• by Wayne Friedman , May 10, 2018

Just a week before upfront advertising presentations begin, Walt Disney is joining other TV network-based companies in announcing new advanced advertising efforts with a new group named Luminate.

Luminate intends to use third-party and other data to make “customized” advertiser messaging programs for Disney networks/brands, including ABC, ESPN, Freeform and others.

Disney is using TV attribution and analytics companies, including Data Plus Math, Accenture and Samba TV as well as Disney first-party data, to sustain the business.

The company says Luminate will be powered by “linear optimization, digital audience guarantees, digital private programmatic marketplace, and attribution studies to quantify advertiser return on investment.”

Luminate is part of Disney’s newly created direct-to-consumer and international unit; its chairman is Kevin Mayer. As part of this, ESPN’s LiveConnect -- live sports ad platform -- will now extend to live events across the entire Disney portfolio.

Last week, NBCUniversal announced an expansion of its measurement efforts with iSpot.tv, the real-time analytics company, for NBC’s Audience Studio clients. The deal will connect advertisers' business outcomes with campaigns run on NBC networks. NBC stopped short of saying whether it would “guarantee” those results -- similar to TV ratings guarantees widely used in the industry.

Also in the last several days, cabler A+E Networks expanded a deal with Data Plus Math, a TV attribution company, to offer some guaranteed TV-based deals for advertisers in the upfront.