US behavioural targeting firm Revenue Science will provide both companies with the technology to build audience segments by anonymously identifying users according to browsing habits.
According to Jeremy Mason, Revenue Science's European director of client services, the two deals are separate and have nothing to do with the recent Emap/C4 joint venture into music television.
The deals will see Emap's consumer division and Channel 4's online offerings use the technology across their portfolios, paying Revenue Science on a pay-per-usage basis. The firm inked a similar deal with Sky last month.
While Revenue Science runs behavioural targeting on sites for newspapers such as The Sun and the Financial Times, Emap is the first magazine company to use this technology in the UK. Emap Consumer digital sales director Bruce Daisley claimed that the use of behavioural targeting techniques was a massive growth area. "It allows us to get the right ads, at the right time to the right people," he said.
C4's group commercial manager for new media sales, Ed Couchman, said that he was attracted to Revenue Science's ability to provide information that would allow brands to strategically advertise on sites within the broadcaster's portal that might not be a direct match, but are proven to attract a similar segment of users.
Privacy campaigners have raised concern about companies' power to gather and withhold consumer information, and earlier this month such concerns prompted Google to announce that it would auto delete its cookies (tiny files stored on a computer when a user visits a website) after a period of two years.
While Revenue Science uses cookie technology, Mason said that, as a member of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI), it follows strict standards protecting users' privacy. "(As a member of the NAI) one of the stipulations for joining is that you give the consumer the chance to request that you don't use their data. This privacy policy is stated on our clients' websites."
C4's Couchman added: "One of the reasons we went with Revenue Science is that it offered the best methodology and protection."
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