Season 3 of Shonda Rhimes’ hit Netflix series Bridgerton focuses on the relationship between Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington, a pairing fans have dubbed “Polin.”

Inspired by the similarity to the word pollen, Shondaland’s agency Creative Artists Agency reached out to GSK‘s Flonase to produce a campaign tied to both allergy season and the show’s May 16 premiere.

The 90-second film, produced in London as a collaboration between Shondaland, CAA, Flonase and its media agency Publicis, resembles an episode of Bridgerton complete with a Lady Whistledown-style voiceover. As the beautifully dressed members of the Ton stroll through lush spring gardens reading about the latest gossip, they are overcome with allergies. 

They seek relief from their sneezing, runny noses and itchy eyes from an apothecary, but are disappointed to learn that the remedy won’t be available for 200 years.

“We wanted to highlight that although allergies were not officially diagnosed during that time period, it doesn’t mean they didn’t exist,” Flonase brand director Tish Tillie told ADWEEK. “Shondaland developed a fun way to show someone suffering from allergies seeking help, but they did not find a solution because they needed to wait for Flonase to be invented.”

The ad ends with an archaically styled version of the Flonase logo and the message: “There’s only room for one Polin in the Ton.”

“It was amazing to see the rigor Shondaland put into the development of the campaign,” Tillie said. “The handwritten Flonase logo is one small detail that really made the brand feel a part of the Bridgerton world in this campaign. It was a true partnership as we worked toward one common goal.”

The full film and 6-, 15- and 30-second cuts are running across social and digital. Additional collaboration is planned during the season.

Paramount Global has hired the bank Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips to explore the sale of VidCon, a live event franchise focused on the creator economy, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The company is hoping to secure a strategic buyer for the experiential property rather than a private equity firm, according to the person. The source added that VidCon is not a distressed asset, but it’s unclear what price Paramount is seeking.

Representatives from both Paramount and Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips declined to comment.

The efforts to explore a sale of VidCon come at a critical juncture for Paramount, which is itself the target of several competing acquisition efforts. 

According to The Wall Street Journal, Skydance Media has agreed in principle to acquire Shari Redstone’s National Amusements, which holds the majority of voting shares of Paramount Global, for around $2 billion in cash as part of ongoing exclusive negotiations.

A second part of that proposed deal involves Paramount Global acquiring Skydance in an all-stock deal of around $5 billion.

Meanwhile, ahead of the exclusive talks with Skydance, private equity firm Apollo Global Management submitted an offer of $26 billion to acquire Paramount. The company reportedly declined the offer because the firm hadn’t lined up financing.

The potential sale comes as merger and acquisition activity in the broader market has begun to pick up, according to Progress Ventures senior director Sam Thompson, who doesn’t have direct knowledge of the sale attempt. VidCon’s events operation isn’t core to Paramount’s main media and entertainment business, Thompson noted.

By selling VidCon, Paramount could invest the funds from the sale back into its core business, he added, making it a healthier operation and one more appealing to potential suitors.

“This is a consideration that has almost certainly been influenced by Paramount’s extraneous plans, but it also allows them to focus resources internally in more important areas,” Thompson said.

The expanding VidCon business

Paramount (then Viacom) acquired VidCon in 2018 from YouTube creators John and Hank Green for an undisclosed sum. 

The property’s events bring together digital creators, fans and executives in adjacent industries, making it both consumer- and business-facing.

Though its flagship event takes place in June in Anaheim, Calif., VidCon has expanded to locales including London, Sao Paulo and Mexico City. Last September, Paramount hosted the inaugural East Coast VidCon in Baltimore, Md. In 2023, the Anaheim event attracted 55,000 attendees, according to the company.

VidCon generates revenue through a mix of ticket sales and sponsorships—last year, YouTube served as its title sponsor.

The NFL season doesn’t start for months, but Peacock and Amazon have already scored big wins.

On Tuesday, the NFL announced two exclusive streaming games for the upcoming 2024 season. NBCUniversal’s Peacock secured the rights to stream the Week 1 game in São Paulo, Brazil, on Friday, Sept. 6, with the Philadelphia Eagles announced as a participant.

