Upfront: ABC Unveils New Ad 'Value Index'

Index to Crunch Criteria Including Education, Income, Employment

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/13/2008 12:41:00 PM

ABC unveiled a new “advertising value index” at its upfront presentation to advertisers and the media Tuesday.

The value index, said Mike Shaw, ABC’s head of ad sales, is designed to allow sponsors to micro-target their messages by zeroing in on and weighting demographic information not inherent in the traditional Nielsen metric advertising deals are currently written on.

“This is evolutionary. It’s not revolutionary,” Shaw said. “It’s a deeper dive. What we’re trying to do is prove the value of advertising on ABC.”

ESPN also touted the index at its upfront presentation.

The index will crunch more than one-dozen different criteria including education, income and employment to arrive at a metric that advertisers can use to target consumers who will be most receptive to their commercial messages. It will also offer a comparative analysis show by show and network by network.

And while television time is sold on the official C3 metric (average commercial minute ratings plus three days of digital-video-recorder playback) provided by Nielsen Media Research, marketers and programmers have long been using demographic data and engagement measurements to target messages.

Earlier this year, Nielsen announced its plans to acquire IAG Research -- which measures consumer engagement with television shows, commercial messages and product placement -- for $225 million.

But as consumers have become harder to reach in today's fragmenting media landscape, engagement and hypertargeting are the new imperatives.

“This year, not one marketing dollar can be wasted,” Shaw said. ABC’s new index, he added, will attempt to “prove the value of advertising on ABC.”

For complete coverage of the upfronts, click here.