Disney is placing bets that programmatic and measurement will help it win over buyers.
Disney revealed the availability of integrated Disney+ and Hulu advertising campaigns for businesses in the US on Wednesday at its fourth annual (and first in-person) Tech & Data Showcase in Las Vegas.
Programmatic, data clean rooms, measurement, and shoppable TV were the four main topics of Disney’s dog-and-pony show. However, there was one key takeaway: Disney is using all of its resources to pursue media buyers and advertisers.
Though the two services won’t merge until March, The Mouse House began beta testing the integration of Hulu content into the Disney+ platform in December.
Speaking at the event on Wednesday, Joe Earley, head of Disney Entertainment’s direct-to-consumer business, stated that weekly viewer interaction with Hulu programming on Disney+ is increasing despite the beta having just been available for about a month.
The programmatic pillars
Encouraging more brands to purchase streaming inventory starts with making the purchase process simpler.
According to Matthew Barnes, VP of programmatic sales at Disney, the company now has connectors with thirty demand-side platforms, enabling brands to access the same inventory programmatically as they do directly.
Barnes told reporters prior to the presentation that connecting to so many DSPs will assist draw in smaller and midsize advertisers that are just starting out with streaming.
Disney is hardly the only well-known streamer aiming to do that. NBCUniversal promoted its several DSP integrations on Tuesday in an attempt to attract smaller businesses to Peacock.
Disney also announced that Disney+ and ESPN+ inventory will soon be available for purchase through Disney Campaign Manager for smaller brands that prefer self-service (albeit it did not specify a specific date). Up until now, Hulu could only be purchased by advertisers on a self-serve basis.
Data purging
Disney also aims to attract new advertisers by providing them with other channels to obtain its audience data, such as new clean room interfaces with Google Cloud and AWS.
Since its premiere in 2021, the Disney clean room has been compatible with Snowflake, Habu, and InfoSum.
Disney’s identity graph may now be used by advertisers using AWS and Google Cloud to match their first-party data with the appropriate ad inventory for their target demographic.
Currently, 425 million distinct identifiers representing 110 million households are included in Disney’s audience graph.
And for buyers who are less familiar with the inner workings of clean rooms, Disney has unveiled a new product called Disney Portal whereby marketers may send their audience data straight to Disney using Habu.
Disney Vice President of Audience Modeling and Data Science at Disney Advertising Dana McGraw described this as the company’s “first step toward a self-service clean room.”
Mileage measurement
You might be asking yourself, what about measurement? It wouldn’t be a CTV event without some measurement updates.
Disney has shown two new platforms for integration. Cint-owned Lucid will assist in monitoring upper-funnel indicators like brand favorability and ad recall, while Disney will use Innovid to evaluate business results like sales and conversions.
Additionally, Innovid developed a brand-new measurement dashboard for Disney, which is currently in beta testing. Eventually, advertisers will be able to utilize this dashboard to adjust ad budgets in real-time to prioritize the most effective creative based on metrics like conversions.
Come shopping with me.
Finally, Disney provided some updates on shoppable ad forms.
Disney, for instance, announced the launch of a beta test for what it refers to as Gateway Shop advertisements on Disney+. These 15- and 30-second pieces, which are currently streaming on Hulu, provide additional product details, such as price, in a video ad style. In order to convey product information directly to their mobile device without further disrupting their show, viewers have the option to either scan a QR code or click on their remote.
Disney plans to roll out the new ad unit more broadly this year, beginning with smart TVs (as opposed to mobile or desktop devices). Unilever is among the first marketers to test it.
Disney obviously had the upfronts on its mind, even though a lot of these CES reveals are still in beta testing.
Disney hopes that its Tech & Data Showcase serves as a “compelling argument” for businesses to allocate larger ad spending to Disney this year, according to President of Advertising Sales Rita Ferro.
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