A travel company might use synaptic marketing after securing a deposit from a customer months in advance. It can use the data already gathered from offline and online behaviour to target them with offers. It can promote an upgrade on accommodation or cross-sell car hire using data on online behaviour and predictive profiling.
Another feature is the ability to redirect customers to different parts of a website depending on where they click through from. Someone clicking on a banner ad for a smartphone can land on a different web page if they click through from FT.com or from a gadget site.
Once they arrive on the smartphone destination page the advertiser can track behaviour instantly. This data can be used to build a profile of interests and a tailored response activated.
The name derives from the idea that this instant decision engine is using data like a 'digital brain'. Each interaction creates a 'memory'. This improves the relevance and timing of subsequent interactions.
Digital Marketing Group (DMG) has harnessed synaptic marketing with its Digital Brain programme, developed by Jaywing before it was acquired by DMG in 2007.
DMG chief executive Ben Langdon says one of the main reasons for the acquisition was Jaywing's understanding of the need for both online and offline data to market directly to consumers in a more productive way.
"What we say to our clients is that if you know enough about your existing customers through their offline behaviour, marry that with their online behaviour," he says. "The potential is massive. But very few companies do it because it sounds like the ultimate headache."
He concedes that the process is not easy, but advises marketers to tackle it in small, manageable chunks. The biggest fans of synaptic marketing are found in sectors that have been big on segmentation and profiling, such as financial services, automotive and utilities.