Claritas Acxiom and Equifax Launch Lifestyle Advance
New partnership undertakes the single biggest lifestyle data creation exercise for a decade
LONDON, April 14 2004 - Equifax Plc and Claritas Acxiom have launched a powerful new source of lifestyle data called Lifestyle Advance. By integrating data from Claritas Acxiom’s extensive consumer data resource with Equifax’s knowledge of how and when people move, the two companies are bringing 4 million previous survey respondents into the list rental and data enhancement arena.
Graham Arrowsmith, market development director of Equifax says, “More than 4 million data records from Claritas Acxiom have been reactivated to create Lifestyle Advance. This is the single biggest data creation exercise in the lifestyle market for a decade.”
All databases suffer from ageing data. People move, they die and many will change their name when they marry. It is easy to lose touch. Keeping up with these changes is a challenge facing most companies and results in a wealth of data becoming un-mailable and archived. Lifestyle Advance directly addresses this issue and has created a link to the present day refreshing high volumes of lifestyle data that, until now, have been unavailable for commercial purposes.
Alex Simonson, Head of Alliances at Claritas Acxiom comments “Lifestyle Advance not only provides a new and up to date delivery point for each individual, it also employs sophisticated research and analysis to validate the accuracy of the demographic and lifestyle data that lies behind it. Every variable has been categorised for the greatest possible relevance to the consumer marketplace and meticulous attention to detail has ensured only reliable attributes are available for selection. Research comparing lifestyle data at current and former addresses reflects an extraordinarily high level of consistency, directly answering the question of whether Lifestyle Advance data is still relevant”.
Lifestyle Advance uses a traffic light system to ensure selections are based on reliable demographic and lifestyle attributes. This is critical to maintain the highest standards of accuracy. Red means the attribute no longer is reliable at the new address, amber means it is fine to use for list selection and tagging, but some caution is needed (home ownership, for example) and green means the data is as relevant at the new address as it was at the former address (date of birth, for example).
Graham Arrowsmith continues; “Every list buyer in the UK will want to know how Lifestyle Advance can supplement their lifestyle data this year. Since the lifestyle attributes available for selection are still relevant and the data is relatively un-mailed, but innately responsive, media buyers are already putting the data to test. Lifestyle Advance is truly a powerful source of lifestyle data. The profile of this file shows that the people on it have a greater number of consumer searches per head than average. If this increased number of searches is seen as a proxy for responsiveness, then this new source of data will be in great demand in 2004.”
