hard data on geo-targeting efficacy??

From: Charlie Martin <CMartin_at_shopexpert.com>
Date: Thu 1 Jun 2000 07:53:25 -0700

Has anyone seen a study or report (preferably academic
b/c it would be thorough) that specifically details
many / all of the options for geo-targeting as well as
the inherent 'waste' that comes from geo-targeting b/c
of various imperfections??

For example, if you use IP targeting on a large segment
of the web browsing audience, you immediately have to
discount a huge chunk of that audience coming from AOL
(b/c the IP header always points back to Northern
Virginia even though the person might be in San Diego,
CA). Ideally, the report would quantify this effect.

Continuing with this same example, and after
discounting for the AOL problem, the report would
ideally explore the fact that IP targeting still is
imperfect for a variety of reasons (e.g., large ISPs
point to central hubs with different area codes or zip
codes for many of their subscribers). Again, ideally
the report would estimate / quantify this.

While I'm asking for the moon, a comprehensive report
might also address user declared information and its
accuracy. For example, an email service, such as
YesMail, might say they can geo-target emails because
of user declared zip code data. What's the accuracy
here?? How many people give false or incorrect data??
For this example, only YesMail could know if they did a
QA study on their subscribers, but in general, what do
studies say about user declared info and its accuracy.

Finally - continuing with my request for the moon ...
;) -- what about anonymous cookie targeting from folks
like Cogit.com or Angara - anyone out there use them
who can speak to geo-targeting accuracy??

WAP phones are probably pretty darn accurate for
geo-targeting, but there is too little traffic to take
this platform seriously yet.

Any help to identify thorough, thoughtful analysis of
the above would be greatly appreciated. As a media
buyer, when I speak to sales folks about our need for
geo-targeted media, they all glibly say they can
geo-target, but when pushed about details many aren't
aware of the inherent challenges and all can't quantify
the true efficacy of geo-targeting.

Thanks in advance for any / all suggestions.

==================================
Charlie Martin, Director of Business Development
ShopExpert.com
Tel: (415) 351-4039
Fax: (415) 474-6017
Email: charlie.martin_at_shopexpert.com
URL: www.shopexpert.com
==================================




Received on Thu Jun 01 2000 - 09:53:25 CDT