Like Oz only bigger, a new News Corp service using data science to target advertising to 140 million Americans leverages two years' experience from a similar project in Australia.

The News IQ platform launched last week integrates all its collective first-party data, premium media properties and data science tools into one unified advertising solution for the first time. It will leverage the first-party data of some launch partners, including a top luxury retailer in collaboration with Mastercard Ad Intelligence to create bespoke advertising. Partners include Douglas Elliman, Seabourn Cruise Line, Fox Broadcasting and the Dentsu Aegis Network.

The new platform, which News Corp's digital advertising solutions chief Jesse Angelo says will translate into "three layers of brand safety for every campaign", builds on the News Connect platform launched in Australia in 2015.

In this, News Australia works with anonymised customer transaction data from partner Quantium - accessing customer segments based on purchasing behaviour - to reach more than 11 million addressable readers. Micro surveys also help marketers understand people's attitudes and preferences towards products. Segments cover categories such as travel, socioeconomics, education, FMCG, auto, real estate and finance, or can be tailor-made.

Quantium data comes from shopping records in categories including supermarket and liquor sales, and an understanding of property attributes sourced from CoreLogic. Dog food suppliers can target dog owners and online fashion retailers can reach online shoppers who have an affinity with high end fashion.

In New York last week, Angelo spoke of protection from fraud and the ability to effectively reach premium audiences at scale with precision "inside a trusted and transparent ecosystem".

News IQ will unlock exclusive, first-party data to offer new insights on a large scale from an audience comprised of top business leaders, entrepreneurs, in-market home buyers, high-net-worth individuals, luxury shoppers, millennial cord-cutters and more. It will also be able to combine advertisers' first-party data with News data to help build bespoke segments.

Chief executive Robert Thomson says News IQ is distinguished by its ability to leverage News' global resources to pair its custom content solutions with both consumer insights and scalable audiences in one end-to-end solution. "This isn't about blasting consumers with ads they don't care about, but intelligently engaging consumers and driving real results for our partners."

News IQ will also complement the video ad platform and emotional targetting capabilities subsidiary Unruly to provide "an even broader suite of solutions" to advertisers.

Peter Coleman