Say "NO!" to Pixie Dust pins!

[speck76]

One thing that I think you "marketing wizards" are forgeting is that Disney can not have "the biggest event ever" every single year. Their needs to be contrasts in the marketing message, or Disney turns into your local used car dealership that seems to have "their biggest sale ever" every single weekend.

The next celebration will be smaller than HCOE, but this is ok (and needed) because:
1. The market is good, and people will come to WDW regardless of what is going on, whereas when HCOE was planned, we were still in recession.
2. The event that follows this campaign will have the ability to make a major impact, if needed at THAT time.

 

[imagineer boy]

Alrighty, I've thought this out and here's what I'd do if I were in Disney's marketing department:

Let's just say that the YOAMD promotion never happened.

Instead, the focus would center on Epcot's 25th anniversary. This celebration would be like Epcot's F+G, and F+W festivals except longer, and on a grander scale. It wouldn't be a huge world-wide marketing campain ( that would be overdoing it. ) but more of a special celebration personal to WDW. Commercial advertisment for WDW would be the same as usual, but with a special note at the end saying "During your stay, come join Epcot's 25th anniversary with exciting new shows, parades, rides and excitement!" Resort wide merchandise includes hats, shirts, plush toys, pins, and more.

As for Epcot its self, all of the buildings will recieve fresh coats of paint. The wand will be removed and all of the classic Epcot attractions recieve huge rehabs. These include SSE ( new animatronics, effects, and overall experience enhancement ), UOE ( new movie, new animatronics, special effects, and possibly extended dinosaur segment ), JII ( do I need to explain? ), major enhancements to Innoventions, and Living with the Land. World Showcase would recieve two new rides. A river raft ride at Canada ( WITH NO Brother Bear themeing ), and a dark ride in the germany pavillion. Japan would revieve an artsy martial arts broadway-type show. ( think Lion King without musical numbers ) Maelstrom and El Rio Del Tiemp will recieve much needed updates. There will also be a new Illuminations show which incorperates new firework effects, lasers, reuse of the earth globe, fire effects, and the new awesome foutain effects seen in the BraviSEAmo show at TDS. A new TON-like parade will make its debut. It will utilize similar puppets ( hides from mkt's wrath ) but with more floats. All this will attract more local attention, and will make regular visitors stay longer at Epcot.

 

[wannab@dis]

Alrighty, I've thought this out and here's what I'd do if I were in Disney's marketing department:

Let's just say that the YOAMD promotion never happened.

Instead, the focus would center on Epcot's 25th anniversary. This celebration would be like Epcot's F+G, and F+W festivals except longer, and on a grander scale. It wouldn't be a huge world-wide marketing campain ( that would be overdoing it. ) but more of a special celebration personal to WDW. Commercial advertisment for WDW would be the same as usual, but with a special note at the end saying "During your stay, come join Epcot's 25th anniversary with exciting new shows, parades, rides and excitement!" Resort wide merchandise includes hats, shirts, plush toys, pins, and more.

As for Epcot its self, all of the buildings will recieve fresh coats of paint. The wand will be removed and all of the classic Epcot attractions recieve huge rehabs. These include SSE ( new animatronics, effects, and overall experience enhancement ), UOE ( new movie, new animatronics, special effects, and possibly extended dinosaur segment ), JII ( do I need to explain? ), major enhancements to Innoventions, and Living with the Land. World Showcase would recieve two new rides. A river raft ride at Canada ( WITH NO Brother Bear themeing ), and a dark ride in the germany pavillion. Japan would revieve an artsy martial arts broadway-type show. ( think Lion King without musical numbers ) Maelstrom and El Rio Del Tiemp will recieve much needed updates. There will also be a new Illuminations show which incorperates new firework effects, lasers, reuse of the earth globe, fire effects, and the new awesome foutain effects seen in the BraviSEAmo show at TDS. A new TON-like parade will make its debut. It will utilize similar puppets ( hides from mkt's wrath ) but with more floats. All this will attract more local attention, and will make regular visitors stay longer at Epcot.

You do realize that your proposed plan has two major flaws...

First - You're spending TONS of money for all the changes and additions in ONE park.

Second - Your targeted market has shrunk massively

End result - No executive would green light it because the ROI would be negligible if any due to the lack of "touched" consumers and the massive costs of implementation.

 

[imagineer boy]

First - You're spending TONS of money for all the changes and additions in ONE park.

Its not like it would've all been done at once. The rehabs would've been done in the few years before the anniversary similar to what DL did before the 50th. And the new rides would've started construction a year or so in advance and be ready to open in time for the anniversary. They're not really that ambitious as they sound, they're just done over a long time span.

