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. Half hours, hours, featurelength films. And now you can tell any story.
Creators are just storytellers,” Schrier said. 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. 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.
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