Disney's Ailing Parks To Get Global Ad Boost
Can a massive 50th birthday party for Disneyland inspire world-wide amusement and reverse the post-Sept. 11 malaise that has dogged Disney's parks?
This week, Walt Disney Co. plans to launch its first global advertising campaign for its theme parks, expanding beyond the regional and national advertising it has used in the past to drive attendance.
The effort is pegged to the anniversary of Disneyland's 1955 opening in Anaheim, Calif. -- an event the company is touting as the birth of theme parks. Disneyland's birthday will be "celebrated" at every Disney destination, including the company's ten parks and its two Disney Cruise Line ships.
The festivities are part of an aggressive effort to herd travelers into Disney's theme parks all over the world -- including the company's U.S. resorts in Orlando Fla. and Anaheim, as well as properties near Paris and in Tokyo. Ads will kick off during the New Year's Day broadcast of the Tournament of Roses Parade, which will feature Mickey Mouse as grand marshal and Sleeping Beauty's Castle as one of the floats. Another flight of ads will begin appearing in Europe and Asia in the spring. The new campaign will continue for much of the year.
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The feel-good extravaganza is intended to address what has become one of Disney's toughest problems. Its theme parks are well-known and much loved as the places where Mickey Mouse and other popular characters roam free. But the parks have been tripped up in recent years by a variety of maladies.
"The Disney brand is strong but needs some real tending," says Allen Adamson , managing director at Landor Associates, an image-consulting unit of WPP Group PLC. "Now is a good time to spin it to the marketplace in a controlled manner."
The parks already were feeling the effects of recession when the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks sparked a global tourism slump that lingers even today. Even at Disney's most popular parks -- the Magic Kingdom at Orlando's Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland in Anaheim -- attendance in 2004 remains below that of 2000, according to estimates by Amusement Business magazine. Jay Rasulo, president of Disney Parks & Resorts, says the number of families traveling from abroad to Disney's U.S. destinations is disappointing. But he figures attendance from that customers base has the potential to grow about 50% in the future. The company is hoping the weak dollar will spur an influx of travelers from overseas.
AMUSEMENT
In Disney's new commercial, characters such as Goofy and Dumbo make their way to Disney's global bash.
Disney opened three new parks in the face of the slump, and two of them -- California Adventure in Anaheim and the Walt Disney Studios Park near Paris -- have failed to live up to expectations. California Adventure in 2004 attracted an estimated 5.6 million visitors, up 6% from 2003, but still below expectations despite the addition of a big new attraction there this year. The Paris park, adjacent to Disneyland Paris, has been a bomb, attracting just 2.2 million visitors this year.
Driving more visitors to each location is important beyond the ticket-sale revenue generated. Disney's strategy is based on having a captive, lingering audience: By keeping tourists fully engaged at each resort, Disney stands to reap additional sales on food, hotels and merchandise.
Disney declines to reveal what it plans to spend on its newest promotional effort. The company's U.S. ad outlays for its resorts and theme parks rose 6% last year to $163 million, according to ad-tracker TNS Media Intelligence/CMR.
The new ads attempt to make Disney's iconic characters more hip by rendering them in computer-generated animation and, for the first time, setting them against live-action backgrounds. One of the spots shows Disney characters making their way to Disney parks to celebrate: Dumbo soars over New York City, the Genie from "Aladdin" rides camelback through the desert and a cranky Donald Duck is lost on the Great Wall of China. "It's our biggest celebration in 50 years," says a familiar voice (it belongs to actor Kelsey Grammer). "Come join us for this once-in-a-lifetime event at Disney parks around the world." Publicis Groupe SA's Leo Burnett crafted the work.
Disney is optimistic. "We are starting to feel like within the next 12 months we could see levels coming back pretty strongly," Mr. Rasulo says. "The previous highs are in reach."
Disney wants to make sure this campaign ends up as embedded in consumers' consciousness as pervious campaigns that made heavy use of the song "When You Wish Upon a Star." The company intends to use a Madison Avenue technique called a "roadblock," in which marketers purchase ad time on several television networks at roughly the same time. With the Tournament of Roses Parade airing on Disney's ABC, Viacom Inc.'s CBS and General Electric Co.'s NBC, an ad from the Disney campaign is expected to run on all three networks during the first commercial break after the parade begins.
