-By Mike Shields

The Nielsen Co. has joined forces with the Westminster, CO–based direct marketing firm DataLogix in a partnership that the research giant believes will go a long way toward fulfilling the promise of online ad targeting.

As part of the new pact, the two companies will blend data from DataLogix’ Affiniti Data Platform—which enables marketers to locate their offline customers on the Web using cookie data—with Nielsen’s own PRIZM lifestyle segmentation data, which groups American consumers into 66 distinct groups based on demographics, geography, attitudes and shopping habits. Advertisers will theoretically now be able to use this data mix to purchase more targeted online ad campaigns via several participating online ad networks, such as Audience Science, Collective Media and BrightRoll.

“We think this really marks a new era of data-oriented targeting,” said Justin Evans, Nielsen’s senior vp for marketing and strategy. Brands, particularly retailers, “can now see the world online the way they see it offline. They’re not two different worlds anymore. And ad networks now have a great new tool to sell with.”

According to Evans, DataLogix with deep roots in direct marketing, maintains a sizable database of consumer purchases that it can match to specific households. The company is then able to purchase Web-surfing data from various third-party suppliers, which it can use to find those household members online.

Now advertisers will be able to leverage both DataLogix’s and Nielsen’s PRIZM data. More specifically, Nielsen will place each household tracked by DataLogix into one of its 66 PRIZM lifestyle segments (these include Blue Blood Estates, Young Digerati and others).

That combination should offer a powerful online ad buying tool, said Evans, as buyers will be able to use PRIZM to target ads far more granularly. “Now an advertisers can say to a network, I want 10 million impressions of my best customers,” he said.

Mediaweek is a unit of the Nielsen Co.