Hulu’s Jeremy Helfand to Lead Disney Direct-To-Consumer and International New Advertising Platforms Team

The Walt Disney Company has announced a new team has been created as part of their Direct-to-Consumer and International division. The Advertising Platforms team will be led by Hulu’s Jeremy Helfand.

What’s happening:

  • The Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International (DTCI) Technology group has created a new Advertising Platforms team.
  • This group will combine the company’s advertising technology, product expertise, and resources into a single, focused team.
  • The group will work to accelerate how the company is transforming advertising and how viewers experience and engage with advertising across Disney’s media platforms.  
  • Advertising Platforms team brings together Hulu and DTCI Advertising Product and Technology’s teams to develop the strategies, technologies, tools and products for linear, streaming and digital advertising across the Walt Disney Company.
  • Advertising Platforms will work in partnership with Disney Advertising Sales to advance advertising innovation for the industry.
  • Advertising Platforms will be a core pillar of the DTCI Technology organization, and will be led by Jeremy Helfand, who previously led all advertising technology and product innovation efforts at Hulu.

  • This combination of expertise and resources will allow the company to focus on key areas that will deliver value to brands in a converging linear and digital landscape, including:  
    • Long-term development of a unified ad platform, along with to ongoing support for cross-platform offerings like Disney Hulu XP
    • Expansion of viewer-first advertising experiences
    • Advancing the automation of advertising with expansion of programmatic buying and selling platforms
    • Leveraging data in smart, high-integrity ways to deliver consumer insights, expand addressability and ensure end-to-end attribution across media buys
    • Increased accountability and return on investment for advertising clients
  • A global team of nearly 3,500 technologists, DTCI Technology is responsible for the design, development and consumer experience of over 200 of The Walt Disney Company’s branded digital products and consists of:
    • Developers
    • Data scientists
    • Engineers
  • Additionally, this group will develop large-scale technology platforms including advertising technology and products; data platforms; and worldwide digital and linear media distribution that connects Disney’s content to tens of millions of consumers around the world.

What they’re saying:

  • Aaron LaBerge, Executive Vice President and CTO, DTCI Technology: “Advertising is a critically important aspect of Disney's business, and the future of advertising requires a new level of viewer-first innovation powered by the industry’s most advanced TV ad platform. Jeremy is an accomplished, business-focused technology leader, whose teams have turned great ideas into groundbreaking technologies and products. Under his leadership, Advertising Platforms will work hand-in-hand with Disney Advertising Sales to transform the advertising landscape and create a unified ad platform centered on end-to-end automation, data and measurement, and differentiated ad experiences.”