Disney Adtech Updates: Key Findings
- The Walt Disney Company used CES 2026 to position AI as advertising infrastructure, accelerating a shift toward self-service buying and optimization.
- New AI-driven creative, planning, and measurement tools centralize campaign execution, pulling more workflow inside Disney-owned systems.
- Unified metrics increase efficiency while concentrating control, reducing advertiser visibility into how performance is defined and scored.
Disney unveiled multiple adtech updates at CES 2026 on January 8, positioning AI as the infrastructure for self-service advertising.
Disney's annual Tech and Data Showcase focused on making campaign planning, measurement, and optimization more seamless for advertisers through automation and unified metrics.
The entertainment giant has been signaling for months that AI would reshape how advertisers plan and buy TV inventory.
This year's CES announcements show that Disney is building infrastructure to support this.
But streaming platforms building their own creative and measurement tools are putting agencies in a tough spot.
When advertisers can produce CTV commercials and track performance without middlemen, agencies need to prove they're worth the extra cost.
AI Video Pressures Agency Creatives
Disney's new video creation tool generates CTV-ready commercials using brand assets and guidelines.
The creative adjusts for audiences, context, and placement, with ads informed by performance signals within the spots.
The tool operates as a self-service infrastructure, without requiring agency partnerships for creative development.
Advertisers input brand materials, and Disney's system outputs platform-ready video executions calibrated for specific targeting parameters.
“These are tools and technology we’re bringing to advertisers because we believe they solve actual problems and drive actual value for you.
It’s a blend of technical depth and storytelling sensibility that very few companies can deliver,” Disney Advertising Platforms EVP Tony Donohoe said in a statement.
Disney also introduced an AI-powered planning tool designed to make campaigns "more intentional, connected, and outcome focused."
The Disney Compass Brand Portal expansion provides unified campaign performance views across platforms, with category benchmarks and AI-powered summaries highlighting key insights.
At launch, the portal connects to Affinity Solutions, CINT, EDO, Innovid, and VideoAmp.
Unified measurement metrics simplify attribution but consolidate power with platform owners.
When Disney defines brand impact through proprietary scoring, advertisers lose independence in measuring campaign effectiveness.
Vertical Video Moves Into Premium Streaming
Disney brought vertical video to Disney+ after launching "verts" on the ESPN streaming app in 2025.
The company is exploring how it works across categories and content types to create more personalized experiences.
This suggests that Disney sees vertical formats as infrastructure for algorithmic content delivery, and not just alternative aspect ratios.
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Dana McGraw, SVP of data and measurement science at Disney Advertising, explained the Brand Impact Metric:
"When brands can connect ad exposure to direct results, marketers gain clarity on not just what drove results — but how.
The vision of the Disney Advertising Brand Impact Metric is to connect all pieces of the measurement puzzle in a single metric."
The metric measures attention, brand health, and search, combining insights from established measurement providers with Disney's first-party data.
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Three patterns from Disney's CES updates reveal how streaming platforms are consolidating advertiser workflows:
- Audit platform measurement methodologies before committing budgets: Unified metrics reduce transparency into how attention, brand health, and search are weighted.
- Test AI-generated creative against agency work in A/B splits: Self-service tools work for performance but may underperform on brand lift without strategic input.
- Negotiate data portability for platform tools: Disney Compass integrations lock campaign insights into proprietary systems, making vendor switching costly.
Platforms that build end-to-end advertising infrastructure challenge the agency ecosystem's role in campaign execution.
Our Take: Can Platforms Replace Agency Creative and Measurement Services?
I think Disney's AI tools work fine for standard creative, but they can't replace agencies on anything that needs real strategic thinking or cultural insight.
The Brand Impact Metric makes measurement simpler, but also makes you dependent on Disney's math.
You lose the ability to check their work independently when one score becomes the only score that matters.
Vertical video shows Disney gets how people watch on phones, but we'll see if premium shows actually work in that format without losing what makes them premium.
If Disney's self-service setup performs as well as agency campaigns at half the cost, agencies are in trouble beyond just losing media buying work.
In other related news, Disney hit $6 billion at the box office by releasing fewer films, proving focused slates and trusted franchises drive stability when audiences treat moviegoing as an event.
Brands navigating platform consolidation of creative and measurement services need agencies that provide strategic value beyond execution.
Take a look at the top advertising agencies in our directory.
