Combine two giant digital ad management platforms, and what do you get?

A content powerhouse, according to the man bringing them together.

From October 1, the video ad management platforms at Disney and Hulu combine as a single one called Disney Hulu XP, helping ad buyers make one buy across the combined footprint and reduce repeat ad exposure on either platform.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, Matthew Barnes, Sr. Director, Programmatic Sales & Strategy  at The Walt Disney Company, discusses the launch.

Single path

“From a programmatic standpoint, the thing that is biggest coming to market is the ability to put Disney and Hulu in a single storefront,” he says.

“Historically, buyers have had to come to Disney and to Hulu separately to access that premium inventory. And for the first time ever, we’re going to allow it in a single seat for buyers to activate against all of that content.

“Any of the inventory that’s available direct on the Hulu side is available programmatically. And, on the Disney side, all of our content that we have enabled to execute programmatically will be available in this offering, which is going to provide the marketplace with scale that they haven’t seen before from a premium publisher of our size.”

Barnes says the path to purchase will be further smoothed by the system being a single supply source, boosting transparency. It is powered by Magnite.

Platforms are key

That singularity is important to Barnes, because he thinks publishers’ connections to demand-side ad platforms (DSPs) is becoming critical.

“The DSPs are a huge component of the ecosystem and something that, frankly, we’re spending a lot more time talking with the DSPs about how we can create a better working relationship, a better connection between publishers and the buy-side,” he adds.

“In the world of connected TV in the future, it really comes down to, ‘How we can create the right connection to allow our customers, advertisers, to scale in a safe way across our whole portfolio to find their actual users?’

“And that’s where that data really comes into play, and making sure that we have that safe in a privacy-enabled way.

“Disney, fortunately, has the ability to have a rich archive of first-party data that we can tap into.”

You are watching a segment from a Beet.TV series titled Programmatic Buying: Accountability & Transparency in Focus presented by MediaMath.  For more videos from the series, please visit this page. 

By Robert Andrews on    @robertandrews