Meanwhile, Amazon received the rights to an upcoming Wild Card game—the second time an NFL playoff game has been available exclusively via a streaming service following last season’s Wild Card game on Peacock.

According to Hans Schroeder, NFL executive vice president of media distribution, there was an “interconnectedness” to the NFL’s decision of where the exclusive streaming games would go.

“The game Amazon ultimately earned was the game Peacock had last year,” Schroeder told ADWEEK.

Schroeder explained that Amazon, which is the exclusive home of Thursday Night Football, had the “ability to earn a Wild Card game” in its deal, which the company did with its results from the 2023 season.

In Prime Video’s second season of exclusive Thursday Night Football games, ratings were up 24%, with an average of 11.86 million viewers per game.

“That’s getting very close to where we were a couple of years ago when the games were on Fox and NFL Network,” Schroeder said. “It’s above the World Series. It’s above the NBA Finals, and so you look at those data points.”

And though Amazon earned Peacock’s Wild Card game, the league “really wanted to do something” to acknowledge the historic performance of Peacock’s 2023 exclusive Wild Card matchup. That game, a meeting between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Miami Dolphins, averaged 23 million viewers, making it the most-streamed live event in U.S. history.

The game in Brazil—the NFL’s first-ever regular season game in South America and the first time the league has played a game on Friday night of its opening weekend in over 50 years—appeared to be the perfect opportunity, especially with NBC having the season opener featuring the Kansas City Chiefs the day before.

“We finished last season in the playoffs with Peacock,” Schroeder said. “To open this season, open Week 1 off a Thursday night game on NBC and have them be able to promote to their Peacock platform to Friday night seemed like a great way to start the season and continue to build a key partner and platform in Peacock and NBC in a really appropriate way.”

Beyond ratings, streaming is also giving the NFL a unique audience reach, with Schroeder calling it a “key evolution” moving forward.

“It’s a little over eight years younger than what we see on broadcast. They’re watching longer,” Schroeder said. “The Peacock game was our youngest audience for a playoff game in 10 years and was the most female of any Wild Card or divisional audience we’ve ever had.”

Swift rise in ratings

And though the Taylor Swift Effect has been credited with helping to bring in more women viewers—as Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce competed in the Peacock Wild Card game—Schroeder noted it wasn’t a factor in deciding on this year’s streaming exclusives.

“It did not matter at all. We had the highest viewed season in our history by female fans,” Schroeder said. “There’s no doubt that for some of the Chiefs games Taylor provided a lift, but you have to remember the Chiefs are only 17 of 272 games, and we saw so many other increases across the year.”

Overall, the NFL regular-season games averaged 17.9 million viewers in 2023, which is tied for the second-highest season average since ratings tracking began in the mid-’90s.

In addition to Swift, Schroeder pointed to a number of factors that boosted viewership in 2023, including the second time the Super Bowl was on a Spanish-language broadcaster with TelevisaUnivision’s telecast, new distribution through YouTube for Sunday Ticket and the league’s media mix across new platforms, including its Black Friday game on Prime Video.

“We played on Black Friday, and I think we really liked that. It’s the first time doing that, and we would expect to continue to play then,” Schroeder said. “We think it’s going to be another key part of Thanksgiving weekend, and we’re excited about how we can build that with Amazon going forward.”

In addition to the two streaming-exclusive games, the NFL also announced a doubleheader on Christmas as the league looks for more opportunities to reach fans.

Schroeder said the league will continue looking across its streaming and linear distribution partners moving forward, finding innovative ways to grow engagement in the changing media landscape.

“We’re going to continue to always be very cognizant, looking at all the data, all the information we have in front of us,” Schroeder said. “Commissioner Roger Goodell pushes us all the time. We’ve got to continue to innovate. We’ve got to continue to evolve in everything we do, and you’ll see that in our media strategy and how we continue to evolve the distribution of our games.”

It’s not easy being green, so the Hulu integration on Disney+ is going teal.

Disney announced the launch today of Hulu on Disney+ in the U.S. for Disney bundle subscribers, combining the Disney+ and Hulu libraries in one application.

Although each app remains available as a stand-alone offering, the new app experience allows bundle subscribers—those who have both standalone apps—to stream Hulu content directly through Disney+.

