Today in Digital Marketing - Disney Wants to Sell You Ads Right in the Feels

Starting point is 00:00:01 It's Thursday, January 11th. Today, Disney's new ad tech tries to get in its viewers' feels. Netflix's new ad tier grows, but can they fight back against Amazon's alpha move? WhatsApp adds a nice update for social media content managers. And if everything's digital, what happened to Super Bowl ads? Why, they've only gotten bigger. I'm Todd Maffin. That's Ahead, today in digital marketing. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters.

Starting point is 00:00:43 Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. A brief programming announcement before we get started. We are starting something new here on the podcast, which you can take advantage of. Consider it kind of like an advice column for the show. If you have a question or a problem in marketing, you know, your SEO is down, you don't understand why your numbers are strange, the conversion rates are abnormal, you can't figure something out on meta, whatever your problem is, call it into us on our new voicemail line. We will track down an expert for you and answer that question on the show.

Starting point is 00:01:19 The voicemail line is at todayindigital.com slash voicemail. There's also a link at the top of the show notes. Eventually, the ability to get this kind of advice will be only accessible to our premium podcast listeners. But for right now, anyone including you can call in, get a question answered. Easy as that. All right, on with the show. Disney this week teased a new contextual ad product called Magic Words. This will analyze scenes and visuals across Disney's content library to align ad campaigns with the mood and emotions of the content.

Starting point is 00:01:54 There wasn't a lot of information on this other than it'll be available to beta partners soon and will be broadly released by the end of the year. The news came at the company's fourth annual Tech and Data Showcase yesterday, where they also introduced a new unified ad platform combining Hulu and Disney Plus placements. This will be accessible by March. There's also Gateway Shop, Disney's first shoppable ad format for streaming. This lets viewers transfer products they see on screen to a secondary device, like a smartphone or a tablet, without disrupting their viewing. This builds on their previous Gateway Go format, which used email, push notifications, and QR codes. They also announced some better streaming measurement by collaborating with Innovid and Lucid Impact Measurement, which should give advertisers more insight into ad recall, consideration, purchase intent, and brand favorability.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Finally, Disney is expanding its self-service and automation offerings in advertising. Their Disney Campaign Manager, used by about 4,200 brands, will see a global expansion. And ad inventory for Disney Plus and ESPN Plus will soon be available for self-service in the U.S. So that's Disney, how's its arch-nemesis Netflix doing? Their ad-supported tier has seen a significant increase in monthly active users, now totaling 18 million globally. That's a considerable growth from the 15 million active users reported in November during the one-year anniversary of the streaming plan. The increase in usage is evident, with memberships rising nearly 70% quarter-over-quarter in October.

Starting point is 00:03:31 Notably, about 30% of all new sign-ups in countries offering the ad-supported plan are opting for this tier. In the upcoming months, Netflix plans to introduce new ad formats, including pause ads, which will be rolled out globally. These will only show up after the viewer has been inactive for five seconds. Netflix also recently increased the prices for its ad-free plans while keeping the ad-supported plan prices unchanged. In comparison, as we reported yesterday, Amazon's Prime Video is putting all its users on the ad-supported plan with an option to go ad-free for an additional fee. Meta has implemented new rules for advertisers running social, electoral, or political ads requiring them to disclose if these ads contain digitally created or altered images, videos, or audio. This policy addresses the

Starting point is 00:04:27 growing use of AI, particularly in American political campaigns, highlighted by presidential candidate Ron DeSantis' use of AI-generated imagery and voice simulations in his campaign ads. Platforms like YouTube and TikTok have also introduced similar measures for AI-generated content. Advertisers on Meta must now check a box indicating any digital alterations in their ads. Meta's strategy includes a pre-election blackout period for political ads established in past elections, allowing time to debunk false claims. Non-compliance with these new disclosure rules could lead to ad removal or even a platform ban. Also, you can retroactively apply the new AI disclosure tag to existing campaigns. WhatsApp has introduced a sticker-making feature for iOS users.

Starting point is 00:05:20 This lets you transform photos into stickers, much the way that you can do that in iOS's own Messages app now, and modify existing stickers without relying on third-party applications or manual image importing. The process is pretty straightforward. You tap the sticker tray, select the create sticker option, and then choose a photo to customize. You can then apply various edits, text drawings, additional stickers, that sort of thing. This extends to editing previously made stickers as well. You just long press a chosen sticker in the tray and select the edit sticker option to make further customizations. Notably, any custom sticker created or edited

Starting point is 00:05:57 will be automatically saved in your sticker tray for future use. This new capability was initially only available on WhatsApp web, but it's now being released for iOS devices that are on iOS 17 or higher. WhatsApp has not specified a timeline for when Android users will receive this. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters.

Starting point is 00:06:34 Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. The upcoming Super Bowl, set for February 11th on CBS, is of course as much about the high-profile ads as the game itself. Be protected. Be Zen. by late August. This year's broadcast will also be on Paramount+, NFL's mobile app, and even Nickelodeon will be offering a kid-friendly alternative. Apple Music will be sponsoring the halftime show featuring Usher, and other big brands like BMW, M&M's, TurboTax, and Pringles have spots. First-time advertisers include Drumstick, Etsy, Nerds, and a Martin Scorsese-directed Squarespace ad. Notably, some of the usual big spenders like Ford, GM, and Anheuser-Busch are expected to be absent this year. So back to this advice column idea. Yeah, if you've got like a question, you cannot figure

Starting point is 00:07:40 something out, something tactical, you know, like you don't understand why these numbers aren't lining up or why your conversion rate has plummeted or why no one seems to be able to find your brand's YouTube videos, we will get an expert for you and get them to answer your question right on the podcast. Eventually, the ability to ask the question will only be accessible to our premium members,

Starting point is 00:08:00 but anyone for the time being can do it. So if you have a burning question, you want that question answered by a real expert on the show, go to today in digital.com slash voicemail or tap the link at the top of the show notes. That's it for today. See you tomorrow. Now it's been said

Starting point is 00:08:17 that nothing good lasts forever but till our time is up, let's be together. Sailor B, it's sharp at night.

Today in Digital Marketing - Disney Wants to Sell You Ads Right in the Feels

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