• by Wayne Friedman , January 11, 2024

Deepening its ad-tech and data business for 2024 and for the upfront spring and summer selling season, Disney Advertising is adding more data-measurement providers, expanding its "clean room" efforts to other providers, and has started up its first streaming "shoppable" ad format.

Disney released these new ad-tech additions at its annual “Global Tech & Data Showcase” on Wednesday for the first time at the Consumer Electronics Show.

For its "shoppable" streaming push, Disney says its "Gateway Shop’ beta program allows viewers to purchase favorite products without disrupting their viewing by receiving prompts to their phone via push notifications or email. 

Unilever is one of a number of marketers participating in this initial test -- which looks to drive awareness with minimal viewer disruption.

Disney says research is on its side, showing that 75% of viewers would rather see an interactive TV ad than a standard commercial, according to a survey by Lucid last year.

A previous streaming/interactive ad format from Disney also used a second screen where viewers could get personalized offers or promotions to their mobile device via email, push notification, or QR code

Last year, Disney laid claim to a strong "Binge and Pause" ad format on Hulu  -- where viewers who paused video, in the midst of binge watching a streaming TV show, could see a static, mostly display-type ad on the screen. 

Pause ads used by other companies are believed to be less intrusive than standard TV/video advertising.

Disney also says it has struck a "real-time" data-measurement deal with Innovid and Lucid, which has helped marketers like 2K Games, The Hershey Company and Josh Cellars measure ad recall, consideration, purchase intent and brand favorability, as well as giving those brands access to campaign results in flight.

Disney also says it has expanded its "clean room" technology efforts -- which can match first-party data from marketers with Disney’s own priority data -- to other cloud services:  Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud. 

Through another deal with Habu, a data clean-room software platform, Disney has started up a self-serve portal for clean-room efforts for marketers.

Previously Disney also announced its Disney Campaign Manager, a self-serve media buying platform catering to small to midsize marketers, has expanded to more than more than 4,200 brands since its launch in 2021.