Rita Ferro, Disney’s head of advertising sales, said the company is focused on multi-year deals for the sports side of Disney’s business.disney
Disney’s latest star-studded presentation returns from New York’s North Javits Center next Tuesday. Sports and ESPN promise to play a big role.
Just Tuesday, CEO Bob Iger announced that ESPN would be joining Disney+ by the end of the year, but advertising sales executive Rita Ferro called it a “deliberate move” for the entire company. “It’s an opportunity,” he said.
Ahead of the announcement, Ferro told SBJ that the company’s presentation will focus on sports and ESPN brands, and will showcase opportunities for brands such as linear, streaming and digital.
“When you think about ESPN, it’s obviously the great library that we have, but it’s also the way we think about streaming, linear, social, fantasy, sports gaming, and everything around that. “We’ve established a talent for storytelling that focuses on the stories that are happening,” Ferro said.
Those articles include women’s sports, the NCAA, NBA, NHL, MLB, NFL, and more, with Ferro saying he’s focused on multi-year deals on the sports side of Disney’s business.
“Multi-year deals are indicative of the health of that market, and on the sports side, there’s never been a more robust business in terms of multi-year partnerships,” Ferro said. “These are guys who want to be a part of it and have spent years putting money into it to make sure they get a spot in the games, leagues, conferences, etc. that they want to be in.”
Last month, the company hosted a day-long sports summit for its customers, attended by all university commissioners across its major partnerships, to announce the renewal and extension of its production contract in Omaha.
“This has been a DoubleClick feature for our clients who are spending money on all of our major sports facilities to make sure we know all the details about the really specific things in sports, but next week we will be on stage. “We will be showcasing the breadth of our sports portfolio on Tuesday,” Ferro said.
The market is stronger than it was a year ago, and Disney sees “tremendous” momentum coming to the fore, with streaming playing a pivotal role.
“We need to scale streaming in to really be competitive and understand how to market across evolving markets,” Ferro said. “There is still a linear element, but there is no doubt that advertisers are looking to move their dollars into the streaming environment.”
The company’s upcoming direct-to-consumer facility, ESPN Flagship, launches next year and is expected to play a major role in the lead-up.
And Ferro was quick to emphasize that the facility will be the de facto MVPD for Spulu, the upcoming joint venture between ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery.
“I don’t understand why there’s always confusion about joint ventures,” Ferro said. “This joint venture is really like a digital MVPD. It means that all existing ESPN products from Fox and Warner Bros. It’s another distribution point for consumers who really want a product that’s at the right price point.”
Expect to conclude with Jimmy Kimmel’s long-awaited roast, his first live, in-person roast in three years, following last year’s writers’ strike and the coronavirus outbreak the year before.
“Every client tells me it’s their favorite part of Upfront Week. [They’re] Like, you guys spend all day building yourself up and then he comes along and he beats you down,” Ferro said. “He’s already very used to writing monologues and his roasts are similar to that. I’m always nervous when I go to those roasts, but he’s so excited and we love him. I’m excited to be back.”
