Disney Advertising wants more brands to know, “You’ve got a friend in me.”
The company recently told ADWEEK it realigned the organizational structure of its ad sales to better reach midmarket advertisers, with the goal of offering more localized, consultative services and supporting growth areas around data, automation, and outcomes.
For Disney, midmarket advertisers are brands outside of the major holding companies that often work with smaller and independent agencies. Some of these brands could have advertising spend anywhere from $30 million to $300 million and may be focused more regionally; however, budgets could also be significantly less.
Disney announced that it was looking to reach more midmarket advertisers over the summer at Cannes Lions, and there have been murmurings of an ad sales realignment since ad sales veteran Lisa Valentino exited the company in May, later joining Best Buy as president of its advertising arm.
Ultimately, the company refocused its strategy after seeing that it had an opportunity to grow share with thousands of potential midmarket clients, according to senior vice president of sales Marco Forte, and the changes were enacted to make inventory accessible and provide client support regardless of budget.
“I think a big thing here is changing the perception in the marketplace that these clients might have that premium content equals premium budgets,” Forte said. “A lot of people think that only large brands can afford the sophisticated tools to activate on data, invest in our audience solutions, in our clean rooms, and we’re breaking down that barrier of entry.”
Putting together a new team
With the new strategy, Disney Advertising realigned its teams by focus. This includes a team focused on holding companies, a team focused on brands (to align with the brands that the major holding companies represent), and a new team dedicated to supporting independent agencies and midmarket advertisers, which includes more than 100 team members.
The independent agencies and midmarket advertiser team is broken down by region—Mid-Atlantic, East, West, South, and Midwest—to specifically service various states and regions.
Meanwhile, an automation-focused group, inclusive of programmatic and self-service teams, is layered across the business to bring technology cohesion, which is especially important as many midmarket clients are focused on automated and programmatic campaigns. The automation-focused team members that support the independent/midmarket team are also based in the aforementioned regions.
