Disney expands global ad tech platform
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Disney has expanded the proprietary customer data that underpins its ad tech platform to Europe, executives told Axios.
Why it matters: The expansion comes as Disney's competitors race to build their own global ad tech businesses as the subscription streaming landscape becomes more saturated.
- Netflix, for example, plans to roll out its ad tech stack in the U.S. and other countries this year.
- Disney has also made it possible for advertisers to buy ad inventory for all live events across Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ simultaneously for the first time using the platform.
Zoom in: "Foundationally, our audience graph that we've now expanded globally is really the underpinning for everything that we're doing," said Dana McGraw, Disney's senior vice president of data and measurement science.
- Disney expanded its audience graph and its audience identity solution called Bridge ID to Latin America last year.
- The company will now begin to expand throughout Europe on a market by market basis, McGraw said.
- Expanding its audience graph to more geographies allows advertisers to target ads across more regions with different language barriers and local advertising regulations.
Between the lines: In addition to the audience data expansion, Disney is also allowing advertisers to purchase ads for live programs across all of its platforms using the same unified Disney ad server.
- Advertisers can use biddable automation to buy ads in real-time against live programming, which is especially critical for live sports.
- "We have the largest kind of sports portfolio, right? So it's a natural thing for us to want to invest in," said Jamie Power, senior vice president of addressable sales at Disney.
- "We're making sure that the technology is keeping up with where the audiences are going. That way, our advertisers are able to connect with audiences in real time."
Zoom out: Disney's longtime investment in Hulu, which it bought fully in 2023, gave it a significant lead in the ad tech space.
- In January, the company said its streaming platforms have an estimated 157 million global monthly active users on its ad-supported streaming tiers.
What to watch: In addition to the expansion of its own tools, Disney is also eyeing new ways to partner with other tech companies to make it easier for advertisers to buy ads across its sites.
- For example, in parts of Latin America, the company now makes it possible for advertisers to buy automated advertising deals across Disney platforms through Google's ad tech, powered by a connection through Magnite, an ad tech firm that powers automated advertising.
Editor's note: This story has been updated after Disney clarified that its ad tech expansion will include parts of Europe (not the Middle East).
