News Focus: CACI's Ocean brings wave of information on consumers

by Melanie May, Direct Response 24-Apr-06

CACI has joined forces with 20 data suppliers to create a new national consumer file that holds more than 100 million records.

The new product, Ocean, combines transactional information with lifestyle questionnaire responses, market research surveys and modelled information.

It uses CACI's existing data, and supplements it with that from external suppliers including Bounty, Transactis and Data Locator.

Ocean holds 40 million names and addresses, with additional data including consumer classifications, email addresses, and phone numbers. CACI has also added millions of lifestyle records, modelled lifestyle data and demographics, including age, income, family composition and housing, as well as financial holdings and media readership.

CACI has sourced verified and unique names and addresses from Transactis, while the lifestyle data comes from Data Locator. This is the first time CACI has been able to resell this kind of data. A number of suppliers are also providing email addresses, although CACI's eAppend product is also being used.

"We were looking for a range and breadth of data to fill the hole left by electoral roll opt-outs," explained Tracy Weir, vice president of CACI's Consumer Marketing Group. "This brings everything together.

It's an enormous name and address file and, on top of that, we've taken different elements of data from different suppliers."

Weir believes Ocean will be a valuable tool for any business that wants to gain a better understanding of customer behaviour.

"Finding relevant and in-depth information on today's consumer has forced many companies to source data from a range of suppliers. This can be a costly and time-consuming process, which eats into often already stretched marketing budgets. Ocean brings together information from a range of sources into one easy-to-use product," she said.

The file will be updated monthly, with three major refreshes a year.