Geodemography originated when crime-prediction models were repurposed for advertising.
Evidence
In the early 1970s, however, perhaps succumbing to boredom, or academic disillusionment, Robbin decided there might be a way to commercialize his work. So he founded Claritas (Latin for “clarity”). A one-man start-up, Claritas was arguably the first firm to exploit the new social science that Robbin and other practitioners called “geodemography.” The basic notion was that approaches developed to predict urban crime could also help advertisers improve the marketing of their products. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 602
Categorization
- CANDY: The fact that the founding of audience-targeting firm Claritas came from someone who built urban-riot prediction models is a fun, self-contained nugget.
- XREF: Direct antecedent of the modern behavioral-advertising and surveillance-capitalism story; connects to Zuboff’s account of where targeting data originated. — connects to: Google’s early ad-matching patents replaced guesswork with predictive behavioral data — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 245; Behavioral-prediction markets recruit merchants and insurers into the surveillance economy. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1083
Broader Connections
- Google’s early ad-matching patents replaced guesswork with predictive behavioral data
#exemplifies(0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 245 - Behavioral-prediction markets recruit merchants and insurers into the surveillance economy.
#expands(0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1083