In Disney’s increasingly global approach to selling holiday advertising

It may be Halloween, but Disney Advertising has nothing to fear: The media giant’s advertising arm reports that it will top the total of holiday ad sales in 2023, with this year’s Disney+ holiday package advancing more than 15 percent.

To capitalize on these gains, Disney Advertising today (October 31) announced a geographic expansion of its holiday sponsorships on Disney+, taking them beyond North America to make them available in EMEA and Latin America for the first time. The news demonstrates how it continues to expand its streaming offering for advertisers in leading categories including financial services, CPG, retail and apparel, and healthcare around the world. In Europe, Disney has offered territory sponsorships for brands such as Chloé, Uber Eats and L’Oréal Paris, with more to come.

“There are so many brands now coming to us saying, ‘Help us think about our global strategy,'” said John Campbell, senior vice president of entertainment and streaming solutions for Disney Advertising. “US is really helping our regional partners figure out how we’re all doing this together, and for brands that really want global access to our audience, we have solutions for them.”

Billions of hours – and dollars

The investment from advertising partners such as The Hershey Company and Reckitt-owned Mucinex follows the time investment of an audience that consumed more than 10 billion hours of Disney entertainment content during the key October-November-December period last year, according to data Nielsen distributed by Disney.

Those billion hours come as consumers prepare to spend more money shopping than last year during the holiday season. The $980 billion forecast by the National Retail Federation. Nearly nine in 10 Disney viewers plan to spend the same or more on shopping this year and have a positive opinion of holiday ads, while more than half get ideas from holiday ads, according to Disney survey data.

“We’re really looking to be utilitarian for our consumers, and that doesn’t happen during the holiday season, when there are peak purchases, because people shop every day,” Campbell said. “We really want to celebrate every day and create celebrations in every day at Disney and have it feel celebrated and have social resonance and positivity come through that way.”

“We’re in peak shopping season right now… We’re seeing brands coming in every day for our holiday deals.”

John Campbell

SVP Entertainment and Streaming Solutions, Disney Advertising

Marketers are increasingly teaming with Disney on end-to-end campaigns, including sponsorship, co-branded listings, custom content and social media, as well as shopping and commerce experiences, to drive both brand and customer value. acquisition.

“We’re in peak shopping season right now,” Campbell said. “We see brands coming in every day for our holiday deals.”

Hershey returned to Disney last year for a sponsorship around Halloween and saw a twofold return on investment, helping boost the company’s bottom line. the first billion dollar Halloween season. In its first year as a Halloween sponsor, Mucinex this year became the first brand to create custom cross-channel integrations on both Hulu’s Huluween content and Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween content.

The gift of sport

Disney is not just an entertainment destination on platforms like Disney+, but a major player in sports media, controlling a third of sports impressions from November 2023 to January 2024 – more than any other broadcaster, according to Nielsen data shared by Disney.

The holiday season overlaps with key college football games, from Rivalry Week to the extended College Football Playoff, giving retail, tech and CPG brands an opportunity to engage audiences stuck around Thanksgiving, Black Friday and not only.

“Our sports programming this holiday season is designed to position brands at the center of fan excitement,” Danielle Brown, senior vice president of sports brand solutions at Disney Advertising, said in a statement. “We’re creating opportunities for brands to meet fans right where they are to celebrate the biggest moments of the season.”

This year, Disney will include shoppable QR code integrations during select rivalry games on ABC and ESPN, giving marketers another way to connect content to commerce as the two spaces continue to converge. Additionally, viewers of Huludays on Hulu will be able to shop the scene via a QR code powered by BrightLine and sponsored by Kroger.

“We’re creating opportunities for brands to meet fans right where they are to celebrate the biggest moments of the season.”

Danielle Brown

SVP Sports Brand Solutions, Disney Advertising

Meanwhile, the convergence of entertainment and sports has already been a boon for Disney. The company’s combined streaming business posted an operating profit of $47 million in Q3, compared with a loss of $512 million in the same quarter last year — turning profitable a quarter earlier than expected. Disney’s domestic streaming advertisers grew over 20% year-over-year, while programmatic revenue growth increased over 80%, on the details shared around the winnings.

The results are, in part, a testament to Disney’s work to demonstrate the results of its advertising offerings.

“I think we’ve done a really good job with our research and demonstrated to our client partners that attaching to some of these major events and being part of the conversation will drive the bottom line,” Campbell said.