ZoomInfo is back in the news this month. This week, the business information company announced that it has spun off its bizographic advertising business unit into a new company called Bizo Inc.
Bizo is an advertising targeting platform based on people's business demographics. The idea for the unit was first announced by ZoomInfo in October 2007, and it already has partnership agreements with several advertisers and publishers. ZoomInfo expects that Bizo will help business-to-business marketers reach the most appropriate business audience in the online environment.
Bizo will leverage ZoomInfo's knowledge of business people and companies, enabling marketers to deliver targeted online ads to business people based on a variety of criteria, including combinations of title, company, industry, functional area, company size, education and location. The platform will officially launch later this year with more than 20 million "targetable" business users in the network.
This seems like a natural next step for ZoomInfo, which--in a relatively short time--has made a name for itself in the business information space. With such a wealth of information, the company is certainly positioned to become a reliable source for online marketers as well. Marketers, of course, recognize the value of targeted marketing, but being able to drill down a target list to criteria such as title and company size isn't the easiest or fastest task. Reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time is crucial. If the Bizo platform can deliver as promised, and deliver valuable ROI to marketers, this product will be a real winner. The fact that it has already engaged advertisers and publishers (even before the actual launch) is promising.