Disney Teams With Google, Trade Desk to Sell Streaming Ads to Wider Base

Walt Disney Co. is teaming up with two big programmatic sellers in a bid to broaden the ad base for Hulu and Disney+.

The entertainment giant, which also operates ABC and ESPN, said the pacts with Google’s Display & Video 360 and The Trade Desk will help make streaming ad inventory across the two platforms more accessible to a wider array of marketers — national, as well as regional and local.

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“Disney’s goal is to empower advertisers to transact with the freedom and flexibility that best suits their business needs,” said Jamie Power, senior vice president of addressable sales at Disney Advertising, in a statement. “Owning our own technology stack allows us to build a direct path between our premium inventory and the leading media buying platforms in the industry, simplifying the way ads are bought and sold on Disney, while delivering greater effectiveness for our clients.”

The company unveiled what it calls DRAX, or Disney’s Real-Time Ad Exchange, in March 2021. More TV networks are trying to lure smaller advertisers to streaming video, conscious that many of the big marketers upon which they have relied are taking traditional TV dollars and earmarking them for digital video venues. Thanks to the interactive nature of streaming, which hands subscribers more control over what they watch and how they do so, there is room for regional and local marketers to beam their commercials next to popular video selections. Many of them do so programmatically, on a real-time basis, directed by algorithms keyed in to desires for specific kinds of consumers and audiences,.

Disney said the pacts with Trade Desk and Google will create ” a simpler, streamlined approach to addressable buying across Disney’s streaming portfolio, including Hulu and Disney+.”

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