Disney’s upfront—takeaways from its pitch to advertisers

Disney’s size was on full display during the Mouse House’s upfront show at New York’s Javits Center, as the Mouse House touted its size as an antidote for challenges in the advertising marketplace. This aligns with the view of multiple media buyers, who ahead of upfront week predicted Disney would be one of the big winners due to its vast amount of content, platforms and media channels. Disney showcased this breath with announcements on the next Marvel series, the star of “The Golden Bachelorette” and new sports analysts, as a barrage of celebrities from a “Star Wars” Wookiee to Kim Kardashian all graced the same stage. And Disney is leaning into the strength of its size as it enters yet another challenged upfront market, where marketers are living by what Rita Ferro, president of Disney advertising, called the “fewer, deeper partnerships” mentality. Ferro added that although media buyers describe an ad market that mirrors last year’s softness, she sees a markedly better marketplace than during this time last year, citing the state of multi-year sports commitments from advertisers being more robust this year compared to last year. “The growth areas [in the upfront] are sports and streaming,” Ferro told Ad Age. “I feel super confident in saying that no one this week will have the scale of sports and streaming that will be represented on [Disney’s] upfront stage.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs The media company also got a boost ahead of today’s upfront show thanks to a new Nielsen survey. The measurement company released the first edition of its “Media Distributor Gauge,” which ranks media companies by the percentage of total TV consumption they receive. Leading the pack for viewership in April is Disney, with 11.5%. While Disney’s competitors, including NBCU and Amazon, zoomed through their sports segments in favor of their entertainment content, Disney committed segments to each of its major sports franchises. Throughout the show, athletes and ESPN talent discussed the NFL, NBA, college leagues and women’s basketball. Disney also featured a showcase of its diverse-created and targeted content with Angela Bassett, Emma Roberts, Kim Kardashian and Michelle Williams highlighting women-led programming from “The Kardashians” to the Onyx Collective, which promotes content from diverse creators. Kimmel returns Jimmy Kimmel returned to Disney’s upfront after being absent last year due to the Hollywood strikes, and having to video call into the 2022 presentation because he tested positive for COVID. The late-night host joked he couldn’t find a third excuse to miss the show this year. Kimmel took cracks at Disney’s Ferro, joking she was “so excited about this after party. You’d think she’d never done cocaine before. I thought she was from Miami.” Kimmel also poked fun at Bob Iger’s intentions to sell its linear networks, saying it’s even more sad that no one wanted them. Disney’s competitors weren’t safe, either. Kimmel ended the set with a prayer, requesting help for “Linda Yaccarino to sell something other than Cheech and Chong gummies on Twitter.” Lastly, Kimmel pointed out the confusion around the current streaming marketplace. The comedian said Disney’s recently announced bundle with Max is like “when you’re freezing to death and have to crawl in a sleeping bag with your uncle so you don’t die.” “I haven’t seen this much corporate camaraderie in this business since last summer when they all worked together to starve the writers,” said Kimmel. Disney rewind After an introduction from Emma Stone, Disney CEO Bob Iger opened the company’s upfront show. The CEO said it was his first time on an upfront stage in 30 years, when he was head of ABC Entertainment. Iger said much has changed in the decades since his last appearance, and “I’m not talking about the color of my hair,” he joked. Disney continued its tactic of calling out its unique hold on childhood memories when ad chief Ferro also shared a memory to start her upfront pitch. An image of Ferro as a child with her mother at a Disney park appeared on screen as she said the power of Disney to create memories with fans is its top super power. Images of audience members with Disney characters followed, which Ferro said were submitted in advance. The theme continued throughout the show as celebrities also called up images of their family at Disney parks. Jim Gaffigan displayed an image of his children behind bars, joking that he unfortunately had to take them back home. Jason Kelce, who announced joining ESPN’s Monday Night Football analyst team, showed his children decked out in Mickey ears. In one segment on Disney’s live events, a video of Bruce Springsteen shared a memory of being kicked out of a Disney Park for violating the dress code. Tech and data showcase Disney has made a habit in recent years of separating its deep dive into ad capabilities for its Tech & Data Showcase, which was held this year in January at CES. At the event, Disney showed off shoppable ad formats powered by QR codes and AI, expanded measurement partners and AI tools for pairing ads with specific scenes from shows. Disney didn’t use the presentation to go deeper on those tools. Get upfront updates sent directly to your inbox here

Disney’s upfront—takeaways from its pitch to advertisers

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