Disney Talks Ad Tech, Ad Targeting, and Ad Buying

MelinaJanuary 15, 2025

1 5 minutes read

One common complaint about the advertising industry is the lack of transparency about where you buy from and how you measure it. At CES 2025, Disney discussed its new global ad technology suite and how they’re trying to solve this problem and provide an easier, more understandable approach to buying ads.

“Disney is coming off a pivotal year,” says Disney’s chief product and technology officer. Adam Smith. “We’ve introduced new machine learning and data-driven personalization platforms that allow us to make significant progress in the way we understand and curate Disney’s unique library and viewers’ relationship with it.”

Combining this intelligence with the unified Disney identity platform they promise is Providing better targeting for advertisers. “What this means for our users is that we will continue to offer more personalized content recommendations, create richer discovery experiences, and deliver ads that resonate more with our audiences,” Smith says.

Disney said its new global ad technology suite has delivered placements for 157 million global active ad viewers on Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. In the past 12 months, more than 200 brands have participated and generated billions of impressions. the Disney Select AI Engine Which works in Disney’s Clean Room ecosystem identifies lookalike audiences and allows brands to deliver serial messaging to reach potential audiences without a lot of duplication.

Outstanding ESPN’s leading direct-to-consumer service It will bring new inventory to the market that Disney relies on its advertisers to invest heavily in, in addition to existing live events including the NFL, NBA, college sports, ABC News, the Academy Awards, Grammys, live concerts and special events.

generation stream

Disney created generation streamwhich they describe as a “thought leadership platform” to make their research available to buyers. “Prior to its launch five years ago, there was no single source offering a long-term view of consumer streaming behavior. Insights from Generation Stream inform and inspire Disney’s innovation roadmap for advertisers,” he says. Josh MattesonExecutive Vice President of Digital Revenue Pricing, Planning and Operations. “So what have we learned? People watch more content when we deliver it in a seamless, integrated experience. Delivering content across multiple platforms doesn’t cannibalize viewership, it expands it.”

Recently, he says, “Disney commissioned our largest body of research to date. New insights coming from Generation Stream, which explores streaming behaviors and motivations around the world, show us that we are moving toward cross-cultural and global streaming consumption.”

Objectives for an international audience

“I’m excited to share with you that we’re adding new global audience segments that represent unique streaming styles and emotional states around the world, and they’ll be ready to activate soon,” says Matteson. “So, for the world’s biggest brands that connect with global audiences and need a comprehensive view of today’s streaming, there is no better partner than Disney.”

“We’ve introduced a wide range of innovations to simplify the way you and your brand interact with us, to meet you where you are in your data and measurement journey,” says Dana McGraw, Senior Vice President of Data Science and Measurement, who delivered the keynote. Streaming media delivery 2024, to discuss how Disney is leveraging data science to empower advertisers. “Among these innovations are our Audience Graph and Disney Select, our suite of advanced segmentation and targeting solutions that are rapidly expanding. Today, we are proud to announce that we are expanding these products globally in all markets where Disney+ is available. This we launched in the fall Audience Graph and Disney Select divisions are in Latin America, and EMEA will be next on the roadmap.”

Disney advertisers will soon be able to reach four new global audience segments with descriptive names: Empathetic Runaways, Reflective Explorers, Social Shapers, and Comfort Deliverers.

Lively and personal

Disney promises that its ability to seamlessly deliver millions of simultaneous streams will enable targeted advertising, rather than sending the same ad to all viewers. “Using the power of automated and real-time bidding to drive valuable live impressions, advertisers will be able to reach specific consumers with personalized creative across tens of thousands of live games on the ESPN platform,” says Matteson. “This direct advertising technology will be a key part of the launch of ESPN’s Flagship Direct to Consumer Service later this year.”

ESPN’s Direct-To-Consumer service will bring ESPN’s existing linear TV feeds to streaming, in addition to ESPN+. “Within the ESPN app, when we launch our DTC service, we will also fully integrate features like betting, trading and fantasy, while offering a personalized SportsCenter experience, which to me will be an eclectic mix of Dodgers baseball, any college football and the NCAA,” Matteson says. Softball, baseball, the Boston Celtics, and the New York Rangers.”

Disney is offering biddable deals for live sports using Disney’s Ad Server, Google Display & Video 360, The Trade Desk, and Yahoo DSP, and will be the first demand-side platforms, with Magnite being the only third-party partner at launch.

Sign in or out?

At this year’s event, Disney actually managed to dial down the arrogance a few notches compared to last year’s session, and then I wanted to immediately walk out and try to remove all of my personal data from anything Disney touched, because I as a consumer felt so insulted by how they discussed their packages of their customers’ personal information. Consumer privacy and consent Issues remain of paramount importance in relation to all of this targeted advertising.

This year I felt that even though this was clearly a sales event, I was really interested in trying to analyze what insights I could get from the presentation. However, like most talk about ad tech and advertising, nothing is very straightforward, but Disney’s approach appears to be becoming more transparent, which is a welcome development.

So, the result? Going forward, the mouse should deliver better targeted ads and a better ad experience. If they can do all that without making me want to opt out of all my data, then they’re really onto something.

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