Disney expects 80% hike in automated revenue, ramps up on adtech and programmatic

The Disney advertising sales and the technology team is now working to build what it called a “highly-advanced and data-informed audience-based ad server” that sits at the center of the Disney Platform. According to a press statement, with this single unified ad platform, advertisers can “maximise yield on their advertising spend”. Disney initially started the experiment with Disney Hulu XP, enabling advertisers to buy once and deliver to audiences across Hulu and Disney’s addressable inventory. Disney said that this allowed advertisers to buy and manage inventory programmatically across Disney properties.

Jeremy Helfand, senior vice president, head of advertising platforms, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution said, “As Disney embarks on a single unified ad platform across linear and digital that addresses this reality and market opportunity, we expect convergence to continue in three distinct areas: planning and forecasting, reporting and measurement and cross-channel optimisation. We want advertisers to be able to buy once, deliver everywhere and have common measurement for real-time optimising campaign results with Disney.

In 2021, Disney Advertising Sales anticipates an increase of over 80% in automated revenue and expects programmatic sales to account for up to 50% of Disney’s addressable and linear revenue by 2024. Over the past year, Disney Advertising Sales has seen 1,000 net new clients that were buying across the Disney Platform via programmatic channels. As such, Disney is debuting its latest programmatic advancement called Disney Real-Time Ad Exchange(DRAX).

DRAX is Disney’s premium video header bidding solution, built in-house by DMED Technology and Disney Advertising Sales. According to the brand, flattens the waterfall and gives parity to all deals, delivering ultimate choice and control to clients while maximising their ability to scale campaigns. With DRAX, Disney Advertising Sales hopes to improve programmatic scale across transaction types by allowing biddable deals to compete alongside direct-sold and programmatic-guaranteed sales, instead of continuing to operate as a traditional waterfall. It will also provide “always-on inventory access”, where DSPs will now have the ability to see all potential inventory, not just impressions that historically have made it to the auction. With this change, demand partners will be better equipped to plan for inventory and capitalise on spikes in traffic.

Data-led solutions

According to a release, Disney Advertising Sales has seen demand for data capabilities with clients. The number of campaigns using data of any kind to target audiences has increased 56% year-over-year for the media brand, representing 110% revenue growth in the same timeframe.

Moreover, with the deprecation of third-party cookies, Disney is expecting the Disney Audience Graph to become increasingly essential and as such it has taken the next step to leverage this proprietary Audience Graph to pull all of its first-party data and advanced modeling capabilities under one umbrella: Disney Select. Disney Select will allow marketers to select desired audiences from Disney’s library of first-party segments that meet client needs such as buyer behavior, household characteristics and psychographics. Disney added that it has developed these segments to meet advertiser KPIs, specific to categories and desired outcomes.

With Digital Ad Ratings for Connected TV, Disney has integrated its full portfolio, both linear and digital, into Nielsen Media Impact to allow clients to plan holistically and is testing solutions such as Nielsen Total Ad Ratings, which allows clients to measure their cross-platform, cross-portfolio reach. Disney’s collaboration with Samba TV also creates opportunity for Disney Advertising Sales to combine all media assets across one unified cross-platform measurement, servicing the entire purchase funnel.

“Disney is leading the charge in enabling unmatched advertising experiences that continue to drive innovation, precision and impact,” said Rita Ferro, Ppresident, Disney Advertising Sales. “Leaning into our impressive first-party data, automation that drives performance and the ability to measure campaigns to optimise media buys across screens, we are pushing innovation on multiple levels.”

“The Disney Platform will be unrivaled in driving business impact across marketing objectives,” said Lisa Valentino, executive vice president, client solutions & addressable enablement, Disney Advertising Sales. “This new way of doing business will be optimisable in real-time through our programmatic offerings. The buys will be data-enabled with precision targeting and built on Disney’s audience graph that can be complimented with marketer’s own data.”

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