Nielsen PRIZM: Extreme Demographic Targeting

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” – Antoine De Saint-Expiry

The basic premise behind Nielsen’s PRIZM is that similar people live in the same type of neighborhood.  This system groups 62 different neighborhood types.  These neighborhoods types are categorized according to six different aspects (Advertising campaign strategy: A guide to marketing communication plans. By Parente, D. on p. 72):

1. Social rank (income, employment levels, education)
2. Household composition (age, sex, family type, independent/dependent, children)
3. Mobility (length of residency, auto ownership)
4. Ethnicity (race, foreign birth, ancestry, native language)
5. Urbanization (population density, urban, suburban, city, town, rural)
6. Housing (owning/renting, home values, number of stories)

Additionally, these neighborhoods are labeled according to lifestyle preferences.  These preferences extend from favorite television shows and networks, vehicles, magazines, and hobbies.

Now, in order for PRIZM to help you in an online media buying, you’re going to have to get your hands on Nielsen’s PRIZM. The second problem is going to be targeting these demographics online. The easiest way to target these demos at the moment is going to be through zip code targeting.

You may use PRIZM’s zipcode lookup tool here.