It also comes with refreshed branding for Disney+ created by loyalkaspar, including a new logo, a teal/seafoam color palette and an orchestral mnemonic created by Academy Award-winning composer Ludwig Göransson.

The new branding blends Hulu’s green and Disney+’s classic blue, which the company said creates “a premium and elevated feel to welcome Hulu on Disney+ and mark a new chapter in storytelling.”

See the new logo animation here:

“The collective power of Disney+ and Hulu—outstanding originals from the most powerful brands and studios in the industry, libraries filled with decades of iconic favorites and industry-leading advertising and technological capabilities—is transformative,” Joe Earley, president of direct-to-consumer, Disney Entertainment, said in a statement. “Today’s official launch of Hulu on Disney+ gives viewers even more opportunities to easily discover and enjoy thousands of titles all in one place, underscoring the extraordinary value of the Disney bundle.”

With the launch of Hulu on Disney+, Hulu titles will be integrated in recommendations, sets and collections on Disney+, without users having to change apps. For stand-alone Disney+ subscribers, Hulu content merchandised across Disney+ will now come with expanded upsell options across additional devices, making it easier for them to upgrade their subscriptions, starting at $2 per month more.

“This marks the most significant technical, operational and product evolution for Disney+ since its launch—one that reflects a wider technology transformation that we have been undertaking,” Aaron LaBerge, president and chief technology officer, Disney Entertainment and ESPN, said in a statement. “That work is going to drive an enhanced, more engaging user experience with Disney+ and lays the foundation for the innovations and enhancements we are planning for the future.”

To showcase the launch and the new branding, Disney is rolling out a 360-degree marketing campaign to demonstrate how the services complement each other. This includes out-of-home placements, custom broadcast and digital spots, cross-branded social media posts and bicoastal experiential stunts, including on-site activations at the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort.

Disney officially rolled out its Hulu on Disney+ beta launch last December, bringing a Hulu hub to Disney+ to give subscribers access to both platforms in a single app. The beta version provided a more limited experience, but the company previously told ADWEEK it saw immediate results.

“Just in the initial few days, we’re seeing better-than-expected metrics [for advertisers] across the board,” global advertising president Rita Ferro told ADWEEK last year. “For the bundle subscriber, for people who are customers of both Hulu and Disney+ with ads, it is a great opportunity to not have to go in and out—to be able to continue to consume that content within one app.”

The app rollout comes weeks ahead of Disney’s upfront presentation May 14 at New York’s North Javits Center.

A queue of people spills out onto the pavement outside a quaint, blue-fronted café in North London. Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” finds its way back onto the charts after 37 years. Bridgerton-inspired corsets, gloves and empire waisted ball gowns feature heavily on the 2024 Oscars red carpet.

This isn’t a string of unconnected events; it’s the so-called “Netflix effect” in action, and it’s the work of Marian Lee, who was named the streamer’s chief marketing officer in 2022.

When Lee took on the top job, she was the third CMO in three years to take the reins of Netflix’s $2.5 billion advertising budget. Since then she’s shifted its marketing strategy from something platform-centric to one rooted in championing the brand’s individual shows and driving cultural relevance.

As the streaming wars heat up, Netflix isn’t just vying for subscribers across its standard and ad-supported tiers—it’s also vouching for CMO budgets.

To scale both, Lee is investing in building a relationship with the platform’s audience that’s less transactional, more interactive and deeply rooted in culture.

The Wednesday Addams TikTok dance challenge, a live Squid Game experience in Los Angeles, a traveling Bridgeton Ball and billboards for Lupin that played on luxury advertising tropes are just some of the recent campaigns that have played into this circular strategy, which is allowing Netflix to both tap into the zeitgeist and influence it.

“We can connect fans and put them into our stories versus having them as spectators outside,” Lee told ADWEEK.

Ugly crying, dancing and ‘rabid fandom’

The former Spotify exec pointed to the success of One Day, the 14-episode adaptation of David Nicholls’ 2011 best-selling romantic novel that drew in 15.2 million viewers within 10 days of landing on Netflix, as one example of a show that’s transcended the small screen.

