comScore and GfK MRI combines U.S. Print Readership & Online Behavior.

comScore, Inc. and GfK MRI announced a partnership to develop a new product offering that links Americans’ online media habits with print readership and other media consumption data, including product and brand usage, all in a single unified database known as comScore-MRI Fusion.

“comScore-MRI Fusion bridges the gap between online and offline media consumption and helps provide a more holistic view of how audiences are reached in a multimedia environment,” said Steve Dennen, comScore VP of Business Development. “With media content proliferating across channels at an increasing rate, it is essential for media planners and publishers to understand how consumers engage with content across touchpoints in order to optimize their marketing mix.”

“We are pleased to be partnering with comScore on this database fusion product,” said Kathi Love, President & CEO, GfK MRI. “Combining our databases will provide a deeper and more granular understanding of consumers and their activities both online and offline.”

The new service utilizes data fusion to link consumer behavior from the comScore and GfK MRI databases to provide valuable insights to marketers, including unduplicated cross-media audience reach, attitudinal and demographic audience profiles, and product usage information. By combining U.S. site visitation data from comScore Media Metrix with GfK MRI’s traditional media consumption and product usage surveys, media planners will be able to use the resulting data to optimize their media mix for cross-channel campaigns and publishers will gain competitive intelligence into cross-channel media consumption patterns of their users and those of their competitors.

“Understanding the media consumption habits of our readers across touchpoints is critical to so many aspects of the experience we deliver them,” said Scott McDonald, Senior Vice President Research & Insights, Conde Nast. “The comScore-MRI Fusion product offers a promising new way of gaining intelligence into the demographic and behavioral attributes of our readers so that we can ensure we continue to provide the most relevant and engaging content experience.”