Disney's Ailing Parks
To Get Global Ad Boost
By SUZANNE VRANICA and BRUCE ORWALL
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 29, 2004; Page B1
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.
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.
In Disney's new ads, 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.
Write to Suzanne Vranica at suzanne.vranica@wsj.com and Bruce Orwall at bruce.orwall@wsj.com
To Get Global Ad Boost
By SUZANNE VRANICA and BRUCE ORWALL
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 29, 2004; Page B1
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.
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.
In Disney's new ads, 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.
Write to Suzanne Vranica at suzanne.vranica@wsj.com and Bruce Orwall at bruce.orwall@wsj.com
