Bringing ad tier capabilities global
Ferro told Adweek that Disney+ launched more modestly with around 100 advertisers to ensure the company delivered on campaigns. And that strategy has proven successful, with the global ads president addintg, “We didn’t underdeliver anyone.”
“When partners come in and they take a bet on you, and they want to be part of the product experience, they also expect that you’re gonna be able to deliver on that product experience,” Ferro said. “Everything we learned in the U.S. was really informing how we rolled out around the world.”
And with the U.S. launch leading to the global rollout, Disney+ is looking to replicate its U.S. offerings internationally too.
“Bringing capabilities around the global is important for us as we think about what other territories around the world we’re going to be entering,” Ferro said.
With that in mind, not all markets are created equal.
“Price sensitivity now requires that you have multiple offerings in the marketplace to service customers, however they want to consume and with whatever experience they want to consume,” Ferro said. “So that’s been super important for us.”
A continued focus on privacy
Recently, Disney announced 140 brands are now engaged in its clean rooms, with commitments from all major holding companies. Ferro said that’s important for leveraging Disney audience data to identify customers’ core audiences in a privacy compliant way.
“Privacy is at the forefront of everything we build around targeting. And so the notion of having these 140 clean rooms in the marketplace really allows customers to leverage their first-party data in a way to create the outcomes they want,” Ferro said. “We’ve actually made sure that we have that interoperable across measurement partners, all of the platforms we work with and all of the DSPs we work with in the market.”
Thus far, the company has integrated 30 DSPs (demand side platforms), allowing advertisers to buy both Hulu and Disney+ in different marketplaces.
Expansion, expansion, expansion
After adding advanced targeting and enhanced measurement in the ad tier’s first year, the company wants to continue to expand its audience graph and targeting capabilities globally to serve customers coming in through different markets.
It’s all in an effort to let advertisers “buy once and deliver everywhere,” according to Ferro, as the company forms more relationships and partnerships to deliver an ever-improving ad experience.
“Our philosophy is we have a global product stack and a global ad tech stack, but we implement and rollout things locally and serve local customers in those regions,” Ferro said. “But if there is someone who wants to buy globally, we have the capabilities to offer that as well.”
