using anonymized data from its proprietary research panel of opt-in Internet users that is aggregated into a variety of important consumer segments, comScore builds sophisticated predictive algorithms that can be used by publishers to determine which of their site visitors should receive a particular ad. The predictive algorithms use a robust array of descriptive consumer variables, including demographics, search activity, site visitation, online and offline transactional behavior. Early tests of the Audience Advantage platform have shown lifts in reaching the desired audience segment of 3-5x, representing a substantial gain in campaign efficiency.

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"The comScore Audience Advantage platform represents a revolution in the media planning and buying process by enabling publishers to use the lookalike models to reach the audience that mirrors the advertiser's best prospects. This allows them to deliver a campaign that is on point in both message and audience," said Erin Hunter, comScore executive vice president. "Audience Advantage offers significant value creation for the online advertising ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders. Publishers will be able to demonstrate higher value in the campaigns they deliver, thereby justifying higher CPMs, while advertisers will be able to minimize wasted impressions and reduce the total cost of advertising outlays. It is truly a win-win for the digital advertising industry."

How comScore Audience Advantage™ Works

comScore Audience Advantage uses proprietary anonymous audience scoring algorithms to determine optimal audiences for advertisers using sophisticated and predictive variables available as inputs. These variables are derived from a multitude of observable behaviors in the digital environment as measured through the comScore opt-in research panel, including site visitation, search activity, video views, advertising engagements, online purchases or any other number of behaviors that may be relevant to purchaser particular advertiser. The Audience Advantage platform does not rely on cookies to construct its predictive algorithms. Rather, they are built using the actual observed behavior and characteristics of the opt-in comScore panelists.  Importantly, the Audience Advantage platform can also leverage third-party databases that are integrated with the comScore research panel to provide anonymous offline purchase behavior as another critical and highly predictive input to these algorithms.

Using all available behaviors as inputs, Audience Advantage determines a predictive score for various audience segments. Participating publishers then use this score to anonymously identify and deliver to advertisers "lookalike" audiences from the behavior they observe among their own site visitors. Campaigns can be planned at a granular level, for example, against only 5 or 10 percent of consumers most likely to purchase a particular brand with the objective of reinforcing loyalty, or they can be planned against a much larger segment of consumers who are dual brand buyers with the objective of inducing switching to the advertiser's brands.

Who Can Benefit from comScore Audience Advantage™?

The comScore Audience Advantage platform can improve campaign efficiency and effectiveness for advertisers across a variety of industry verticals, including Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Entertainment, Retail, Telecom, Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals, Travel, Automotive and Technology. Each industry can derive benefit from its own relevant set of predictive variables. Some examples include:

CPG – offline brand and category purchase behavior

Entertainment – movie ticket purchases and/or rental behavior; musical artist listening/affinity

Retail – online and offline purchase behavior

Telecom – mobile device ownership; shopping behavior

Financial Services –credit card usage; new credit card account applications; insurance company used

Pharma – health information searchers; branded Rx site visitors

Travel – booking method; hotel / airline / rental car preferred

Auto – new and used vehicle purchase data; dealer quote requests; online vehicle configurations

Technology – peripheral usage; browser usage; computer configurations

End-to-End Media Planning Optimization and Evaluation

comScore Audience Advantage can also be used in conjunction with the comScore AdEffx™ advertising effectiveness suite, offering comprehensive end-to-end media buying, optimization and performance evaluation. The AdEffx™ suite offers the ability to evaluate campaigns on a post-buy basis to determine among which consumer segments the ads were actually delivered and evaluate their effectiveness in generating lifts in branding metrics or actual consumer behavior, such as site visitation, search activity and both online and offline sales.

To learn more about comScore Audience Advantage, please email [email protected]

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including, but not limited to, expectations regarding the impact and benefits to comScore of the comScore Audience Advantage product, financial or otherwise. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to: the features and characteristics of the products, the rate of development of the digital marketing intelligence, Internet advertising and e-Commerce markets; the growth of the Internet as a medium for commerce, content, advertising and communications; and the acceptance of new products and methodologies by the industry, including existing and prospective clients.

For a detailed discussion of these and other risk factors, please refer to comScore's most recent respective Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Annual Reports on Form 10-K and from time to time other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), which are available on the SEC's Web site (http://www.sec.gov).

Stockholders of comScore are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date such statements are made. comScore does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or new information after the date of this press release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

About comScore

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

SOURCE comScore, Inc.