Rita Ferro Disney
Disney delivered its annual Upfront presentation via a multiscreen sensory experience at New York’s North Javits Center, hosted by Rita Ferro, president of Advertising, who noted that 93% of the company’s reach is multicultural. “Storytelling is what sets Disney apart and we have been working on it for a century. In this area of great change, creativity and innovation continue to be the cornerstone of everything we do at Disney,” said Ferro.
Ferro reinforced the company’s call for the industry partners to act in order to increase their investments and intent around inclusion and lean on all dimensions of diversity. She also announced that the company would include programmatic selling as a core part of any and all Upfront deals.
Stars, athletes, and executives from nearly every sector of the company – Pixar, Marvel Studios, ABC News, ESPN, Hulu, FX, Lucasfilms – were at center stage in front of more than 3,700 guests. The extensive list of figures who participated during the course of the presentation included David Muir, Michael Strahan, and George Stephanopoulos, as well as Serena Williams, Damar Hamlin, Breanna Stewart, Angel Reese, Dan Orlovsky, Desmond Howard, and more.
Tennis player Serena Williams took the stage to announce the production of her new series for ESPN, In the Arena: Serena Williams; Jesse Palmer, former NFL player, ESPN college football analyst, and host of The Bachelor franchise, announced the new production The Golden Bachelor, highlighting the power of the 20-year-old franchise with 11 billion social media connections each month; Kevin Feige, producer and President of Marvel Studios and Creative Director of Marvel, unveiled the first images of the next three series of the label for Disney+, Secret Invasion (debuts on June 21), the second season of Loki that premieres on October 6 as well as the premiere on November 29 of all the episodes of the new Echo series.
For the first time in history, Kathleen Kennedy, President of Lucasfilm, took the stage at Disney’s Upfront and shared the first images of the series Ahsoka, Skeleton Crew, and The Acolyte. She also revealed that ahead of the June 30 release of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the catalog of the celebrated character will be coming to Disney+ on May 31.
Hannah Storm, Elle Duncan, Joe Buck, and Troy Aikman once again underlined the company’s unparalleled position in sports media hosting more than 94,000 original and live hours of event and studio programming on ESPN.
In a pre-recorded greeting, Pete Docter, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer, introduced footage from the studio’s first original series, Win or Lose, for Disney+.
