fizzle75
New Member
Haven't you heard? the first rule of Advertising 101 is Never mention your competition! :lol:
I kid. I kid because I love. Honestly, Disney is in such a position of strength, they don't really need to mention the competition. What you may notice (if not with their current campaign, then perhaps one day) is a dinstinct NON-mentioning of the competition. Something like "Everything you want, and everything you need in your vacation, at the most magical palce on Earth!" That sort of thing. It lets you know you don't have to go to UO or Sea World or Busch or anywhere else, they've got you covered, without actually mentioning the competition by name.
As far as UO mentioning WDW goes, UO is far enough behind WDW in terms of attendance levels that they find a benefit in the comparision. They're implying that with a UO-based vacation, you're getting more for less. Some people feel it's foolish to mention the competition. My take is, WDW is the 800 pound gorilla in the room. You can't NOT notice it. UO is the closest competitor to WDW in terms of scale and scope (again, they're not nearly as big, just the biggest out of any other non-WDW theme park in the Orlando area). They can pretend WDW doesn't exist in their marketing, but as some threads in this forum can attest, there are plenty of passive tourists who don't even realize WDW & UO are competitors. They look for ET in the Magic Kingdom, and Shrek in The Disney Studios. They arrive at one park with a ticket for the other, assuming they can park hop from WDW to UO. Not everyone cares for the WDW or theme park experience as much as people on these boards, they just want a good time out of their vacation. It's their fault for not being educated about what they're getting out of their vacation dollar, but it's gotta suck to be a UO employee telling a family of 6 that their WDW passes won't get them in, or the Disney resort guests who knows the Jurassic Park raft ride used to be right over here where this Dinosaur ride is, they must've got rid of it.
So Universal tackles the issue by direct comparison- in their marketing, they offer a comparable experience (if not a better one) for far less money. Not only do they establish themselves as a different entity, they (attempt to) establish themselves as the better value.
Yeah,I couldn't help but laugh the other day when I saw someone's vacation video on YouTube titled "Our vacation to Disney's Sea World".:ROFLOL: