TikTok and Disney+ announce partnership as Meta prepares for Christmas

Disney to bring TikTok videos directly to Disney+

Disney and TikTok have announced an unusual integration between a social media platform and a streaming service. Creators participating in the programme will gain access to materials from hundreds of films and series belonging to brands such as Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and FX. Their videos will be published on TikTok and, if selected by Disney, may also appear in Verts, the vertical video feed available in the Disney+ app.

The project will launch in the United States as a pilot programme over the coming months. It is expected to expand to additional markets at a later stage. Participation will be voluntary, while Disney will decide which content appears in its app. The partnership will also include the Disney Creator Ambassador Program, which will offer selected creators greater visibility, special rewards, access to events and further professional development opportunities.

What makes the initiative particularly interesting is that Disney is not limiting fan-created content to its social media communications. It plans to bring the best videos directly into its own streaming product. Community content will therefore become another way for Disney+ users to discover films, series and characters. TikTok’s own figures illustrate the scale of film fandom on the platform. According to its internal data, users published an average of 6.5 million posts related to films and television content every day over the past year.

Almost half of respondents also said that after discovering a film or series on TikTok, they subsequently watched it on television or through a streaming service. The figure comes from an Ipsos survey commissioned by TikTok and conducted among people aged 18 to 49 in seven countries.

TikTok will allow brands to create longer AI-generated ads

TikTok has expanded its Symphony advertising tools with the Dreamina Seedance 2.5 model. Advertisers can now generate videos lasting up to 30 seconds, compared with the previous maximum of 15 seconds. The system can accept up to 50 image, video and audio references, up from nine previously. Advertisers can also specify what should happen during particular sections of a video. TikTok says the new model is better at preserving lighting, movement, proportions, character likeness and product consistency across individual scenes. The feature is currently being rolled out to selected paying advertisers in supported markets.

Videos created through Symphony receive an AI-content label and an invisible watermark. TikTok also blocks the use of real faces as reference material and supports the C2PA Content Credentials standard, which can help identify the origin of generated content outside TikTok as well.

This will allow brands to create and test different versions of their advertisements more quickly, including variations in opening sequences, featured products, video length and scene order. At the same time, there is a risk that advertising feeds will become flooded with technically polished but largely interchangeable videos.

Snapchat restricts AI content while bringing AI into advertising

Snapchat has announced that fully AI-generated videos will no longer be eligible for recommendation in Spotlight. They may remain on the platform, but the algorithm will not actively distribute them to a wider audience.

Content created by a person and subsequently edited using Snapchat’s AI tools may continue to be recommended. However, it should include a disclosure stating that artificial intelligence was used.

Snapchat says the change is intended to prioritise original work, personal stories and genuine creators over repetitive, automated content. According to Snap’s internal data, the number of unique creators contributing to Spotlight increased by more than 120% year on year.

While Snapchat is restricting fully generated content in its public feed, it is giving AI a much larger role in advertising management. The new Snap Ads MCP Server enables advertisers to connect the platform’s advertising data with supported ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini assistants.

Advertisers can use natural language to ask questions about issues such as campaign performance over the previous seven days, the largest week-on-week changes or problems requiring review. At launch, all connections will have read-only permissions. AI can therefore analyse the data but cannot independently change campaign budgets or settings.

Meta is already preparing brands for Christmas

Meta has launched a new Holiday Insights Center and published a separate guide for small businesses preparing their Christmas campaigns. The materials draw partly on research carried out for Meta by Ipsos in November 2025 among 14,473 Christmas shoppers across 18 countries.

According to Meta, 94% of surveyed users of its technologies look to creators for recommendations and inspiration while shopping for Christmas. A further 57% say that creator content directly influences their purchasing decisions. The first figure therefore reflects the search for inspiration, while the second measures the respondents’ stated influence on the purchase itself. Meta summarises the findings and its recommendations for businesses in its guide to the 2026 Christmas season.

Another 59% of respondents said they had contacted a business through Messenger, Instagram Direct or WhatsApp during the Christmas season. Meta therefore recommends that businesses focus not only on paid advertising and creator content, but also on the speed and quality of their responses in private messages.

The key trend is not simply that Christmas campaigns are being prepared earlier. Meta is increasingly connecting paid advertising, creator content and communication through Instagram Direct, Messenger and WhatsApp.

The Christmas customer journey therefore does not necessarily have to lead directly from a social network to an online store. Part of the product selection process, availability checks and even the final purchase decision may take place in a private conversation with the brand.