Second - Your targeted market has shrunk massively

Care to exand on that? I think anyone both Disney fanatics and regular guests would enjoy these changes. The rehabs of the classic rides would not only make the Disney purists happy, but it would also bring in more crowds than ever for them because they're so fresh and new from their rehabs. Remember, a good refurb of the tired tiki room show in DL launched it into one of the most popular rides in the park. The new rides, parade, and fireworks show would seal the envelope and make Epcot the most popular park in WDW.

 

[speck76]

Alrighty, I've thought this out and here's what I'd do if I were in Disney's marketing department:

Let's just say that the YOAMD promotion never happened.

Instead, the focus would center on Epcot's 25th anniversary. This celebration would be like Epcot's F+G, and F+W festivals except longer, and on a grander scale. It wouldn't be a huge world-wide marketing campain ( that would be overdoing it. ) but more of a special celebration personal to WDW. Commercial advertisment for WDW would be the same as usual, but with a special note at the end saying "During your stay, come join Epcot's 25th anniversary with exciting new shows, parades, rides and excitement!" Resort wide merchandise includes hats, shirts, plush toys, pins, and more.

As for Epcot its self, all of the buildings will recieve fresh coats of paint. The wand will be removed and all of the classic Epcot attractions recieve huge rehabs. These include SSE ( new animatronics, effects, and overall experience enhancement ), UOE ( new movie, new animatronics, special effects, and possibly extended dinosaur segment ), JII ( do I need to explain? ), major enhancements to Innoventions, and Living with the Land. World Showcase would recieve two new rides. A river raft ride at Canada ( WITH NO Brother Bear themeing ), and a dark ride in the germany pavillion. Japan would revieve an artsy martial arts broadway-type show. ( think Lion King without musical numbers ) Maelstrom and El Rio Del Tiemp will recieve much needed updates. There will also be a new Illuminations show which incorperates new firework effects, lasers, reuse of the earth globe, fire effects, and the new awesome foutain effects seen in the BraviSEAmo show at TDS. A new TON-like parade will make its debut. It will utilize similar puppets ( hides from mkt's wrath ) but with more floats. All this will attract more local attention, and will make regular visitors stay longer at Epcot.

And from this the world can see that you are 17....while many other people work long and hard to figure out what people really want, and what really drives people to the parks.

Get in touch with reality, then give your ideas....

 

[imagineer boy]

You know what? I'm sick of people putting down my thoughts and telling me "to get in touch with reality" just because I'm seventeen. People who don't realize how rude it is are the ones who need to get in touch with reality if you ask me...

 

[wannab@dis]

Its not like it would've all been done at once. The rehabs would've been done in the few years before the anniversary similar to what DL did before the 50th. And the new rides would've started construction a year or so in advance and be ready to open in time for the anniversary. They're not really that ambitious as they sound, they're just done over a long time span.

I'm sorry... I misunderstood and thought this was a replacement for YoaMD. Since HCOE is closing down and the new promotion is about to begin, it appeared you wanted everything done between the two promotions which is basically a year. Spread out over numerous years, that's fine, but you're still not taking into account the need for improvements and projects in other parks.

Care to exand on that? I think anyone both Disney fanatics and regular guests would enjoy these changes. The rehabs of the classic rides would not only make the Disney purists happy, but it would also bring in more crowds than ever for them because they're so fresh and new from their rehabs. Remember, a good refurb of the tired tiki room show in DL launched it into one of the most popular rides in the park. The new rides, parade, and fireworks show would seal the envelope and make Epcot the most popular park in WDW.

As you stated...

It wouldn't be a huge world-wide marketing campain ( that would be overdoing it. ) but more of a special celebration personal to WDW.

HCOE and YoaMD are both global marketing campaigns and the audience is basically worldwide. At minimum, it's a Euro-Asian and American campaign and is not limited to "WDW" only. Hence, you're spending TONS of investment capital with the bait of the campaign being a single property.

It's a bad move that doesn't make any sense in the real world.

 

[imagineer boy]

Spread out over numerous years, that's fine, but you're still not taking into account the need for improvements and projects in other parks.

They'll come immediately after Epcot's 25 is over. Its not like they'll never come, I know very well that MGM and AK are in need of some good improvements.

 

[mousermerf]

A small update...

There's already "dischord" amoung the more normal folks then us uber-geeks. Since the rules of the contest were announced, folks on the DIS have started complaining about it.

People from Sweden can't win, and several other countries too even though WDW is a worldwide destination. People are trying to dress up to win the attention of the prize patrol - already. People think singles and adults wont win anything, only families will be awarded. People don't like the prizes in general in some cases. The general complaints tend to go on and on.