After the series’ debut, the book found itself back in the No. 1 spot on the U.K.’s Sunday Times Bestseller list 23 years after its first imprint. Meanwhile, London café La Maison Highbury (which featured in the show for just 10 seconds) spent days trending on TikTok and Instagram as fans flocked there for a flat white.

This hype was amplified by an “ugly crying” craze on TikTok that saw viewers react to some of the series’ most emotional scenes.

For Lee, the marketing magic lies in listening carefully to what fans are talking about on social, particularly TikTok where Netflix has 35 different accounts and “billions of impressions.”

“We have an engaged fanbase across our social channels globally,” she added. “Our teams are so connected to what each of our fandoms are doing and saying in these channels, so they’re able to spot something that’s bubbling from far away and capitalize on that.”

“We don’t do the same thing on every channel; what works on TikTok might not take off Instagram,” she said, noting the latter was a platform for discovery based on internal TikTok data that found 52% of users had discovered a new actor, movie or TV show on the platform.

In turn, this interactive relationship with followers is influencing not just what happens on Netflix (TikTok virality drove Margaret Qualley series Maid to skyrocket back up the Netflix charts a year and a half after its release), but also its future marketing strategy.

Case in point: the Wednesday TikTok dance challenge, inspired by a scene where lead Jenna Ortega performs an eccentric dance routine to the 1981 single “Goo Goo Muck” by The Cramps. Ortega’s choreography inspired fans to recreate the routine using a sped-up version of Lady Gaga’s 2011 song “Bloody Mary.”

Netflix isn’t afraid to take risks. We work fast and pivot if we see something else working better.

Marian Lee, CMO, Netflix

Gaga got involved in the discourse with her own interpretation and subsequently, the track was used to announce Season 2. “The team here is incredible at pulling that thread the whole way through. They don’t just let conversations happen online … they push the momentum straight back to Netflix,” Lee said.

Lee has also been focused on bringing conversations off-screen and offline by investing in physical events tied to original Netflix shows, making the imaginary world real.

These have included immersive soirees such as The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience, which is currently accepting guests in 10 cities across the U.S., and Squid Game: The Trials, a live interpretation of the dystopian game show-style competition featured in the Korean blockbuster series.

A hunger for in-person experiences post-Covid is driving ticket sales, said Lee, along with a “rabid fandom” that’s begging to be brought out of the living room.

“We’re really thinking about how to translate the fandom online and on-screen into real life,” she added.

Measuring cultural clout

Netflix keeping its finger on the culture’s beating pulse is not just about driving subscriptions or engaging its existing audience; it’s also a tool in the platform’s pitch to advertisers amid an economic backdrop where Lee acknowledges CMO budgets are “pinched.”

As an advertiser herself, Lee said she feels a “deep connection” with the brands Netflix is onboarding: “I want genuine and authentic connection [with my own customers], I don’t want to just put an ad out in the world and hope someone sees it. I want it to feel very real. … I want it to feel like I’m taking some kind of cultural insight that’s happening in the world, and [tuning that into] something and putting it out there.”

She continued: “So when I speak to brands about coming on to Netflix, I’m really saying, ‘You can be part of this conversation and put yourself close to where culture is happening.’”

Lee admitted that cultural clout is tricky to measure, but there’s data to suggest showing up in or around shows like One Day or Wednesday has potential to influence consumer intent.

Tourism to Edinburgh, Scotland—where One Day is set—was given a boost after the show aired. Netflix’s own data shows subscribers are 2.4 times more likely to cite the locale of a series or film they’ve seen as their top travel destination.

There are also some more straightforward examples of Netflix’s influence on culture translating into sales. When The Queen’s Gambit debuted in 2021, orders for chess sets spiked 87%, while sales of chess books went up 603%, according to data from NPD Group. Elsewhere, purchases of video game The Witcher 3 shot up 554% between 2018 and 2019 following the success of its eponymous series.

Since launching its ad-supported tier in November 2022, the platform has hit 23 million monthly active users and launched various ad formats. Buyers previously told ADWEEK that scale is the biggest issue with Netflix’s ad tier, but this recently announced growth is a step in the right direction.

