Japanese ad agency giant Dentsu last Thursday launched AD-JIGSAW, a system enabling pinpointed consumer targeting by melding postal code selectvity with digital satellite television.

Every Japanese city, town and village is allotted a geographic sector bearing a unique seven-digit code. The code is used for highly accurate satellite digital data transmissions, enabling commercials to be customized to each individual sector – just like a jigsaw puzzle piece, hence the system’s brand name.

Data signals based on the postal code are transmitted alongside regionally targeted commercials. These are recognized by special in-home digital tuners, resulting in the display of ads appropriate to the viewer's location.

The new technology could, for example, enable an advertiser with a national network of franchised distributors to decide which ad content should be aired in the territory of each franchise, achieving this simply and instantly by accessing the AD-JIGSAW data center via the internet.

Responses to commercials can be collected, collated and delivered to individual advertisers via e-mail or web-enabled mobile phones).

Dentsu sees AD-JIGSAW as a means to reach specifically targeted consumers with customized content, at the same time minimizing costs concomitant with nationwide broadcasting. The agency aims to extend the system to digital interactive TV as of December, then to CS, broadband, wireless and – from 2003 – digital terrestrial broadcasting.

News source: AdAge Global