Disney is bringing more inclusivity to upfront week.
Ahead of the company’s upfront presentation next Tuesday, Disney Advertising has signed branded content development agreements with diverse-owned media companies Cocina (a unit of Mecenas Media), equalpride, Group Black and UnitedMasters.
As part of these agreements, each company will develop custom short- or long-form branded content series and campaigns for advertisers, with the projects focusing on amplifying various aspects of diversity and culture.
Although the agreements are rooted in streaming, according to Disney, the breadth of the company’s portfolio will help bolster and support content distribution across all screens.
During a recent roundtable discussion with Adweek about the partnerships, John Campbell, svp, client partnerships, Disney Advertising, noted that the new deals are keeping with Disney’s commitment to DEI.
“What we’re trying to do is create systematic and meaningful change in the end. We can’t do that if we’re not consistent and intentional,” Campbell said. “None of us are here for the heritage months only. We all activate 365 days a year. So if clients want to work with us for five days or 52 weeks, we have solutions. And these teams here are all part of those solutions.”
There are several nuances to the specific deals and types of branded content. For instance, Emiliano Saccone, CEO of Mecenas Media, told Adweek that Cocina would be creating long-form content. At the same time, Michael Kelley, president of global growth & development, equalpride, explained the company would be launching short-form miniseries that brands can get involved with.
Meanwhile, UnitedMasters—the parent company of creative agency Translation, Adweek’s reigning Multicultural Agency of the Year—has already been a Disney partner for years. Still, the new deal provides even more avenues to connect with clients.
“We already worked together to create net new solutions, and we felt like if we could get a little bit closer, we could conspire more frequently,” Chaucer Barnes, CMO, UnitedMasters, Inc., told Adweek. “Then we could bring those types of solutions to clients that maybe were not already Translation clients.”
Across the deals, Cocina, equalpride, Group Black and UnitedMasters will operate as the primary production partners for independently produced content, retaining all intellectual property rights and allowing creators to maintain ownership of their materials and agencies to have direct attribution.