The Royal Bank of Scotland has signed up to a new tailored TV advertising service from broadcaster Sky which will let it target viewers based on considerations such as age, income and location.
Following a six month trial, Sky is now rolling out the AdSmart service to its viewers - representing more than a fifth of UK households - who will now see personalised TV ad breaks.
The technology works by sending a library of adverts via satellite to Sky+HD set-top boxes and then selecting those which best match a household's profile and inserting them into live breaks.
The ads are based on customers' postcodes and publicly available data drawn from third party providers such as Experian.
The system lets advertisers break down potential targets by income and 'financial strategy', which discerns between groups including 'young essentials', 'stretched finances', and 'sunset security'.
Other factors which can be weighed are household composition, age, whether the viewer is a homeowner, and what their 'mosaic lifestyle' is - 'rural solitude', 'industrial heritage', 'liberal opinion'.
Sky hopes that the service will help attract smaller, local advertisers but has also signed up major brands, including RBS, Tesco and Audi. Customers who don't want targeted ads can opt out online or over the phone.