Just ahead of Disney+’s planned launch in Latin America later this week, Disney announced expanding tools for advertisers outside of the U.S., alongside a partnership and adtech integration with Mercado Libre.
Disney+ is launching in Latin America on June 26 and on Monday the company disclosed opening up its Audience Graph and clean room technology – utilizing the recently unveiled Disney BridgeID – to advertisers in global markets for the first time, starting with Latin America.
Last week during Cannes Lions Disney debuted its BridgeID, which connects the Disney Audience Graph that uses proprietary first-party data with third-party ID solutions. The enhanced ID data is meant to help improve targeting while doing so in a privacy-focused way through Disney clean room technology. AdExchanger reported that BridgeID is essentially a synthetic ID that has already been integrated with The Trade Desk-pioneered Unified Identity 2.0 (UID2) and also works with identifiers such as Yahoo’s ConnectID, LiveRamp’s RampID and Experian’s LUID, helping to provide more data and higher match rates for advertisers looking to reach target audiences.
“For the first time, since scaling our offering to thousands of advertisers in the US, we have expanded Disney’s Audience Graph and Clean Room technology to a global region beginning with Latin America, for more precise and performance-driven planning, buying and measurement,” said Dana McGraw, SVP of Data and Measurement Science at Disney, in a statement.
As for Mercado Libre (MELI), an online commerce and digital banking platform, the partnership involves multiple fronts. One aspect is bundling, with a previously disclosed distribution relationship where Disney+ Standard with Ads will be included in the company’s loyalty membership program MELI+, in Argentina. Brazil, Mexico, Chile and Columbia at launch.
It also calls for data and ad tech integrations, where brands in LATAM can now leverage MELI’s retail and purchase insights alongside Disney’s Audience Graph first-party data, through BridgeID, to target viewers on streaming. The partnership includes a direct connection between Mercado Ads demand-side platform (DSP) and Disney’s in-house Real Time Ad Exchange (DRAX) so brands can activate on biddable Disney+ inventory for programmatic buying, with data connections to the Audience Graph via BridgeID. It marks Disney’s latest direct DRAX integration with DSPs, having inked relationships with Google’s Display & Video 360 and The Trade Desk earlier this year. By directly integrating its streaming inventory through relationships like those with DSPs and MELI, which also utilize data, technology and automation, Disney can enable easier access to its inventory for advertisers – in this case those in LATAM specifically as Disney+ gears up for launch in the region - while also providing more performance and insights for brands.
“This alliance empowers advertisers to enhance their use of retail media, improving performance and achieving superior campaign results by combining Disney’s advanced audience solutions with Mercado Libre’s extensive first-party data,” said Fernando Rubio, advertising VP of Mercado Libre, in a statement. “Advertisers can now reach users across the entire Mercado Libre ecosystem with a single campaign, whether they are shopping or enjoying Disney entertainment.”
Disney+ in Latin America will offer a single unified app that brings together content like Marvel and Star Wars, as well as dedicated sections for Star+ general entertainment programming and ESPN sports rights, including live streaming of ESPN and ESPN 3 linear channels.
In March in the U.S. Disney launched a fully integrated Hulu-Disney+ app experience for subscribers of the Disney Bundle.
On the advertising front the company has been building up capabilities and features. That includes new interactive and shoppable ad formats powered by BrightLine and Kerv Interactive, respectively. On the retail data front it secured an agreement in May with Walmart Connect to pair the retailer’s audience and measurement data with Disney’s addressable streaming inventory and audience graph for enhanced targeting and outcome-based ad measurement. One aim of that partnership is for closed-loop attribution for brand campaigns that run across the Disney streaming portfolio, including Hulu and Disney+
As for international ambitions, Disney’s not the only streamer launching updated app experiences. Warner Bros. Discovery has touted early success of a Max roll out in 39 territories across Latin America and the Caribbean, along with recent and upcoming launches in Europe and APAC.