TACODA and Next Century Media announced they are planning to develop a study a how behavioral targeting outperforms contextual targeting.

The announcement was made today at the iMedia Agency Summit in La Quinta, California.

The two companies are starting a year long research effort that will compare behavioral targeting to contextual targeting in terms of advertising awareness, branding measures and ROI.

"Placement of ads in an editorial context has been the gold standard for many advertisers. However, TACODA Audience Networks is seeing a significant number of campaigns for major advertisers where the behavioral targeting unit outperforms the contextual targeting ad unit in terms of absolute levels of click-through, purchase intent, advertising awareness, and other measures of audience engagement," says Dave Morgan, CEO, TACODA.