To reach those not watching TV, Disney has set up a similar media buy with five Internet sites, including Yahoo, MSN and Weather.com. The hope is that few eyeballs will be able to escape the Disney magic.
Disney in the past has proved itself expert at exploiting the theme parks' emotional appeal in advertising. In the mid-1990s, a long campaign built around Walt Disney World's 25th anniversary was a big success, and the company later used what would have been Walt Disney's 100th birthday to provide reassurance to travelers in the aftermath of Sept. 11th.
For almost two decades, the parks' profile has been buoyed by the clever campaign that has featured newly crowned sports champs hollering: "I'm going to Disney World." Intoned by well-known athletes such as basketball great Michael Jordan, football legend Joe Montana and slugger Mark McGwire, the line has become an American catchphrase since the ads began running 17 years ago. Phil Simms of the New York Giants football team was the first to utter the phrase after winning Super Bowl XXI in 1987.
广告宣传有助于提振迪斯尼主题公园的业绩
沃尔特-迪斯尼公司(Walt Disney Co., DIS)本周计划为该公司的主题公园推出首次全球范围的广告宣传活动，此次广告宣传的规模将超过该公司过去的地区性和全国性的广告，目的是为了吸引更多的游客参观该其主题公园。本次活动是为了配合迪斯尼乐园(Disneyland)的周年庆典，迪斯尼乐园1955年在加利福尼亚州的阿纳海姆开业，沃尔特-迪斯尼将此称为迪斯尼主体公园的诞生。每个迪斯尼设施都将参与迪斯尼乐园生日的庆祝活动，其中包括该公司的10个主题公园和两艘Disney Cruise Line游轮。
沃尔特-迪斯尼正在实施一项旨在把游客吸引进该公司全球各地主题公园的雄心勃勃的计划，上述庆祝活动是该计划的一部分。沃尔特-迪斯尼的主题公园包括佛罗里达州奥兰多和阿纳海姆的游乐场，还有巴黎附近和东京的游乐设施。上述广告宣传活动将在2005年元旦玫瑰游行花会(Tournament of Roses Parade)的转播中开始，活动中将由米老鼠(Mickey Mouse)担任司仪官，其中的一辆彩车将被装扮成睡美人城堡(Sleeping Beauty's Castle)。沃尔特-迪斯尼的另一轮广告宣传活动将于明年春天在欧洲和亚洲出现。此次崭新的广告宣传活动将贯穿明年的大部分时间。
沃尔特-迪斯尼上述令人兴奋的盛大活动旨在解决该公司一个最棘手的问题。沃尔特-迪斯尼的主题公园非常有名，而且深受喜爱，这些公园里有米老鼠和其他人们熟悉的迪斯尼动画角色到处游走。但这些公园近年来却遇到了各种问题。
WPP集团(WPP Group PLC.)旗下的企业形像顾问子公司Landor Associates的董事总经理Allen Adamson表示，迪斯尼品牌知名度很高，但需要一些精心的管理。现在是一个将迪斯尼品牌逐步推向市场的好时机。
迪斯尼主题公园在9?11恐怖袭击发生后已经受到了旅游业衰退的影响。9?11恐怖袭击造成了全球旅游业的滑坡，其影响到目前尚未完全消除。据Amusement Business杂志预计，即使是在迪斯尼最受欢迎的主题公园，奥兰多沃尔特-迪斯尼世界(Walt Disney World Resort)的魔术王国(Magic Kingdom)和阿纳海姆的迪斯尼乐园，2004年的参观人数仍低于2000年的参观人数。Disney Parks & Resorts的总裁Jay Rasulo表示，外国家庭到美国参观迪斯尼乐园的数字令人失望。但Rasulo预计，外国家庭客户群的参观人数未来可能会增加50%。沃尔特-迪斯尼正期望美元的走软会带来大量的外国游客。
沃尔特-迪斯尼不愿透露此次推广活动的预算数额。据广告追踪公司TNS Media Intelligence/CMR称，沃尔特-迪斯尼去年在美国游乐场和主题公园的广告支出增加了6%，至1.63亿美元。
