Disney is rolling out ad targeting capabilities from Hulu to Disney+.
Advertisers will have access to basic targeting information, such as age, gender, and some geo-targeting. The full suite of ad targeting will be available by July and include 2,000 audience segments from the Disney Select first-party data platform. Disney is automating 50% of its ad sales and is currently at 35% automation. Disney Ad Server, a new platform, is driving ad tech across all of Disney’s addressable platforms. Agency executives noticed Disney’s efforts to unify its back-end ad tech operations to simplify the process of finding audiences across its ad inventory.
Disney has not shared the number of ad-supported subscribers Disney+ has, but an agency executive said they have not encountered ad delivery issues. A spokesperson confirmed that Disney is discussing a shift in ad spend for certain advertisers to diversify the creative ad rotation.
Disney’s push to unify its back-end ad tech operations is driven by the Disney Ad Server, which powers 100% of Hulu’s and Disney+’s ad platforms in the US. The platform is complemented by the Disney Yield Optimized Delivery Allocation product, which balances different types of ad buys, and the Disney Real-time Ad Exchange that sells ad inventory programmatically. Disney has made significant investments in technology to serve ads for the entire company.
Disney’s ability to manage the supply and demand dynamics for Disney+’s ad-supported tier has been helped by the company’s unified back-end tech operations. Disney has not run into under-delivery issues, as it has a whole streaming ecosystem beyond Disney+. If Disney+ were to run low on slots, campaigns could be rerouted to other inventory sources with advertiser approval.
Disney is making a push to unify its back-end ad tech operations and improve the targeting capabilities for advertisers on Disney+. By July, the full suite of ad targeting from Hulu will be available on Disney+. The company is automating 50% of its ad sales and has already achieved 35% automation. The new Disney Ad Server is driving ad tech across all of Disney’s addressable platforms, and the company’s investments in technology are helping it to manage the supply and demand dynamics for Disney+’s ad-supported tier.
