Defining Day-Parting

I promised awhile ago that we would do some posts describing the different types of data used for targeting and we will indeed be doing so.  Here is a note from Christy Harris, privacy lead on my team for Platform A, describing one of the options advertisers have known as “Day-Parting”.

Media has historically divided the day into sections to better target programming - a practice referred to as "day-parting." Advertisers on TV and Radio often air their commercials during the times of day when their “target” audience will be listening and watching. A restaurant chain might promote its coffee in the morning to reach commuters. An appliance company may seek to reach homemakers watching soap operas in the afternoon. The same can be done online, with an additional twist. Visitors to a Web site may be sitting at computers in different time zones around the world, so running a particular advertisement designed to reach early morning commuters checking the weather will be spot on for folks in one time zone, but inappropriate elsewhere. Since a user’s browser will display the time set on the clock on the user’s computer, an ad server may be able to target its ads to users based on this time. As a result, two users visiting a Web site at the same time may have different ads selected for them based on the time their browser displays to the Web site’s ad server.