Thanks to our online behavior and advertising technology, marketers know better than ever how to reach the millions of people who tune in to the Olympics.
The Trade Desk is an advertising platform that uses data insights to help target advertising. Its system parses through information on millions of people collected by websites and other digital means to create profiles of consumers. Then, brands can use automated means to purchase advertising on various media to find people who would be most likely to use their products.
How detailed can this information get? The Trade Desk found out that North American Olympics viewers were more likely to be gym rats, cyclists and outdoor adventurists than the average North American citizen. They also tended toward luxury sports cars and were highly likely to be fans of "Star Trek," "Game of Thrones" and "House of Cards."
In slight contrast, South American Olympic fans were more likely to be wealthy, diet and exercise buffs, and work in marketing or sales than their fellow citizens. They also liked baseball and pro-wrestling, and staying healthy.
This information could be used by a company like Netflix or HBO, who may want to buy ads in North America on Olympics content knowing that the audience is likely to enjoy their shows. However, those ads may not resonate with a South American market.
Likewise, while an ad for the WWE could be a crowd-pleaser in South America, it could fall on deaf ears in North America.
The information can get even more granular, including finding the specific fans of the different events. Cycling viewers in the U.S. were more likely to be environmentalists, bus and train commuters, health and fitness enthusiasts and foodies than the average populations. Gymnastics viewers were more likely to be classic car owners, entrepreneurs, gamers and body builders.
See more sports fan profiles from The Trade Desk below.
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC. The Trade Desk has clients who are running a campaigns running on NBCUniversal programs during the Olympics, but it is not directly working with NBCUniversal to buy Olympics ads.