• The New York Times, Monday, July 27, 2009 1:03 PM

Disney Media Networks -- which includes ABC, ESPN, ABC Family and Disney XD -- is adding ad research as a fresh focus of intense inquiry into online advertising analytics. The New York Times goes inside Disney's new clandestine research facility where they're testing to see, for example, how consumers respond to ads of varying size on ESPN.com. Disney is expected to unveil some of the lab's early findings, "including some surprises about new forms of online ads," on Tuesday in a presentation to about 200 advertisers in New York.

Disney and other companies say they believe that not nearly enough is known about consumers who don't click on online ads, and what kinds of ads in which configurations are likeliest to draw them and hold them and so forth. The goal broader goal, as The Times notes, is to increase ad revenue by offering skittish clients serious research about what works and what does not in new media.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »