You acknowledged the challenges of putting together this year’s show on stage, but how did the writers strike affect the presentation?
We’re very supportive of the writers and their ability to get the right terms around the deal that they want to do. Ultimately, we were respectful of that and understood when anybody said I’m not going to be there because I am a writer or I’m stepping away because I’m in solidarity with the writers. We absolutely understand that. We missed some of our tried and trues. But we’re looking forward to getting to the other side of this so that we can actually continue to drive the incredible storytelling that we have planned to do so across our platform, and then next year, get back to—I always say to my team, “Imagine, if the stage looked that good this year, what it will look like next year when everyone is back?” We’re going to have to curate it a little more. I don’t know that you guys are going to sit there that long.
Also, Jimmy Kimmel, who was even part of Disney’s presentation after getting Covid-19 last year, wasn’t there this year. How do you plan around that?
Well, you can’t plan around Jimmy. Jimmy is the best. And we definitely missed him this year. But we totally understood why he decided to step away this year. And I can’t wait to have him back next year. Because I mean, to me, it doesn’t matter if he’s on the box or in person, he’s amazing. And you saw that last year. He was not in the room, and it felt like he was in the room, and he was hysterical. I can’t wait to have him back at our upfront, and I know he will be next year.
DEI was a message you wanted to get across, and you challenged marketers from the stage to be intentional. Why was that important?
It’s really important. We started that ask for a commitment as part of the upfront years ago because the intentionality behind what we’re doing in that space from a company perspective and all of our storytellers and creators has been really important in terms of how we think about the investments, who are the right talent to have in front and behind the camera, how are we thinking about all of the consumers that we touch? I said, “Multicultural is mainstream.” It is. When you think today of, whether it’s Latinos or African Americans or LGBTQ+ or women in sports, there are so many ways that you could really get involved and be a driver and an innovator as a brand to showcase audiences and the audiences that matter to the consumers that buy your products and services.
If the stage looked that good this year, what it will look like next year when everyone is back?
–Rita Ferro, president of ad sales, Disney
What were the priorities you wanted to get across? Obviously, the presentation started with sports.
We wanted to make sure clients understood sports is a big business for the Walt Disney Company, not only across ESPN but across our broadcast network. When we think about what we do on social and having a presence across a broad landscape of sports coverage, whether it’s news and information, whether it’s live sports, whether it’s best in class talent, whether it’s how we cover the game around the game. All of that is a really important strategy. And by the way, it is for marketers too, because if you look across the marketplace today, where it’s not as robust as it has been in the past, the one area that continues to see growth and demand on a regular basis is sports.
