J.D. Power buys online marketing metrics firm Korrelate
Acura’s consumer website received the highest ranking in J.D. Power’s manufacturer website evaluation study in 2013.( Acura media photo)
Westlake Village-based J.D. Power has purchased Korrelate, an Orlando-based digital marketing company that measures consumers’ online behaviors and links them to offline sales activity. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
J.D. Power, which offers independent market research on car quality, said Korrelate’s technology will allow it to offer automakers, car dealers and third-party automotive websites the ability to better target their online marketing efforts. The technology will also allow advertising networks and publishers to get better metrics on the effectiveness of online ads, it said.
“We are delighted to add Korrelate and its cutting-edge capabilities to J.D. Power,” J.D. Power President Finbarr O’Neil said in a statement. “Consumer behavior is changing dramatically in today’s Internet-powered world. The auto industry spends billions of dollars annually on digital marketing. Measuring online activity and linking it to actual vehicle sales will enable marketers to measure and optimize their digital strategy.”
J.D. Power said that, using Korrelate’s insights on consumer online shopping behaviors and PIN data on new and used vehicle purchases, it will be able to identify which websites and ad campaigns shoppers are exposed to before they buy a vehicle.
“Offline sales measurement is the future of the automotive industry’s efforts to measure the success of online campaigns,” Christian Kugel, vice president of consumer research and analytics at AOL, a Korrelate client, said in the statement. “This metric, combined with traditional key performance indicator measurement, creates a more complete, 360-degree view of how to evaluate campaign success.”
J.D. Power, the first company to offer independent safety and quality research on consumer cars, was purchased from founder J.D. “Dave” Power III by McGraw Hill in 2005 for a reported $400 million. The market research firm has about 200 employees in Westlake Village and operates as a unit of McGraw Hill.