Netflix’s revenues climbed 12.5% between January 2023 and January 2024, owing to the ad tier and a crackdown on password sharing. In 2024, its ad revenues are set to overtake Disney+, amassing $1.03 billion versus Disney’s $911.9 million, per eMarketer, so clearly a strategy rooted in culture is resonating.

However, work and rewards still lie ahead for the streamer, with Netflix creating more touch points for brands, whether it’s through live events or its digital store that sells everything from green and red Squid Games tracksuits to Stranger Things basketballs.

“We’ve got so many opportunities with our titles,” Lee said. “We just have to keep grasping that, and putting [stuff] out into the world and seeing what fans respond to. Netflix isn’t afraid to take risks. We work fast and pivot if we see something else working better.”

Despite being over 100 years since the first documented example of product placement ran—a soap endorsement within the Lumiere brothers’ 1896 film Washing Day in Switzerland—the advertising technique remains popular.

If the reaction to a 20-year-old Cerveza Cristal integration appearing within the original Star Wars trilogy when aired in Chile is anything to go by—it can still prove a highly effective weapon in a big brand’s arsenal to capture public attention.

Despite originally running two decades ago, reportedly without the permission of Lucasfilm to add their beer brand and its accompanying jingle into key scenes within the movie, the clips quickly went viral across social media in early March.

According to data provided by Brandwatch, the beer brand owned by Heineken experienced a significant rise in mentions. Last year, the brand received 250 mentions per month on average, while between March 1-13 this year, it received 112,000 mentions. This marks a 5922% increase from the previous month. The hashtag #cervzacristal gained 19 million impressions through X, as fans shared follow-up parody videos that incorporated the brand into additional scenes across the Star Wars franchise.

Product placement continues to be popular with the world’s biggest brands. The Product Placement blog found that Apple was its most spotted brand of 2023 with almost 2,000 appearances on TV and films, more than double the second-place brand Nike which has over 750 placements. Other brands on its top 30 list included Microsoft, Adidas, Budweiser, Pepsi and Samsung. 

According to PQ Media, the total amount spent on product placements by 2026 will reach $41.4 billion, with over half coming from the U.S. Over 70% of that spending will be in TV.

BenLabs’ State of Product Placement report from last year, 86% of marketers who weren’t using it were considering adopting it, while 81% of those who have tried it felt it was an effective marketing channel.

The evolution of product placement

In this era of technological innovation and artificial intelligence (AI), product placement is evolving beyond simply placing a brand or product in the hands of an actor and holding it toward the camera. With the increasing use of ad blockers, marketers see media integration as an alternative and trustworthy alternative, and that is becoming more personalized with the addition of first-party data from subscribed streaming viewers.

That’s what works in a 2024 environment, not just following the playbook of what the architecture of what a 30-second spot should be.

—Kaylen McNamara, chief business officer, VaynerX

BENlabs research discovered that four out of five marketers felt that AI would prove important when it came to their company promotion decisions, with the technology being used to predict results when exploring new channels to adopt.   

“The biggest challenge brands have faced in product placement is inherent human bias and subjectivity,” explained Ricky Ray Butler, the CEO of BENlabs, as brands vie to appear in the biggest audience engagement opportunities.

Butler’s organization has created AI technology and data systems to support brands as they aim to overcome the challenges of ad avoidance and decentralization in media consumption habits.

“By leveraging predictive AI models, brands can optimize for ROI, getting inside content before they become hits, when the cost to partner increases exponentially,” he explained.

In the age of the creator, product placement and branded entertainment are no longer the sole domain of media companies, with individuals able to agree to major brand endorsement deals to showcase products within their content and further amplify existing integrations.

“The newest creator on the block is creating the most virality because they understand the platform,” claimed Kaylen McNamara, chief business officer at VaynerX.  “They may not have the experience in brand building or in coming up with big ideas, but they intimately understand the behaviors happening on the platform. And that’s what works in a 2024 environment, not just following the playbook of what the architecture of what a 30-second spot should be.”

McNamara added that product integration deals can also be amplified alongside creators with behind-the-scenes content now being filmed on set during production involving the actors. Creators can also research, test and explore the audiences that already have an affinity with the brand.

She cited a TikTok post for the sandwich chain Jimmy John’s, the response to which led to the development of a three-minute spoof of the reality series The Batchelor, using red velvet cookies instead of roses.

