Engage Launches New Geo-Targeting Solution

Andover, MA-based Engage Technologies, a provider of profile- based Internet marketing solutions, introduced Engage GeoKnowledge, a new Web- based targeting solution that combines consumer interest profile data with geographic data information.

The consumer data comes from Engage Knowledge, a Web-wide database currently containing more than 30 million anonymous consumer interest profiles.

GeoKnowledge allows marketers to focus their programs on specific local audiences–for example, action movie fans in New York City–and is intended to enable more meaningful pre-buy and post-buy analysis by advertisers, the company said.

Engage will roll out GeoKnowledge in three phases.

Phase one, available to its Accipiter AdManager and AdBureau customers as a plug-in module, gives Web sites the ability to target ads by city, zip code, state or telephone area code. Also, customers of Engage Precision Profiling technology can combine consumer interest profile data with geographic information to further extend their current ad targeting capabilities.

And, as part of the pending merger between Engage and traffic verification firm I/PRO, GeoKnowledge will also be available to I/PRO customers.

Phase two is a subset offering of Engage Knowledge that combines consumer profile data with expanded geotargeting information including; county, country, Designated Market Area (DMA), International region, Major Metropolitan Area (MMA), and time zone. This phase of GeoKnowledge is application independent.

Phase three expands on previous versions by offering “intelligent” geographic targeting, made possible by combining multiple information sources with geographic-rich, anonymous consumer interest profiles.

“Our challenge was to develop a more sophisticated approach to geotargeting that could live up to our own standards as well as customer expectations,” said Paul Schaut, CEO and president of Engage. “That called for us to apply our core expertise in anonymous in-depth profiling within an expanded universe of geographic data. This multi-dimensional approach will provide advertisers and Web site operators with more accurate and useful marketing information. . . and derive a better return on their investments.”

Phases two and three are targeted for launch in the second and third quarters. Pricing varies depending on the extent of geotargeting data required.