Targeting Real Estate Viewers on the Tube
In an interesting story from the WSJ.com, RE/MAX is using data from Cox Communications DVRs to track viewer watching patterns and figure out where to place their advertisements.
Using a new process that taps into data from cable set-top boxes, RE/MAX found that, along with home-improvement shows, those households were also likely watching cable channels such as auto-focused Speed, as well as shows including TNT’s “Without a Trace.”
They also merged the viewing pattern data with demographic data in order to segment their audience.
By using viewing data from cable set-top boxes and merging it with information from demographic data companies such as Claritas, the technology can create a general behavioral profile of a viewer. For instance, RE/MAX wanted to reach women 25 years to 54 years old with $75,000 or more annual income and who were in the market to buy or sell a home in the next 12 months.
This sort of precision is already commonplace on the online world — even more precision is available in social networks (see Marketing Yourself with Facebook Flyers) — but it’s interesting to see the same targeting abilities start to move into the offline world too.
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Metrowest MA Real Estate | Nov 28, 2007 | Reply
Joel – It comes as no surprise that RE/MAX would be using this kind of technology. RE/MAX is leading the rest of the Real Estate franchises by a large margin when it comes to marketing their brand on TV. It would make sense they would be tracking for demographics.
Louisville KY real estate | Nov 30, 2007 | Reply
That’s really interesting. I didn’t have any idea that they could track what you watch on your DVR. I suppose though, that it’s no different than cookies on the internet. Thanks for sharing!