Disney selling CTV ads on Google and The Trade Desk in strategy shift

Disney is selling ads through Google and The Trade Desk’s demand-side platforms, the media giant announced Wednesday, in a move that opens up video inventory on Disney+ and Hulu but also marks a departure in strategy for Disney. The move makes Disney’s connected TV ad inventory more open on programmatic ad markets, the place where brands buy ads across the web. Disney will sell ad slots through Google’s Display and Video 360 and The Trade Desk. “Years ago, we committed to a vision and strategy of delivering 50% of our advertising in an addressable and automated way,” said Jamie Power, senior VP of addressable sales, Disney Advertising, in the announcement. “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.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Disney has been developing an ad tech platform as it builds its streaming TV ecosystem, which includes Disney+ and Hulu. In 2021, Disney launched DRAX—the Disney Real-Time Ad Exchange—an automated ad platform. This is the first time Disney’s ad exchange is integrating directly with Google and The Trade Desk’s ad demand platforms, but Disney inventory has been accessible in programmatic advertising through Magnite, the supply-side platform. Disney still works with Magnite, which connects with about 30 demand-side partners and tech providers to help small- and medium-size businesses buy ads on Disney. The new direct relationship with Google and The Trade Desk turns Disney’s ad ecosystem into its own supply-side platform that plugs directly into its exchange. Disney already had a close relationship with Google by using Google Ad Manager as part of a strategic partnership. Google Ad Manager provides tools that media companies use to run digital ads on their sites and apps. Disney’s latest move to integrate with Google Display and Video 360 comes as it heads into the upfront season, when advertisers are planning their media buys for the year ahead. It also comes as Google plans to deprecate cookies, or internet data trackers, on Chrome web browsers by the end of the year. The end of cookies, and other online data restrictions, have pushed media companies to develop closer ties with ad tech partners, such as Google and The Trade Desk, to facilitate ad targeting and measurement through direct relationships. In June, Disney announced an expanded partnership with Google at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, by adopting a new ad ID system Google made to help publishers in a post-tracking ecosystem. Also read: How advertisers are preparing for the cookie shutdown By hooking into Disney’s ad exchange, Google gives its Display and Video 360 advertisers “a new way to directly purchase Disney’s high-quality CTV inventory and reach their audience,” said Stephen Yap, managing director Americas, Google Marketing Platform, in the announcement. As for The Trade Desk, a growing force in streaming TV, Disney said it would participate in OpenPath. That is a program The Trade Desk developed to create closer ties with premium publishers, making advertising more effective and addressable between its demand-side platform and the media entities. In the announcement, The Trade Desk noted that Disney had already adopted Unified ID 2.0, which is a post-cookie identifier. Now, The Trade Desk is “creating a custom integration between our OpenPath technology and DRAX in service of advertisers, and to help drive transparency in digital media buying,” Will Doherty, VP of inventory development at The Trade Desk, said in the announcement, “as we navigate an increasingly complicated digital landscape.”

Disney selling CTV ads on Google and The Trade Desk in strategy shift

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