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As third-party cookies are phasing out, the race to refine first-party data strategies is on, and Disney is leading the charge. At CES 2025, Nadine Krefetz, contributing editor at Streaming Media, captured the key elements of Disney’s approach in her article, “CES 2025: Disney Ad Tech, Ad Targeting, and Ad Buying.” The piece provides an insightful glimpse into how Disney is addressing the growing demand for personalized advertising while improving transparency and efficiency in ad buying. The key takeaway is that, even if you’re Disney, it’s not enough to have great content; you must enable your advertisers to benefit from it.
Disney’s initiatives were presented as part of a broader strategy to adapt to the challenges of cookie deprecation. Here’s a breakdown of the key moves Disney is making and how they benefit advertisers:
- Unified Ad Tech Stack: A global platform to simplify ad buying, improve transparency, and unify data measurement for brands. Benefit: Advertisers gain better insights into campaign performance and have a streamlined process to manage cross-platform campaigns, boosting confidence in their ad spend.
- AI-Driven Personalization: Disney Select AI uses lookalike audiences and sequential messaging to minimize ad duplication and increase relevance. Benefit: Advertisers can deliver cohesive, story-driven campaigns to the right audiences, reducing wasted impressions and enhancing engagement.
- Audience Graph and Segmentation: Proprietary tools like Disney Select and Audience Graph scale globally, now active in Latin America with plans for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) next. Benefit: Brands can target precise audience profiles, such as “Empathetic Escapists” or “Comfort Connectors,” for emotionally resonant and highly relevant messaging.
- Introduction of Buyer Categories: Disney unveiled four new global audience segments—Empathetic Escapists, Reflective Explorers, Social Shapers, and Comfort Connectors. Benefit: Advertisers can tailor their campaigns to distinct audience archetypes, enabling more contextually relevant and effective advertising.
- Generation Stream Platform: Research-backed insights into consumer behavior drive innovation in how Disney connects brands with audiences. Benefit: Advertisers benefit from data-driven strategies that align campaigns with emerging global streaming behaviors, ensuring they stay ahead of consumer trends.
- Live and Interactive Ad Innovations: Advanced targeting for live sports and ESPN’s upcoming Direct-To-Consumer service, integrating real-time programmatic bidding and interactive features. Benefit: Brands can reach captivated live audiences during high-stakes events, delivering personalized, time-sensitive ads that maximize impact.
As Disney refines its approach, the key lesson is clear: great content and intelligent targeting go hand in hand. Platforms looking to thrive in a post-cookie world must prioritize personalization, transparency, and innovative ad delivery strategies to meet both consumer expectations and advertiser needs. If you’re not messaging your first-party data to make it more useful and accessible, you’re falling behind.
