For years, brand advertising was closely aligned with driving awareness, while direct-response and performance-based advertising was more closely aligned to actions and conversions. With the acceleration of digital, social and streaming, the lines between traditional and digital advertising began to blur as audience insights helped marketers connect the dots between different parts of the consumer journey.

Small and midsize businesses and agencies for the first time had the opportunity to transact on an equal playing field with larger household names as a direct result of technology innovation and access to audiences at scale across platforms.

At Disney Advertising, we are building–and redefining–the way advertisers connect with their key audiences through the power of automation, addressability and technology. And this innovation transcends to small and midsize, and underrepresented businesses.

By leveraging automation, we are creating and unlocking new value for advertisers, on a national and local level, giving them choice and control by way of unprecedented access, convenience and visibility.

We started this journey by democratizing access through automation and technology for all advertisers. Beginning with Disney’s Self Service platform, commonly known as Hulu Ad Manager, we built inroads for SMBs to plan, buy, measure and optimize campaigns on Hulu within our automated dashboard. We made it possible for businesses of all sizes to tap into the reach of TV with the precision of digital – all through an interface built with the unique needs of SMBs. And as a result, SMBs can show up on a platform with television’s biggest shows like their larger brand counterparts.

We wanted to design our self-service solutions to solve for those unique needs, so we went straight to the source to understand where small-to-midsize, underrepresented business owners run into road blocks or resource constraints in advertising.

Through proprietary research conducted with Advertiser Perceptions, the Underrepresented Small Business Study completed in January 2022, we discovered that 60% of respondents said they need to prove ROI more effectively, 52% said they want to better understand who is seeing or engaging with their ads, and nearly 50% cited “insufficient advertising budgets” as a pain point.

Universally, access to automated tools and simplicity of use, along with support and access to creative resources and production, makes digital and streaming channels much more approachable and inclusive for small-to-midsize and underrepresented businesses – and Disney Advertising is answering the call.

At Disney Advertising, we are committed to providing the support our advertiser community needs to connect their brands to our premium content and portfolio – regardless of size or scope. This need is why we’re dedicated to launching a curriculum that caters specifically to small and underrepresented businesses as an extension of Disney’s Project Elevate, and we’ll reveal more details in the coming months.

With Disney’s Self-Service Platform, we offer unique brand alignment to an Unrivaled portfolio known for bold storytelling and tools to prove effectiveness and outcomes: