In the latest move signaling a rise in interactive connected TV ad formats, BrightLine on Tuesday announced broader collaboration with Disney Advertising that significantly expands availability of its clickable ad formats, which are meant to drive viewer engagement and boost brand results.
Disney has tapped BrightLine for interactive ad formats before, but they were previously only available on select Hulu inventory.
The latest brings the vendor’s full suite of remote control-enabled CTV ad formats (which include BrightLine’s most popular like product carousels, polls, trivia and advergames) to Disney+ and live sports and events on Fubo TV.
It should be noted that interactive formats from BrightLine have been available on Fubo since 2024 but Fubo only more recently transitioned under the Disney Ad Sales umbrella (and is near completion of integrating into the ad tech stack) after Disney last year took ownership control of the virtual MVPD and combined it with the Hulu + Live TV service.
And notably, in addition to direct activations, BrightLine’s interactive CTV ad formats will be available programmatically across all of Disney programmatic streaming ad inventory (including Disney+, Hulu and Fubo TV).
Programmatic availability for Hulu and Fubo TV is active today, while programmatic access to the ad formats on Disney+ starts February 10.
BrightLine has had a programmatic footprint before in the FAST ecosystem with smart TV partners like LG Ads, Samsung, Roku and Vizio. But the latest with Disney streaming ad inventory marks BrightLine’s first premium programmatic partnership on interactive ad formats at this scale, with the potential for advertisers to reach a significantly larger audience.
StreamTV Insider recently published a Special Report on the rise of interactive CTV ad formats, in which Disney Advertising SVP of Addressable Sales Jamie Power told us that she thinks uptake of interactive ads is moving past the point of pilots and experimentation into more scaled adoption.
And today’s news is another step in that direction.
“Disney Advertising has been foundational to the evolution of interactive CTV,” said Rob Aksman, president of BrightLine, in a statement. “This expansion is a natural next step—bringing engagement-led streaming advertising to more premium environments, more moments, and more audiences, while preserving what matters most: a great viewer experience.”
The expanded availability means more Disney content for advertisers to run interactive formats against and expanded buying options like programmatic can also help boost adoption.
Disney rolled out some interactive formats programmatically last year and launched enhanced ads in the Disney Campaign Manager self-service platform.
“When we did we saw it was like hockey stick growth on interactive ads when programmatic buyers were able to buy it,” Power told StreamTV Insider this past fall.
Others like DirecTV have also pointed to programmatic availability as helping increase adoption of new ad formats like Pause Ads.
As covered in the report, BrightLine has emerged as a leading vendor of advanced interactive CTV ad formats, with integrations across most major streamers and hundreds of apps.
Interoperable formats that can be deployed and scale across the wide range of streaming platforms out there, like those from BrightLine, are one of the factors that Power attributed to driving increased adoption of interactive ads among advertisers. That’s in part, per Power, because advertisers are buying campaigns across CTV and want to have a unified ad experience that’s consistent across platforms so that it can be measured.
In addition, interactive CTV ads have the potential to drive greater revenue for platforms themselves, command higher CPMs, and enhance the ad viewing experience.
While there are plenty of vendors in the space offering different flavors, BrightLine specifically has a suite that are driven by interaction on the screen with a TV remote, such as scrollable product or retail carousels, trivia and poll formats and advergames, among its most popular.
These are meant to encourage viewers to lean in and browse items, have fun with trivia or play a game that ties in brand elements. The formats can also tie into IP or content on the platform – which BrightLine said consistently increases engagement when ads are aligned with premium content, and where availability across Disney inventory could provide more opportunities to do so.
And advertisers are leaning into interactive CTV ads that drive engagement from the viewer as they’re more measurable and have proven performant in driving lifts in results for brands at different stages of the marketing funnel.
According to BrightLine, recent studies have shown the vendor’s interactive campaigns drove a 36% lift in brand recall versus standard CTV ads, along with an 8% lift in purchase intent among engaged viewers.
“Disney and BrightLine are pushing interactivity forward – in a way that scales,” stated Power in Tuesday’s announcement. “By bringing remote-control interactive formats across our streaming supply and into programmatic, we’re giving advertisers more control in activation, deeper engagement with viewers, and outcomes you can actually measure.”
To learn more about the rise in interactive CTV ad formats, check out our deep dive report here.
Article updated in the third graph to clarify that interactive formats from BrightLine have been available on Fubo since 2024, although the vMVPD's shift into Disney Ad Sales umbrella is more recent.