Inside Disney Branded Television's Community-Powered Playbook

Disney isn't just creating magical experiences. They're architecting one of the world's most sophisticated community ecosystems. Here's how one Disney Branded Television leader is helping reshape how the iconic entertainment brand connects with the next generation, making the company a genuine participant in the communities it serves—plus the tactics every brand can learn from her approach

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Today's newsletter the first in a new series called 'Community-Powered Masters,' where I'll be highlighting the marketing leaders who've cracked the code on community-powered brand building. When I first crossed paths with Disney Branded Television's Abby Ho, I realized immediately she was a kindred spirit, so she was the obvious choice to launch this series.

Most brands can only dream of creating Disney-level fandom.

But what if you actually work there, and your job is not only nurturing existing fans of the brand and all its properties, but also creating a generation of new ones?

That's the challenge Abby Ho VP of Digital and Social for Disney Branded Television, faces every day.

She's helping lead Disney Branded Television into its next era, overseeing the cross-platform digital strategy for some of Disney Branded Television's biggest franchises—from Spidey to Bluey, Mickey Mouse Club to SuperKitties, Descendants to Percy Jackson and more.

The challenge: these properties span generations and need to connect with both nostalgic parents and Gen Alpha kids discovering them for the first time.

Her approach? Marketing that prioritizes relationships over transactions.

The most effective strategy to make that happen: "Be a member of the community you are reaching.”

Here are five ways she's doing just that:

1.   Abby Solves the "Showing Up" Problem First

Here's what Abby knows that too many marketers miss: we're living inside a content explosion, with millions and millions of people uploading new content every second.

Her description of the current chaos is spot-on: "Everybody is at this party."

Most brands, she says, are "fixated on conversion" as a metric.

But in this environment, conversion can't be the first order of business. "I'm like, honey, that's not the concern," she jokes. "You didn't even show up."

Her point: With millions of pieces of content uploaded every second, plus AI-generated content flooding feeds, the challenge isn't crafting the perfect logo or CTA–it's breaking through the noise to establish any presence at all.

You don't even get a shot at conversion if you're not getting in front of audiences in the first place.

This insight fundamentally drives how she approaches marketing Disney Branded Television's entertainment properties. While most brands start with an end goal of conversion, Abby starts with the beginning: visibility.

But not just any visibility. She's talking about meaningful presence in the spaces where conversations are already happening.

Her approach: first show up, then build community, then form relationships, then earn conversion opportunities. It’s relationship-building as the foundation, not the afterthought.

2. Abby Masters the Multi-Generational Marketing Dance

In kid-targeted marketing, there's a strategy known as ‘push-pull,’ which focuses on appealing simultaneously to parents (as gatekeepers) and kids or teens (as end users).

Either kids drive demand that pulls parents toward a purchase, or parents drive consumption by pushing content toward their children. “You’ve got to do a mix of both," says Abby.

To do this delicate dance, she starts every campaign by asking: “Where is the best place to reach them, and what is the best thing to make for them?”

Given the age constraints of social platforms, her team’s social campaigns primarily target audiences 13 and older, which means social marketing across Disney Jr., Disney Television Animation, and Disney Channel all skew older than the actual viewers of their content.

On YouTube, the strategy flips, with custom placements and editorial content specifically designed to reach kid-focused audiences (when I ask if extended engagement on YouTube translates to stronger community connections and franchise loyalty, her answer is definitive: 'Yes, definitely'").

Success across these different platforms comes down to understanding the unique dynamics of each. "Relationships are built through consistency and having a strong creative POV that makes sense for the individual platforms," she explains.

To do this effectively, Abby doesn't just have to consider age dynamics, but also understand how families actually consume media together.

For example, Disney Jr.'s social accounts might be followed primarily by parents, but the content serves both audiences, giving parents shareable moments while creating excitement kids can see and experience. So what does this look like in practice?

Take Disney Jr.'s "Let's Play" back-to-school campaign at Disney California Adventure last summer, she says. Rather than creating separate campaigns for kids and parents, they built an integrated experience.

For parents, the "push" strategy included IRL chalkboards for family photos, Instagram extensions, and creator partnerships that gave parents content worth sharing.

For kids, the "pull" strategy featured live experiences with mascots, engaging art and out-of-home advertising, plus full episodes and clips on YouTube featuring characters like Bluey, Spidey, and Ariel.

The result? A successful 360-degree approach that built relationships with families across generations.

3. Abby Meets Communities Where They Live

When Disney Branded Television looked to revive the Descendants franchise with The Rise of Red in 2024, they faced a challenge: 10 years since the original film, few returning cast members from the original, and a film that had to relaunch itself to both nostalgic fans and new audiences.

Most entertainment brands would deploy the traditional playbook: big ad spends, influencer partnerships, and promotional blitzes designed to interrupt audiences and drive awareness.

Abby took a different approach. Instead of interrupting, she looked for where conversations were already happening and joined them. Her team started by identifying existing Descendants conversations, then dug deeper to understand what specifically interested those communities.

"We kept digging deeper and deeper and deeper," she says, into adjacent fandoms around music, dance, and choreography.

Her methodology was systematic: identify relevant community "pockets" where conversations were happening, dig into specific interests within those communities, partner with trusted players already established in those spaces like L.A.'s Millennium Dance and TikTok choreographers, learn iteratively about what worked, then evolve from promotional partnerships to integrating influencers directly into content.

That last point proved crucial.

Disney Branded Television didn't just have influencers promote Descendants—they created "Shuffle of Love," a music video dropped after the film's release as a "franchise sustain" plan.

Three influencers were cast directly in the music video, supported by behind-the-scenes content and a network of dancers and creators who amplified the experience.

The campaign was not only tremendously successful; it earned a Shorty Award nomination and helped propel the movie to become Disney Branded Television’s most-viewed Disney Channel Original Movie ever, with 6.7M views on Disney+ in its first three days of streaming.

It also established a framework Disney Branded Television continues to build upon.

As Abby puts it: instead of creating campaigns that interrupt communities, she builds campaigns that enhance and celebrate them so they feel seen, heard and valued rather than targeted and sold to.

4. Abby Makes Disney Branded Television a Cultural Participant

“Being a consumer of the culture is almost as important as making things," Abby explains.

This isn't about following social trends—it’s about genuine participation in the cultural conversations that matter to Disney Branded Television's audiences.

This philosophy fundamentally determines how Disney Branded Television shows up online. There’s a fascinating tension in how audiences discover content today—a paradox Abby describes as a split between algorithmic feeds and intentional curation: "There’s our deep, deep reliance on platform algorithms… my YouTube recommendations are dramatically different from the next person's.”

Gen Z and Gen Alpha are highly algo-reliant, yet Abby sees a shift: younger audiences are beginning to self-curate, building identity through fandoms and shared interests.

This tension—between passive discovery and active selection—creates a rare opportunity for brands. Rather than staying on the sidelines and marketing to communities, brands can become active members of them.

Or as Abby puts it: "If you like Disney Channel, we like the same things you're liking too… because we are one of you.” This approach isn't easy: it requires Disney Branded Television properties to stay culturally current not just as a business imperative, but as a genuine participant in the communities it serves.

But the payoff is massive: marketing that feels less like interruption and more like contribution.

5. Abby Makes Cultural Intelligence Everyone's Job

“It's everyone's responsibility to understand 🛑🚫🛑🚫🛑🚫🛑🚫🛑🚫🚫🛑🚫🛑🚫🛑🚫🛑🚫🚫🛑🚫🛑🚫🛑🚫

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For those asking how to put these insights into action, read on...

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