Recently minted Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro addressed advertisers at the company’s upfront presentation Tuesday, emphasizing the passion and loyalty created by Disney in its customers.
“You cannot acquire a hundred years of trust,” D’Amaro said, nodding to the company’s century-plus of existence. “You can’t put generations of belonging on a balance sheet.”
Disney, he continued, “is part of people’s lives in a way few brands have ever been. And in a world of infinite choice and constant distraction, that kind of presence is rare. And getting rarer.”
D’Amaro was appointed CEO in February, capping a closely watched process of anointing Bob Iger’s successor. The handoff has been smooth, earning positive reviews on Wall Street. D’Amaro has weathered a few bumps in his initial weeks on the job, however, among them the Bachelor meltdown, new attacks on Jimmy Kimmel, layoffs and the demise of a deal with OpenAI that was made on Iger’s watch.
The remarks at North Javits Center, a cavernous new event hall along New York’s Hudson River, followed a brief introduction by Anne Hathaway. The star touted the success of The Devil Wears Prada 2, noting that her early-career hit The Princess Diaries has wound up in “the same family” as the Prada franchise. (The original movie was released by Fox, which joined the Disney fold in 2019.)
D’Amaro’s stage time was a bit unusual during the annual upfronts. Lachlan Murdoch’s stage time at Fox’s presentation notwithstanding, CEOs generally are in the audience for these advertising events, though corporate developments can motivate them to speak. Iger appeared at Disney’s pitch two years ago, and former CEO Bob Chapek did likewise in 2021, both nods to the changing of the guard in the company’s corner office.
Noting it was his first upfront as Disney CEO, D’Amaro jokingly added, “so naturally we decided to keep the pressure low and put a few thousand media executives in one room.”
He said he was “a little nervous,” but not because of the size or clout of the crowd, but because he grew up a Boston Celtics fan. Acknowledging the New York Knicks bias of the crowd, he added, “I wish the Knicks nothing but the best. I mean that. Mostly.”
Turning more serious, D’Amaro recalled his first job was at Disneyland in Anaheim, well after his first parks visit at the age of eight. He reminisced, in gauzily nostalgic terms, about the rush of his initial experience and then made a point to emphasize how that emotional connection is forged early and can extend for a person’s lifetime. “That feeling,” he said, “is our entire business.
“No focus group invents that. No algorithm produces it. No amount of capital can buy it. That is what every audience, every sponsor, every brand in this room is actually trying to buy.”
Companies are “racing to assemble” ecosystems across movies, TV, streaming, digital, parks and experiences. “What they are racing to assemble,” D’Amaro said, “is, more or less, the picture of what we already are.”
Rather than calling it “viewing,” D’Amaro said, “it’s belonging.”
By creating and cultivating that belonging, he added, Disney is “in a category of one.”
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