BREAKING: Disney Set to Automate 75% of It's Ads Sales By 2027 (Sooo, AI is Taking Our Jobs?)

Well, it appears the House of Mouse (Disney) is well on its way to automating 75% of its advertising business by 2027, and they’re not exactly crawling toward the finish line. In fact, they’re zooming ahead, thanks to some serious strides made during this year’s TV and streaming upfronts.

(Source: Seeking Alpha) 

In short, during the Digiday Publishing Summit, Jamie Power, Disney’s SVP of addressable sales, dropped a bombshell on the room. She casually mentioned that over half of Disney’s streaming ad dollars are now transacted programmatically. That means machines are doing the heavy lifting, not humans. And if you’re doing the math, that’s billions of dollars flowing through algorithms and automated systems.

(Source: Giphy) 

So… what’s Disney’s secret sauce? Turns out, when you make all your streaming inventory available for automated purchase, advertisers tend to throw money at you. Crazy, right? Disney’s been rolling out interactive ad formats that can be bought programmatically, and the results have been chef’s kiss. In just six weeks, ad spend on these formats was eight times higher than the year before. 

(Source: The Information) 

What’s driving all this? Disney’s backend infrastructure is working like a dream. With their proprietary tech stack, they can publish an ad once and distribute it across all their platforms. No need to manually tweak and adjust for each endpoint. Just blast the friggin ad across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ all in one go.

(Source: Giphy) 

But the reach? Oh, it’s even more massive. The great part about this is if you’re running a campaign on Disney+ and then decide to sprinkle it over to Hulu, you’re automatically increasing your reach by 40%. What’s more, there’s only a 5% overlap in audiences. Translation? Different people are watching different content on each platform for different reasons. That’s a ton of fresh eyeballs for advertisers, making Disney’s streaming service a veritable goldmine for brands.

(Source: Giphy) 

On the other hand, there’s this thing called “biddable buying”, aka Disney’s new go-to strategy. It’s a bit like eBay for ad space. Last year, Disney flipped the script. They went from 70% guaranteed ad sales to 70% biddable, meaning advertisers are now bidding for their spots in real-time. With that said, it’s not exactly “set it and forget it,” though. 

(Source: Disney Advertising) 

Disney’s ad sales team still has to work closely with clients to make sure they’re getting the best bang for their buck. But the payoff is huge: the world’s biggest advertisers are now spending close to $100 million a year in these biddable environments. That’s some serious cash being thrown around.

(Source: Adweek) 

Of course, not everyone’s thrilled about Disney’s ad-tech dominance. Magnite, one of Disney’s tech partners, saw its stock tank nearly 11% after reports surfaced that Disney might downgrade their relationship with them. But according to some analysts, the sell-off might actually be a buying opportunity. Whether or not that’s true, one thing’s clear: Disney is definitely playing “innovator” here and they’re not afraid to body bag partners that stand in their way.  

(Source: Giphy) 

So in the end, with Disney closing in on its goal of automating 75% of its ad sales by 2027, it’s clear the company is betting big on programmatic. And honestly? It looks like they’re winning. The next few years will be all about fine-tuning this automated ad machine and figuring out how to keep the dollars rolling in. 

Meaning, if you’re a Disney investor today, congrats - you’re now in the AI space (kinda). How’s that for a little plot twist? 

In the meantime, keep an eye on Mickey’s ClubHouse and as always, stay safe and stay frosty, friends! Until next time… 

P.S. 54% short interest, and a 648.5% borrow fee?! Once this catalyst hits this little known stock… we could be going to the moon! Of course, we’ll be dropping the ticker symbol sometime soon… so click here ASAP to upgrade to premium so you don’t miss out on this seismic opportunity! 

Stocks.News holds positions in Disney as mentioned in the article.