What You Can Expect From Disney+'s Ad Tier in 2024

Disney+ is looking to introduce even more consumers and brands to the wonderful world of advertising in 2024. It's been a big first year for Disney+'s ad tier, with the streaming plan increasing user engagement 35% from March to September 2023 and 50% of new Disney+ sign-ups heading to the ads plan, according to Rita Ferro, the company's global ads president. "People don't mind watching ads when you have good advertising and a good advertising experience," Ferro told Adweek. The company is focused on improving that advertising experience as it forges ahead with its global expansion, rolling out in nine markets in Europe and Canada in early November and growing to include 1,000 advertisers around the world. "The learnings we had in the U.S. on how adoption happens when a new platform launches and the importance of how advertising shows up in that experience—managing the number of partners we work with over time and getting that right—the feedback has really been strong in terms of how we delivered it versus other platforms in the market," Ferro said. With the ad tier's first year in the books, Ferro spoke to Adweek about the streaming and TV priorities in 2024 and beyond. Rita Ferro on Pulling Off Disney’s Upfront Event Without Jimmy Kimmel More innovative ad formats and tools After launching Disney+'s ad tier with relatively basic ad formats, the company expanded its offerings in 2023, now including everything from midrolls to :90s to select content sponsorships. For Ferro, more ad innovation and capabilities are top of mind heading into the new year. "The notion around ad innovation is critical for us going forward," Ferro said. "As we think about what brands are looking for, they want the tools to be able to unify audiences and simplify the process of buying media. They want to be able to buy total audience and demonstrate de-duplicated reach." Another innovation helping the ad tier, the company launched its Hulu on Disney+ beta offering to bundle subscribers in early December, which Ferro noted will let clients buy audiences across Hulu and Disney+ all in one place. Though a full integration is coming in March, Ferro said the company was "seeing better than expected metrics [for advertisers] across the board" in just the initial days since launch. 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."

Streaming & OTT

Here's What You Can Expect From Disney+'s Ad Tier in 2024

One year into the ads plan, Rita Ferro, Disney's global ads president, previews what's next for advertisers

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