OMD USA cut a $1 billion multiplatform-advertising buy with The Walt Disney
Co. that will put its message on various Disney media properties, led by ABC and
ESPN, industry sources said.
The buy involves ABC's primetime entertainment and sports programming -- led
by the Super Bowl -- and other ABC dayparts, as well as fare on ESPN and
Lifetime Television (which Disney owns with Hearst Corp.), sources said.
ABC and ESPN will get ad dollars well into nine figures, with Lifetime well
into eight digits. But sources disputed a report that included the National
Basketball Association in the mega-deal.
Some of the ad budget will also be spent on Internet sites and other Disney
media assets, they added.
Accounts at OMD -- one of the media-buying giants under the Omnicom Group
umbrella -- include Federal Express Corp., The Gillette Co., Nissan North
America Inc., PepsiCo Inc., Charles Schwab & Co. Inc. and Visa International
Service Association.
Although there are other major deals in the works, sources within Disney
said, 'There's nothing of this magnitude.'
In mid-May, a similar OMD mega-deal proposal, also estimated to be in the $1
billion range, fell through when OMD and Viacom Inc. could not come to
terms.
