Disney, LiveRamp partner to provide first-party tools for streaming ads

Disney and LiveRamp announced a new integration that will primarily serve advertisers who are buying inventory on Disney streaming services.

The news: A partnership between Disney Advertising and data collaboration platform LiveRamp will provide advertisers with more ways to reach audiences through CTV, the companies said. It creates a way for marketers to harness first-party data as they seek to reach users on Disney’s streaming platforms.

How does it work? The integration will create interoperability between Disney and LiveRamp in the following ways:

RampID, which is LiveRamp’s people-based identifier, will integrated with Disney’s Audience Graph. RampID helps companies to connect across offline and online first-party data. It’s designed to allow brands to reach consumers wherever they are in a buying journey. Brands can now use this to personalize experiences on Disney streaming services, the companies said.

In turn, buyers will be able to access premium CTV inventory through Disney+ when using LiveRamp’s Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS). As advertisers are seeking to reach the right customers, ATS helps publishers match consented user data with a RampID. The enabler is first-party logins, rather than third-party identifiers.

Key quote from Disney SVP of Addressable Sales Jamie Power: “With marketers seeking solutions that leverage first-party data versus pixels and cookies, Disney Advertising continues to architect solutions that put choice and control back in the hands of buyers. We’re excited to expand the aperture of interoperability through our new integration with Experian and LiveRamp, which will give advertisers increased reach and optimized frequency across Disney inventory while powering greater choice and control for buyers.”

Where advertising is heading

The partnership highlights two trends shaping the changing digital advertising landscape:

CTV, or Connected TV, describes advertising that is designed for streaming services. Disney is a key player in streaming through its service Disney+. The service has grown to reach 161.8 million subscribers. With an ad-supported tier that launched in November, Disney is introducing more opportunities for brands to reach consumers. CTV advertising holds the promise of combining the ability to reach the captive audience of TV with the targeting and measurement capabilities of the internet. To make advertising more effective, streaming platforms will increasingly add capabilities that allow advertisers to more effectively reach the right consumers. This integration offers one such example of a building block moving into place.

First-party data: For years, digital advertising was powered by third-party tools such as the pixels and cookies referenced by Power that helped brands understand consumer behavior and intent based on their movement across websites. But changes coming to digital advertising as a result of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency and the coming end of third-party cookies are putting a priority on first-party data, which is collected directly from consumers through a purchase or loyalty program. Typically, retailers possess this data from checkout and shopping activity, but the changes being put in place create barriers to sharing it between web properties. Streaming services like Disney may not have ready access to first-party data, as they are currently a medium for viewing rather than buying. Integrations with services like LiveRamp can help streaming services access that first-party data. This integration underscores how services like Disney are building out these capabilities through partnerships.

Further reading: LiveRamp also recently partnered with Pinterest to provide access to data clean rooms, which are also gaining importance in the privacy-centric advertising market.