Claritas buys Barometric, marrying user segmentation with attribution

Data segmentation provider Claritas announced on Thursday that it has purchased tracking and measurement firm Barometric.

Targeting and verification. Barometric’s identity graph technology was originally developed as an internal tool for its original parent company, ad network AdTheorent, from which it spun off in April of this year. It claims to be the only “solution capable of collecting mobile IDs across all environments — such as web, app, rich media, video and brand studies,” in addition to other kinds of devices.

Deal terms were not made public.

By combining the two companies — user segmentation and user measurement — Claritas CEO Mike Nazzaro said via email, “businesses can find and target their best customers at scale and verify that their messaging is reaching who they want it to reach.”

From segmentation to marketing services. The acquisition, he said, represents “another step in the transformation of [Claritas] from a segmentation company to a marketing services company,” which includes optimizing user targets as well as identifying and delivering them. For its part, Nazzaro said, Barometric gets more insights into the US consumer, as well as “a deeper client base” to sell to.

AdTheorent will continue to be a customer of Claritas’ Barometric services.  The Barometric brand will be retained “for now,” the Barometric leadership will join Claritas, and, over the next year, the Barometric platform will be integrated with Claritas’.

Why you should care. The newly combined company will now be positioned for both targeting and optimization, with the aim of enabling marketers to measure how effective their ad targeting by audience segment actually is.

The combo will also be able to track offline marketing, at least to some degree. In March, for instance, Barometric set up a way to track the engagement and sales impact of snail mail.

This story first appeared on MarTech Today. For more on marketing technology, click here.

About The Author

Barry Levine

Barry Levine covers marketing technology for Third Door Media. Previously, he covered this space as a Senior Writer for VentureBeat, and he has written about these and other tech subjects for such publications as CMSWire and NewsFactor. He founded and led the web site/unit at PBS station Thirteen/WNET; worked as an online Senior Producer/writer for Viacom; created a successful interactive game, PLAY IT BY EAR: The First CD Game; founded and led an independent film showcase, CENTER SCREEN, based at Harvard and M.I.T.; and served over five years as a consultant to the M.I.T. Media Lab. You can find him at LinkedIn, and on Twitter at xBarryLevine.