Like a pumpkin turning into an elaborate stagecoach, Disney’s programmatic ad sales have grown rapidly in recent months.
According to the company’s earnings report last week, Disney’s DTC division – which includes its streaming services – increased its operating income from $289 to $336 million year over year.
Now, almost half of the DTC business is transacted through automated channels, said Jamie Power, Disney Advertising’s SVP of addressable sales.
Disney’s streaming business grew 12% this past quarter and now almost half of that business is in automated channels, Power told AdExchanger. Disney’s programmatic sales were up 30% in the past year, she added.
Similarly, total biddable ad revenue was up 41%, which, according to Power, makes it the fastest-growing channel for Disney’s addressable sales segment. She attributes much of this success to an increase in small and mid-market advertisers transacting through automated channels with Disney, including almost 1,000 new advertisers in the first half of this year alone.
AdExchanger caught up with Power in advance of Disney’s upfront presentation this week to chat about the entertainment conglomerate’s programmatic business.
ADEXCHANGER: Besides the addition of new advertisers, what else is increasing programmatic growth?
Jamie Power: Disney was one of the first publishers to say that however you transact, it counts toward your upfront commitment. So, yes, I do think it’s related to the inclusion and increase of mid-market advertisers. But we’re also seeing other interesting trends.
When you look at biddable [inventory] last year, the composition of our biddable dollars was about 30% up from commitments and 70% scatter. And when I look at the biddable channel this year, it’s actually flipped. So 70% of our biddable deals are now tied to upfront deals that we have with the major holdcos.
At NewFronts last week, it seemed like publishers and platforms have tried to come out strong despite concerns of economic uncertainty. Is that borne out by conversations with advertisers on your end?
What I love about upfront season is it’s a moment in time when everyone stops to have meaningful conversations about the challenges the agencies are facing. It’s our job to listen and come back with solutions that are going to create value for them and their advertisers. So the conversations that we’re having are always around partnerships.
The biggest trend that’s probably happening across the board is the need for flexibility across different categories, because impacts are varied across the whole industry. That does lend itself to a world where you continue to see the acceleration of automated programmatic channels. It lets you come in and out, and you have more flexibility around the way that you’re buying.
How much do you anticipate programmatic opportunities growing from this point? Is there a ceiling?
We’ve been pretty public about our automation goals, and by 2027 we believe that 75% of the business will be automated. We’ve made significant investments in making our live sports and live entertainment available through biddable channels, as well as the ability to do interactive ads.
The ability to buy a unified data set across multiple publishers, and to measure everything consistently in marketplaces that continue to have more ad supported ad inventory out there – I just think it lends itself to automation. And it creates more value for agencies and advertisers as they’re buying.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed.
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