“Out of that shoot, we got 100-plus pieces of creative that were natively built for the platforms. And it allowed the brand to not only market their limited-time offers (LTO) but it let them drive engagement and show that they’re on top of these trends that are happening on TikTok,” explained McNamara.

With zero paid media behind the campaign, “MILF and Cookies” organically received 267.7 million impressions across social platforms. Meanwhile, the cookies sold out nationwide in less than four weeks, setting a record for January sales.

The use of programmatic to embed personalized content into content is also emerging with virtual product placement now offered by streaming services and emerging tech companies. Add on A.I. and data to automate those positions in a similar vein as digital ads, and the potential for driving a more personalized viewing experience is clear.

However, according to YouGov’s Dominic Prince who developed its Placement Quality Score (PQS) to measure the effectiveness of such integrations, AI still struggles with context and how brands feature within a narrative.

“Once you have the ability to programmatically advertise to consumers, you can break those billion eyeballs down into fractions of however many you want, and set them up separately. And so it allows a lot more brands to enter the space,” added Prince.

Measurement and Attribution

One issue in the product placement space that has been apparent over the years is attribution. Previously, research was conducted using custom costly surveys asking viewers what they noticed. That cumbersome approach is now being overcome through technological means.

Research firm YouGov’s Placement Quality Score examined how much a branded piece of content was viewed alongside the value of that media over the length of time the brand appeared or was mentioned on screen.

Prince, who devised the PQS, explained that he still goes through each integration personally, citing the use of JIFF peanut butter within Stranger Things as one example reviewed in 2022, valuing the delivery at over $27 million.

Meanwhile, with supporting social media activity around a brand deal, it is also possible to attribute sales uplift during the period in which it is released, tied directly to when the product placement itself takes place, explained VaynerX’s Kaylen McNamara. She added it can also validate creative concepts, using them in a meta environment to test and tweak depending on the sales response before investing more in further media.

With further progress, the mystery of product placement’s return on investment is looking more feasible to determine.

“I would encourage brands to truly take a step back and leverage all the data and technology available at our fingertips today to ensure that they are reaching the right audiences, with the right messages, at the right time—in this way, leveraging data-driven systems and processes, a brand like Cerveza Cristal can have the impact of a viral campaign not just once, but consistently to drive efficient ROI,” said Ray Butler.

Right after rolling out Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour on Disney+, Disney is starting a new, addressable advertising era of its own.

Top line

Today, Disney announced that it’s creating a simpler, more effective way for advertisers to access its streaming inventory, partnering with buying platforms Google’s Display & Video 360 and The Trade Desk to expand its programmatic tool, Disney Real-Time Ad Exchange (DRAX).

With the expansion, DRAX Direct, Disney looks to deliver a new level of automation to marketers, unifying access to streaming inventory across Hulu and Disney+ for companies of any size.

Between the lines

According to the company, the launch of DRAX Direct helps Disney unlock incremental demand by building a direct path to the buy side, resulting in a better overall experience for brands.

“Disney’s goal is to empower advertisers to transact with the freedom and flexibility that best suits their business needs,” Jamie Power, senior vice president, addressable sales, Disney Advertising, said in a statement. “Years ago, we committed to a vision and strategy of delivering 50% of our advertising in an addressable and automated way. Owning our own technology stack allows us to build a direct path between our premium inventory and the leading media buying platforms in the industry, simplifying the way ads are bought and sold on Disney, while delivering greater effectiveness for our clients.”  

Ultimately, the offering looks to give advertisers more control and flexibility, bringing Disney’s proprietary tech stack together with two large buy-side technology platforms and streamlining the approach to addressable buying across the company’s portfolio.

“For over a decade, Google and Disney have collaborated on industry-leading ad innovations that drive results for customers. We are excited to expand on this relationship to bring Display & Video 360 demand to DRAX, providing our advertisers with a new way to directly purchase Disney’s high-quality connected TV inventory and reach their audience with privacy-forward solutions,” Stephen Yap, managing director Americas, Google Marketing Platform, said in a statement.

