Early Education & Maybach Segments Drop in Price This Month
Boston, MA – ChoiceStream, a leader in the programmatic media-buying space, today released the findings of its monthly Audience Cost Calendar. The company’s machine learning system monitors thousands of consumer data segments and rolls them up into 315 super segments, which it ranks by cost index in its monthly report. ChoiceStream illustrates the findings in an infographic that highlights significant changes in cost-based ranking month over month.
After two months of dominating the top ten segments with the highest cost index, travel was joined by another segment. Midrange cars moved up 237 places in rank to enter the top ten, increasing 234 percent in cost index since last month.
“This comes as no surprise,” says Bill Guild, VP of Marketing at ChoiceStream, “Automobile experts have recommended for years that consumers make car purchases in late summer or early fall. Auto brands recognize the increase in consumer demand due to the model-year-changeover, and they are willing to pay more to reach these consumers over their competitors.”
However, one automobile brand that experienced a decrease in cost is the Maybach segment which dropped 24 places in rank since last month. This drop could be explained by the fact that Maybach’s last vehicle was manufactured in 2012, and brand owner Daimler AG’s announcement that the brand is shuttering. This may soon change, though, as there have been industry rumors that Mercedes-Benz will be releasing a new, 2015 “Maybach edition” of its S-class model at a Los Angeles auto show in November.
For many months now, the Pets: Aquariums consumer segment has ranked in the bottom ten of the 315 segments reported by ChoiceStream. ChoiceStream’s optimization analysts suggest that advertisers trying to reach parents could do so cost-effectively by serving ads to this segment, rather than higher-cost segments based on car preference or ages of typical parents, as well as other “with-children” categorizations.
The elementary school segment fell 52 places in rank this month. Pricing may have dropped because parents have already made school-related decisions for the year, including the purchasing of school supplies, as half of the country went back to school in August, while the other half resumed in early September. At this time last year the cost index of this same segment was still at a high. This highlights a benefit of programmatic machine-learning systems like ChoiceStream’s; they constantly monitor changes in cost, automatically bidding on behalf of advertisers to serve media to lower-cost segments in real-time, despite past precedent.
Methodology
ChoiceStream reports on 315 consumer super-segments. Reported segments are rollups of similar segments from multiple data providers including ChoiceStream’s Pollshare. Each segment receives a calculated index with the monthly average price set at 100. An index of 110 indicates that the segment traded 10 percent higher than the overall average that month. ChoiceStream calculates the audience rankings by reporting the cheapest segment (also referred to as the lowest price index) as number one, to the most expensive (315).
About ChoiceStream
ChoiceStream delivers top-of-plan results for online, video, and mobile advertisers. Unique real-time polling finds the ideal audience. Real-time bidding and real-time machine learning optimize the buy, and real-time creative engages the audience with dynamic and relevant ads. ChoiceStream’s concierge level services include creative development, campaign management, complete transparency, and custom insights. Companies like Choice Hotels, Zappos, and Dunkin’ Donuts use ChoiceStream to drive results. For more information on ChoiceStream, please visit www.ChoiceStream.com.
