Disney Advertising upgrades first-party data deal with The Trade Desk

Disney Advertising and global adtech company The Trade Desk have expanded their deal to power up greater audience activation at scale programmatically.  

Amid industry disruption from cookie deprecation, the agreement lets advertisers use first-party data in biddable environments, delivering relevant ads and privacy to consumers.

The agreement upgrades how advertisers access the media giant’s portfolio of premium content, rooted in secure data collaboration and powered by automation through Disney’s Clean Room technology, which was launched earlier this year.

Disney’s deal with The Trade Desk boosts interoperability with the programmatic ecosystem at scale, and sets the stage for better audience activation and measurement. It provides a path for advertisers to leverage their first-party data in biddable environments as the industry faces new disruption caused by the deprecation of third-party cookies. 

The expanded agreement will integrate Disney’s proprietary Audience Graph and the open-source identity framework, Unified ID 2.0, within a secure environment. This means buyers can find more addressable, biddable inventory across the Disney portfolio, all validated by Disney’s proprietary Audience Graph.

“With this agreement, Disney and The Trade Desk are pioneering a new approach to audience addressability in a post-cookie environment,” said Tim Sims, Chief Revenue Officer, The Trade Desk.

“By creating interoperability between Unified ID 2.0 and Disney’s Audience Graph, we are unlocking the opportunity for our customers to activate their first-party data at scale programmatically, against some of the world’s most premium content, across all channels. As a result, advertisers will be able to deliver relevant advertising, while ensuring consumers have more control of their own privacy.”   

“A milestone in addressability and automated buying at scale”

Rita Ferro, President, Advertising Sales, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, said: “We have spent years investing in our data and technology strategy to create innovative solutions for advertisers to engage their audiences with greater precision and accuracy in a privacy-focused way. This first-to-market capability sets the stage to empower access to the Disney portfolio, validated by powerful audience insights, in a way that’s automated and accessible.”

The move is part of Disney’s drive towards a “data and tech-enabled future rooted in audience innovation”. Since its launch in February, the company says that over 40 clients and most major agencies have engaged in Clean Room strategies in collaboration with Disney leveraging its Audience Graph.  

Aaron LaBerge, President and Chief Technology Officer, Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution added: “Disney is reimagining our advertising platform to support a global and addressable future. The growth of our relationship with The Trade Desk is a milestone in addressability and automated buying at scale, and the latest step as we use technology to enable advertisers to buy once to deliver everywhere across Disney.”

Disney Advertising is implementing this expanded capability with advertisers over the next several months, whilst supporting interoperability across all demand partners and platforms.