Disney capitalizes on live events with Oscars, NCAA women’s college basketball

The news: Disney is drawing attention with its multi-platform advertising strategy, capitalizing on live events like the Oscars and upcoming NCAA women’s college basketball tournament to build a broader advertising approach across streaming, linear TV, social media, and digital platforms, per The Hollywood Reporter.

• Disney is selling streaming packages around best picture winner “Anora” to continuously reap the rewards of the Oscars, which outperformed the Super Bowl and Grammy Awards in social conversations.
• The company is seeing ad sales for the women’s college basketball tournament nearly 200% higher than last year, per senior VP of sports brand solutions Danielle Brown.
• The move is part of what senior VP of streaming brand solutions for Disney John Campbell refers to as Disney’s “content everywhere” strategy, where CMOs “come to Disney to help maximize these big moments.”

Zooming out: Disney’s streaming business was down 1% QoQ in Q4 2024 while Disney+ ad revenues are growing at a slower rate—so expanding its advertising reach by investing in major cultural moments and keeping the conversation going after these events could be an effective way to offset potential losses.

Per Brown, “[CMOs] don’t want to end the conversation with the live event. The live event drives the entire ecosystem.”

Our take: Disney stands to gain from a particularly unique angle that values the aftermath of a live event as much as the event itself.

Companies are willing to pay big for high-profile events like the Super Bowl, and live sports programming accounts for a significant portion of US TV ad spend. Live events create natural ad opportunities that young viewers show high acceptance of.

• Disney is getting ahead of the game by planning far in advance for early 2027, where the Oscars, the Super Bowl, the Grammys, and College Football Championship will occur in a three-month period—indicating that its “content everywhere” strategy is in it for the long haul.