Amid a torrent of fan-friendly news about Disney projects across the media spectrum, Disney leadership took time on the first day of the three-day D23 fan fest weekend in Anaheim for panels that offered a behind the scenes look at the Mouse House’s business strategies and vision for driving growth in the streaming era.
One of the topics tackled was how to reach next-generation Disney fans with next-generation content formats to keep the company’s many franchises relevant to Gen Alpha and beyond. Disney’s push into the booming vertical media space — aka microdramas and other shortform clips designed to be viewed on mobile phones — was discussed in detail during a session with Eric Schrier, Disney’s president of Direct-to-Consumer International Originals, Strategic Programming and Emerging Media, and Erin Teague, who is executive VP of Product Management for Disney Entertainment and ESPN.
The conversation was moderated by Jon YouShaei, a YouTube and Instagram executive turned creator and podcaster, and it also featured the perspective of Disney-centric creator Blake Silva as a panelist.
Schrier emphasized that the “Verts” push on Disney+ is a significant investment for the Mouse. The company last week unveiled a pact with TikTok designed to encourage more fans to create clips with authorized Disney IP. This is a big change for the company that has historically vigorously enforced its copyright and trademark rights.
“We’ve always looked at making film and television in very finite formats. Half hours, hours, feature
length films. And now you can tell any story. Creators are just storytellers,” Schrier said. “We’ve always talked about our creators before there were actually creators. The creator of ‘Paradise,’ Dan Fogelman, he’s a creator. We talk about them as creators. And so they’re just different types of storytellers. So how do we bring those stories to Disney+? How do we complement what we already have on platform? And it’s early days, but we’re really excited about this next generation of storytellers that are out there that are into Disney+.”
Teague pointed to examples that demonstrate how smart promotion and word-of-mouth via social media helps drive viewership to Disney’s biggest investments in TV and film.
“There will never be a replacement for that long-form original content but what is interesting is the way that it is now being supplemented by the shorter form analysis, the clips,” Teague said. As with live game coverage for sports, she said, “the additional commentary and analysis around the game is just as interesting. And so the ways that we can merge those experiences to give people exactly what they want, when they want it in a split second, I think, is the challenge.”
Silva asserted that most experienced creators who hone their focus on key brands and franchises know how to plug themselves in to the company’s priorities. He said the TikTok deal and Disney+’s embrace of creator content has been invigorating for the Disney-verse.
“We look at social media and clips going viral, about movies or scenes from movies all the time,” Silva said. “So imagine how that would translate and convert when they’re already in the app, to watch
it immediately. I really believe in the creator to talent pipeline. It’s really exciting to think how could this create the next Mister Rogers, my idol.”
Teague underscored that fans expect to be part of the action in ways that were unimaginable to their parents and grandparents.
“Next generations of fans are expecting more from their entertainment experience. They want to be a part of the story. They want to put themselves in the story. They want interactivity. They want to have more agency in the storytelling experience with the democratization of creativity,” Teague said.
Teague also took part in a session on how ESPN’s increasingly global sports profile is helping Disney find subscribers and fans.
“ESPN is effectively synonymous with sports as a brand. So diehard sports fans know and love ESPN and have forever, that will never change. We will never stop serving the diehard, loyal sports fan because that’s our base,” Teague said during the session moderated by Joe Earley, Co-President of Direct to Consumer for Disney Entertainment.
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“But two trends are happening. One, the internet and native generations. Gen Alpha, Gen Z, etc. They are now expecting more from their sports fandom and their sports experience,” Teague said. “The technology is evolving and we’re thinking about how to also superserve the casual sports fan, because that fandom is equally as real. And it turns out it looks very similar to Disney fandom. And so we’re thinking about this consistently across our product experiences.”
Freddy Rolón, ESPN’s head of global sports and talent office, reeled off the latest stats for ESPN’s reach with 43 linear networks in more than 130 countries and territories, and it is available on Disney+ in more than 100 markets. For the month of June, ESPN reached 640 million digital and social users.
“We reach more casual fans, we reach more female fans on Disney+ and then on the flip side, ESPN
brings to Disney+ a credibility about sports, authenticity about sports, and then really a recurring reason for fans to come back to the platform. Not just for the games, but for the game around the game,” Rolón said. “When we think about all those platforms, they work in concert. They’re not necessarily individual. We think about the game on Disney+, the coverage, and the social media platforms all working together to reach fans with information when they want it.”
Jo Fox, senior VP of marketing for ESPN, said the tighter connection to Disney+ as the platform has expanded significantly across Europe, Middle East, Asia and Latin America has been hugely beneficial. ESPN has made the strategic decision to make key programs available via Disney+ even for subscribers who don’t get the bundle.
“We use the Disney+ platform and their audience, who might be different to our ESPN core audience, and we can talk to them more directly and get them more enthused about sports and ultimately engaging with Disney+ and ESPN as well,” Fox said. “So as an example of that, we will have select college football games and ‘College GameDay’ unlocked on Disney+ coming up. Because the mascots, the pageantry, the tribal nature of it, the excitement around it. It seems like an amazing sport to be able to unlock some of these select games on Disney+ and talk to this new fan base.”
Earley also moderated a session on Disney+’s international content strategy for local-language production with Schrier and Carol Choi, Disney Asia Pacific’s executive VP of Integrated Marketing & APAC Original Strategy.
It’s a balancing act of leveraging the platform’s worldwide reach with the need to keep subscribers engaged on a consistent basis. Local-language content has long been seen as key to reducing subscriber churn rates.
“What we’re really looking to do is tell stories for local audiences and be hyper-local. We call it local for local. So we make French shows for France, Spanish shows for Spain, or Brazilian shows for Brazil. And we do that all over the world,” Schrier said. “We’re going to be increasing that significantly to have local audiences have something that expresses their culture and their sensibility. And what’s happened organically out of that local for local strategy is that those stories are now traveling back to other parts of the world.”
Korea and Japan are prime areas of focus for Disney+ and local-language production.
“Our local creators and storytellers really appreciate the ability for them to tell stories that are authentic to the local cultures with the support of people who’ve been telling stories like their whole career, like Eric and his team,” Choi said. “With that guidance, we’ve been very fortunate to have produced a number of hits, as well as having audiences outside of APAC discover these stories and content.”
Choi pointed to recent buzzy Disney+ series including “Tempest,” “Perfect Crown” and “A Shop For Killers.” Earley added, “Some of those Korean dramas put up numbers that rival or even exceed some of the global originals as well.”
(Pictured top: Disney’s Eric Schrier, Carol Choi and Joe Earley speak at D23 in Anaheim on Aug. 14.)