A new trend is evolving around RMNs and streaming media. Marketers, are you noticing?

Published: April 21, 2023

min read

Disney Advertising and Kroger Precision Marketing (KPM), Kroger's retail media division, have recently announced their partnership. As part of the deal, KPM will share its first-party shopper data for targeting streaming audiences, which will enable packaged-goods marketers to reach out to their target audiences across select Disney inventory, beginning with Hulu.

The decision comes as packaged-goods marketers seek connected TV and retail media to reach audiences as it has become increasingly difficult to reach on linear TV and target in digital.

When you pair our audience with Disney’s content and then our collective commitment to measurement standards, really great things are going to happen.

Cara Pratt

Senior VP of Kroger Precision Marketing

The collaboration will link Disney's inventory with KPM's data science capabilities to help advertisers connect with their target audiences through streaming content and measure the back-end sales impact across Kroger stores.

KPM serves a 60 million US household market, or roughly half of the country, and Hulu reaches 41% of "TV-accessible households," or those with TVs or who stream TV content to mobile devices, according to a recent Advertising Research Federation report.

While the industry is focused on identifying alternative currencies, Disney is doubling down on driving real-world results for brand clients each and every day.

Lisa Valentino,

Executive VP-client solutions

Disney Advertising

The initial beta programme will include a select group of CPG brands, with the solution set to be released to the general market in the second half of 2023. During alpha testing, PepsiCo was the first advertiser to collaborate with KPM and Disney.

What does the Disney and Kroger Partnership mean to marketers?

CTV viewership has reached greater heights in recent months, and hence, marketers' efforts towards CTV campaigns have also considerably increased.

Even tech giants like Google are adapting to the growing need for CTV advertisements.

Especially in this cookie-less world, finding a way to reach the right audiences to increase the chance of conversion remains a greater challenge.

In our opinion, the Disney and Kroger partnership can benefit marketers—particularly CPG marketers—in many ways.

As first-party data is authentic because it is collected directly from the audience, with Kroger’s first-party data, marketers will be able to reach their relevant audience and improve campaign performance.
As the partnership enables marketers to take action based on high-quality data, it prevents them from spending dollars on audiences who are unlikely to convert.
Over the course of time, marketers will gain valuable insights on their target audiences’ preferences so as to optimize their CTV campaigns accordingly to improve conversions.
As data privacy regulations are becoming more stringent nowadays, the Disney and Kroger partnership will pave a smooth pathway for marketers to reach audiences in a privacy-friendly way.

And, moreover, this type of collaboration has increased in the streaming space in recent months. Needless to mention the partnership between Best Buy and Roku, Innovid and Walmart to increase marketers’ targeting and measurement capabilities.

It only reiterates how beneficial the collaboration between retail media networks and streaming media has become for marketers to sharpen their ad targeting and make meaningful media investments.

Thus, we believe the Disney and Kroger partnership will be tremendously helpful for marketers to optimize their ad spends and maximize ROI in their CTV campaigns.

Author

Bill Walker

Bill is a marketing strategist who believes in the power of storytelling. He's known for his creativity, wit, and ability to connect with audiences across all channels. When he's not crafting marketing campaigns, you can find him hiking in the mountains or reading a good book.