Additionally, Disney explained that a custom integration between DRAX and The Trade Desk’s OpenPath technology “reinforces growing demand from advertisers to have direct access to more addressable premium content with better precision and transparency.”

“Expanding our partnership with Disney Advertising underscores a shared vision to maximize the value of relevant advertising, especially at a moment when the industry needs it the most,” Will Doherty, vp, inventory development, The Trade Desk, said in a statement. “We set up the building blocks when we forged our collaboration to create a new identity fabric for the open internet through Unified ID 2.0 interoperability with Disney’s Audience Graph.”

Bottom line

The announcement showcases the importance of addressable and streaming ahead of this year’s upfront.

Addressable across sports and entertainment helped drive demand for Disney’s upfront inventory in 2023, and the DRAX expansion further bolsters that offering.

Additionally, more than 40% of the total 2023 and 2024 upfront dollars committed to Disney last year went toward streaming and digital, with Disney+, ESPN+ and Hulu leading the way.

Ahead of this weekend’s National Women’s Soccer League kickoff, Disney Advertising added two sponsors to its sports marketing roster.

Ally and CarMax have officially signed on to sponsor the NWSL on ESPN ahead of the season start on Saturday at 1 p.m. on ABC, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+, with the Kansas City Current taking on Portland Thorns FC.

“Disney is the preeminent sports platform, and we continue to acquire sports rights to provide brands with more meaningful opportunities to intentionally invest across our portfolio,” said Jacqueline Dobies, vp of revenue and yield management at ESPN. “With our new multi-year agreement with the NWSL, we are looking forward to deepening our advertisers’ relationships with a beloved global sport and its spirited fanbase.”

Financial brand Ally will be a Match Presenting Sponsor, covering the 2024 and 2025 NWSL seasons across English and Spanish language Disney platforms.

The brand has an existing sponsorship package with Disney that includes a 90% media investment solely in women’s sports, and the NWSL sponsorship serves as a continued investment to amplify Ally’s commitment to the women’s sports space.

Meanwhile, CarMax joins as the title sponsor of halftime, furthering its existing partnership with the NWSL as the league’s official auto retailer. It will also have visibility across English and Spanish-language Disney platforms, and Disney has also developed custom segments that amplify content highlighting NWSL players. 

Last month, the brand also announced a marquee partnership with reigning champion Gotham FC and serves as the New York/New Jersey club’s jersey-front partner.

The new deals come on the heels of Disney seeing strong demand for women’s sports ad inventory, with the company projected to finish the fiscal year 2024 with a 200% increase in women’s sports revenue over the past four years.

The NWSL has also been experiencing explosive growth, seeing record viewership and attendance last season and adding two new clubs, Bay FC and the Utah Royals, for 2024.

That growth looks to continue, as 2024 marks the first year of a landmark four-year TV rights deal for the NWSL with CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports.

The partners will combine to nationally broadcast 118 matches across platforms beginning in 2024, with 20 airing on ESPN platforms, including three playoff games on ABC.

“The NWSL’s landmark multi-year rights agreement with ESPN and other media partners is a testament to the growth and momentum of this league. We hope that through our presenting partnership of halftime, we will continue to increase the visibility of women’s sports and these incredible athletes,” said CarMax CMO Sarah Lane. “CarMax is proud to play a part in elevating the NWSL to the platform it deserves through our investments. We hope that other brands will join us in our effort to continue to expand the coverage of the NWSL and women’s sports moving forward.”

The auto retailer is no stranger to the women’s sports landscape; it also serves as a marquee sponsor for the WNBA.

ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery’s upcoming sports streaming platform has scored a former Apple exec as CEO.

Top line

Today, the three companies named Pete Distad as CEO of their new joint sports streamer.

Distad most recently served as an executive at Apple for a decade and also spent six years at Hulu.

Between the lines

As CEO, Distad will oversee all aspects of the joint venture, including strategy, distribution, marketing and sales.

“Pete is an accomplished innovator and leader who has extensive experience with launching and growing new video services,” ESPN, Fox and WBD said in a joint statement. “We are confident he and his team will build an extremely compelling, fan-focused product for our target market.”

Upon the establishment of the streamer, Distad will report to its board of directors, which will include representatives selected by each of the three companies. He will be based in L.A., along with the independent management team he will assemble.

