Disney’s head of addressable advertising on the future of AI in TV and upfront uncertainty

As the TV upfronts approach under the cloud of continued economic uncertainty, the list of advertiser “must haves” in the video marketplace has become more prominent than ever before. While live sports will likely lead the marketplace, additional attention has been placed on the performance of TV advertising, and the ease with which marketers can activate across the historically labor-intensive medium.

Key Takeaways:

  • Disney boosts shoppable ads: Expands Kerv.ai partnership to make self-serve, interactive ads more accessible to smaller brands.
  • Programmatic surges in upfronts: 70% of Disney’s biddable media is now tied to upfront commitments, up from 30% last year.
  • AI powers smarter streaming ads: Real-time audience building and dynamic versioning drive stronger engagement.

 

For example, Disney continues to ramp up its streaming ads capabilities, focusing on performance as well as expanding flexible programmatic deals, which have seen exponential growth among marketers over the past year, Jamie Power, senior VP of addressable sales at Disney, told Ad Age at the Possible marketing conference in Miami Beach.

Disney is also expanding its partnership with Kerv.ai, the ad tech firm powering its shoppable ad formats—such as scannable QR codes and product carousels—to better serve small and mid-market advertisers. The expansion will allow brands buying through Disney’s self-serve ad buying platform, Disney Campaign Manager, to activate the interactive formats.

As Disney shops its innovations in streaming to upfront buyers, Ad Age sat down with Power to discuss the evolution of streaming, AI, upfront uncertainty and what the changing methods for buying media mean for the marketplace.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

 

What is the most exciting evolution you’re seeing in streaming ad capabilities?

 

We’ve talked about for years that streaming is the best of both worlds—TV and digital—coming together. And I don’t think it lived up to that potential until now because of two things: Now, there are new ad formats that are more appropriate [to the medium] that audiences can engage with, and live content is coming in.

If a [streaming] ad is done right, it adds value. The way that people are engaging with ads—you’re seeing more second-screen experiences and [brands] figuring out the right way to talk to audiences. When you do anything that’s interactive or gaming, the click-through and engagement rates are much higher than you would see on a traditional digital campaign.

 

What’s trending in your conversations here at Possible?

 

There is optimism about all of the things that are possible in the [streaming] space now, and you’re seeing different collaborations and companies work together that you might not have ever thought would. We’re trying to make [advertisers] innovate not in pockets, but innovate at scale and the true value of streaming is coming to life.

For example, you’re seeing different pockets of clients in all of our conversations talking about how they’re using AI. I love what we’re doing with Publicis Sapient—how they’re using AI to build an audience in real time and not lean back and wait for a client to send it. We’ve seen other clients use it more in measurement capabilities. It’s helping them get into “why did this campaign work?” and go beyond yes or no and figure out the pieces for optimization.

We’re also thinking about versioning, which takes it to the next level—right time, right audience, right format that’s going to engage them. So, not using AI to read a commercial, but using AI to create different versions of it that are going to play better with different people.

 

We’re headed back from Miami and straight into the TV upfronts. What are you hearing in terms of economic uncertainty, and how is Disney planning for those conversations?

 

You have to advertise—brands can’t go quiet. All of them are definitely making sure they’re activating measurement, iterating and learning. As we go into the marketplace, we want to be good partners to all of our advertisers—it’s our job to create value. So there may be certain categories where we’re going to need to be more flexible, and we’ll do that.

There’s no reason to panic. Whatever is going to happen, we’re going to all figure it out together.

 

How will the changes in the ways media is transacted and the growth of programmatic commitments set in the upfront factor into this uncertainty?

 

Disney was the first to say you can transact however you want to transact—you can buy in the upfront, you can buy it all programmatic, you can buy it direct IO. If you look at the last [broadcast] year by the numbers, when I look in biddable and our real-time marketplaces, 30% of biddable was tied to upfront commitments. This [broadcast] year, 70% is tied to upfront commitments. So it’s happening more in real time versus [clients] giving us a flow chart for the year and planning it out. Programmatic helps them unify buys across the entire ecosystem, have unified measurement, unified audiences and allows them to pump in and out on the moments that matter to them, so they don’t feel like they’re locked in. But again, they’re making the volume commitment in the upfront, and then they’re transacting programmatically.

 

Read the article on AdAge. 

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