Upfronts 2015: ABC Announces New Ad Data Products

ABC announced a series of data driven advertising products at its upfront presentation Tuesday afternoon.

An ABC All Access dashboard provides information from set top boxes giving buyers and planners the ability to slice and dice the ABC audience by multiple demos.

The dashboard also displays data on ABC’s online viewership, giving clients access to total viewership across all platforms every day.

Via ABC Unified Insights analytics are available from the dashboard at the click of a button.

Clients can also plan and buy ABC campaigns using a tool that matches set-top box data to either clients’ first-party information or third party data sets to target ads based on consumer attributes, said Geri Wang, president of sales for ABC. Wang called it “a first step towards addressable advertising—targeting ads based on consumer attributes.”

On the digital said, Wang aid campaigns can be constructed with spots not only on ABC but on a group of Walt Disney owned cable networks including ESPN and ABC Family, and Maker Studios as well.

“This is a data match made in heaven. Great, high quality, brand safe entertainment, sports and news content -- joined to data,” Wang said. “All of these announcements have a common theme: Transparency. We’re confident that the more you know about ABC the better it is for both of us. We want you to better understand our audience and our offerings. And we want to better understand your goals so we can deliver what you need.”

And in a push against the flow of ad dollar moving toward web video Wang said ABC would provide view ability stats for its shows and completion rates for spots. “There has been a lot of concern about bots, non-human traffic, and viewability. You deserve to get what you paid for,” Wang said.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.