“This is an incredible opportunity to build and grow a differentiated product that will serve passionate sports fans in the U.S. outside of the traditional pay TV bundle,” Distad said. “I’m excited to be able to pull together the industry-leading sports content portfolios from these three companies to deliver a new best-in-class service.”

Distad was at Apple from 2013-2023, where he was responsible for the business, operations and global distribution for video, sports and Apple TV+. He also launched Apple TV in 2015 and later led teams that launched and scaled the Apple TV app, Apple TV+ and MLS Season Pass.

He also previously worked at Hulu, where he served as svp of marketing and distribution and was part of the Hulu launch team, overseeing customer acquisition and retention, distribution and marketing.

Bottom line

Fox, ESPN and WBD surprisingly announced the combined sports streamer in February, with a launch date scheduled for the fall of 2024. The product will combine 14 linear networks, including Fox and its portfolio of affiliates, ESPN and its products, and WBD’s cablers, and could completely change the sports streaming space and rights moving forward.

Speaking during an earnings call last month, Lachlan Murdoch, Fox CEO and executive chair, said the new venture would create additional revenue streams by reaching new consumers.

“It’s a new market where there’s no product serving the sports fans that are not within the cable TV bundle,” Murdoch said. “So it accesses a whole new market and drives a tremendous amount of new reach.”

The NWSL is back, and it wants fans to know it.

Ahead of this weekend’s season kickoff, the National Women’s Soccer League unveiled the latest iteration of its “We Play Here” sports marketing campaign with the new 60-second spot,“Keep Up.”

From agency Cartwright, “Keep Up” debuts today on paid TV, digital and social properties, the league’s new direct-to-consumer property and inside club stadiums once play begins.

“Run with us. We control the pace. From kickoff to equalizers, the 90th minute, PK after PK. The next generation begins here. World champions play here, so run with us,” says Kansas City Current midfielder Lo’eau LaBonta in a voiceover. “We’re only getting bigger. All you have to do is keep up.”

“It captures so much of the magic and the storytelling of this league, and the players and the athletes that got us to where we are,” Julie Haddon, chief marketing and commercial officer of the NWSL, told ADWEEK. “It’s a whole play on stories.”

The spot utilizes storybook motifs that highlight stars and major moments across the league and its 14 teams.

“We stitched all these moments from last season to tell this bigger story of the league, reminding people that some of the greatest in the world play in this league,” Mariya Munsey, senior art director at Cartwright, told ADWEEK. “As we were concepting and coming up with this idea for kickoff, we just wanted to match the energy that the league brings and its fans bring. We felt like ‘Keep Up’ rises to that energy and invites current and future fans to do the same.”

The creative builds on 2023’s inaugural marketing campaign that launched ahead of the last World Cup, emphasizing that the best players in the world play right here in the U.S.

“From a production quality, we wanted to uplevel the work and the creative,” Haddon said. “When I think about the trailblazing momentum of our league and the quality of the commercial work that our partners are beginning to flood the market with, the whole concept is ‘Keep Up.’ Our message in ’24 is meant to encapsulate the trajectory and the growth of our audiences, partnerships, league, and invite current and future fans in and hop on this wave that is women’s soccer in America.”

Play begins Friday with the UKG NWSL Challenge Cup, and the regular season begins Saturday as Kansas City hosts the Portland Thorns in the first match at CPKC Stadium—the first purpose-built stadium for a women’s professional sports team.

The 2024 season is the first in a new, record-breaking four-year TV rights deal with CBS Sports, ESPN, Prime Video and Scripps Sports. The partners will combine to nationally broadcast 118 matches across partner platforms, worth $60 million per year, for a cumulative value of $240 million over the course of the deal.

“Not just are we trying to raise the game and the awareness, build the brand, but as we grow and engage fans in these new media partners and the new landscape, we want everybody to be able to find the games, and findability is a key focus of ours,” said Haddon.

The league saw record attendance and viewership in 2023 and is adding two new teams in 2024, with two more planned by 2026. According to Haddon, the NWSL has grown almost 98% in sponsorship.

“We have raised the game in almost every brand metric we have,” Haddon said.