The Trade Desk (TTD) – NBC & Disney – March 23, 2024
NBC
Through an NBC Universal partnership, 2024 Olympic advertising inventory will be available on TTD’s platform. Why does this matter? Live sports dominate the hearts and minds of our species. The Olympic games trail perhaps only soccer in terms of global appeal. This provides yet another programmatic growth lever to bolster TTD’s momentum. It will also allow the firm to showcase its superior ROAS outcomes to prospective clients in less tapped global markets. Monumental? No. Irrelevant? Also no. We’ll take all of the tailwinds we can get.
Notably, this could make TTD’s revenue cyclicality a bit more pronounced depending on how well this goes. Olympic game years line up perfectly with election cycles. So? Even years will now feature two large events (with the elections being more material) that will help TTD’s growth. Odd years will not. Just something to keep in mind.
Disney Partnership
Disney has long been a close connected TV (CTV) partner for TTD. That partnership got tighter this week. To unify ad impressions across all streaming assets, add deeper audience segmentation and bolster CPMs, Disney will use The Trade Desk and Google. This will give The Trade Desk access to more high value inventory. The new relationship also includes TTD’s Open Path product to help Disney connect its supply inventory directly to the buy side. This is good news for TTD. I think it’s even better news for Disney, as it shows the firm’s understanding of who it needs to partner with to make streaming as successful as possible.
