-By John Consoli, Mediaweek

NEW YORK ABC sales president Mike Shaw said today that he would go into upfront negotiations offering advertisers a new tool, the Advertising Value Index, a formula that can be used to determine the effectiveness of their advertising on the network.

He said in addition to traditional indicators like demo ratings, income and education levels of viewers, a slew of other factors can be included in determining viewer engagement levels and why certain networks are better suited for their products.

As part of the process, an advertiser will give ABC sales a list of its marketing objectives and, using the AVI formula, ABC will recommend where the advertiser should air commercials to reach an audience most likely to buy their products.

It's no surprise that Shaw said using the AVI formula, ABC comes out better than the other networks, both cumulatively and when compared to each of the other broadcast networks individually. And Shaw said he would show advertisers how effective their commercials will be on ABC compared to the other networks.

"ABC over-indexes all television in nearly every case, often by a wide margin. ABC delivers the most valuable audience in television," Shaw said.

The new AVI formula was announced at a pre-upfront meeting with the media, with plans also disclosed for a new advertising and emerging media research lab, developed by the Walt Disney Co.'s Media Networks division.

The new research facility will conduct year-round tests to evaluate engagement and emotional responses to advertising across media platforms.

The facility will be run in conjunction with Duane Varan, executive director of the Interactive Television Research Institute.

"In today's rapidly evolving media environment, we need to go beyond traditional forms of research to ensure an effective connection with our audiences," said George Bodenheimer, co-chair of Disney Media Networks. "This on-going initiative will employ advanced methods to reveal deeper insights about media and advertising engagement that will lead to innovative solutions for our advertisers and our media platforms."