Selling directly to consumers is a source of revenue growth for a variety of brands, whether it’s an established multinational like Nike in sportswear or a disruptor like Dollar Shave Club in men’s grooming products. Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands seek measurable results in every part of the purchase funnel, and Disney will highlight how it helps to drive outcomes as part of its second annual Tech and Data Showcase tomorrow.
“The number of brands we’ve partnered with has grown by 30% year over year,” Michaela Giovengo, vice president of performance marketing sales at media giant Disney, said in this interview with Beet.TV. “Over 70% of the brands that we have partnered with have returned to the platform.”
Advertisers have an opportunity to get an immediate response from the millions of consumers who look at their smartphones as they watch television. This “second-screen” experience can include everything from chatting on social media about what they’re watching to responding to a call to action in a video spot. With streaming video, viewers have more control over these experiences.
“That’s been really a core to our streaming strategy,” Giovengo said. “We’ve seen streaming explode over the last few years and it’s because we’re giving consumers that choice. They can watch streaming where they want, how they want to watch it and we’re doing the same thing with our ad experiences.”
No ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ for Brands
SmileDirectClub, the maker of teeth aligners, and HelloFresh, the provider of home meal kits, are among the DTC brands that have seen positive results from their campaigns across Disney’s media properties. Disney not only has streaming platforms like its ad-supported tier of Hulu, but also network brands such as ABC, ESPN and FX.
“We know the majority of streaming now is done in the living room on the big screen,” Giovengo said. “To give that opportunity for consumers to be able to interact with the ad on their second screen has been really important.”
Marketers are pushing for more granular data about the viewing habits of target audiences. For DTC brands, this information is crucial in generating a direct response. Disney aims to provide flexibility for different campaign objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs).
“We’ve always worked with brands to understand their KPIs and provide solutions to measure what they’re looking for,” Giovengo said. “We know that it’s not ‘one-size-fits-all.’ It’s why at Disney we’ve partnered with various measurement solutions for brands to partner with different providers.”
Disney this week announced a deal with digital measurement firm Samba TV that will give advertisers more tools to evaluate campaign effectiveness. With the Disney Tech and Data Showcase tomorrow, the company also will tout its learnings in the past year.
“We’re excited to share more about measurement partners we’ve on-boarded and the progress that we’ve made with data, automation, innovative ad products and measurement,” Giovengo said. “We have found that DTC brands — and brands across the industry — are continuing to utilize programmatic and automation to be able to optimize … through our different automation channels.”