Why does this matter? The DIS community is pretty much the "base" Disney fansite, with members being about as fresh or uninitiated as possible. There are older/experienced members, but the general population is as close to Disney marketing target audience as any message board is going to get.

And they're already starting to get upset - and it doesn't even look like a 50/50 split...

 

[socalkdg]

A small update...

There's already "dischord" amoung the more normal folks then us uber-geeks. Since the rules of the contest were announced, folks on the DIS have started complaining about it.

People from Sweden can't win, and several other countries too even though WDW is a worldwide destination. People are trying to dress up to win the attention of the prize patrol - already. People think singles and adults wont win anything, only families will be awarded. People don't like the prizes in general in some cases. The general complaints tend to go on and on.

Why does this matter? The DIS community is pretty much the "base" Disney fansite, with members being about as fresh or uninitiated as possible. There are older/experienced members, but the general population is as close to Disney marketing target audience as any message board is going to get.

And they're already starting to get upset - and it doesn't even look like a 50/50 split...

The biggest thread there is "Year of a Million letdowns" with 75 posts. Only 6 were negative. The thread you were talking about was more about the rules of the contest, was less than 30 posts. With over 100,000 members, people aren't complaining to any large degree(maybe 15 people).

In the past year I went to the WDW parks 9 times and the DLR parks 25 times and didn't win a single item. The 50th celebration only brought me a great fireworks show(this was worth all the hoopla) that increased my enjoyment. This next year I'll have at least 30 chances to win something, along with my family. I'll take a golden fastpass, a hat, or a lanyard. Better than a churro.

 

[rxpeje63]

Just because they are giving out pins does not mean that they will not celebrate Epcot's 25th. rememberthey might overlap the celebrations

 

[kachow]

This Epcot stuff is so stupid. Disney isn't going to hang a worldwide promotion on Epcot. Period. It would be promotional suicide. And that's what all these complaints about YOMD really are, is offense at Epcot seeming to be slighted. Why? Because its anniversary isn't going to be marketed worldwide? There's still new attractions going up. There WILL be special celebrations at the park I'm sure. So what's your beef? I wouldn't expect them to hang a promotion on Studios or AK either. They would for MK, only because that's the anniversary for the whole resort as well.

 

[imagineer boy]

This Epcot stuff is so stupid. Disney isn't going to hang a worldwide promotion on Epcot. Period.

When did somebody say that it was going to be a world promotion?

 

[speck76]

You know what? I'm sick of people putting down my thoughts and telling me "to get in touch with reality" just because I'm seventeen. People who don't realize how rude it is are the ones who need to get in touch with reality if you ask me...

Do you actually think that you are more qualified to create a marketing campaign due to your HS marketing class and ZERO experiance working in tourism marketing than those that are in the positions and making the decisions?

Do you even think for a moment that you have factual data on guest demographics or psychographics for visitors to Orlando?

Do you think that WDW is on a mission to NOT make the most money possible, and that they are running a lame marketing campaign for the singular purpose of NOT drawing as many people as possible to the park?

 

[imagineer boy]

Do you actually think that you are more qualified to create a marketing campaign due to your HS marketing class and ZERO experiance working in tourism marketing than those that are in the positions and making the decisions?

Hey, I'm just doing the best I can with the only information I've got. My outline was SOMETHING ALONG THE LINES OF what I'd do. It might not be as radical if I really would get the chance to be in charge. So seriously, these are just ideas I've put out, not an attempt at extremely accurate diagrams. So don't take them so seriously. Its not like I'm saying "They should put me in charge right now!"

 

[wannab@dis]

Hey, I'm just doing the best I can with the only information I've got. My outline was SOMETHING ALONG THE LINES OF what I'd do. It might not be as radical if I really would get the chance to be in charge. So seriously, these are just ideas I've put out, not an attempt at extremely accurate diagrams. So don't take them so seriously. Its not like I'm saying "They should put me in charge right now!"

No offense... but you keep calling the Year of a Million Dreams a scam and saying that it's pathetic. You then provide your own ideas. That's fine, but be ready for the same criticism of your ideas that you have provided for YoaMD. :wave:

 

[JimboJones123]

Boy, I hate that it took 16 pages before this thread got GOOD! Keep going everybody!

I just can't belive Merf tried to start a hate for WDW because they were doing stuff to be nice to guests? It's like Bizzaro WDW fans in this thread. "Please don't give me extra perks!"

Whatever happens, WDW will be sure to make plenty of Mugs, Hats and Polos that have the golf ball and a chicken scratch 25 written across. Don't worry. And all you Epcot 25 supercrushers and buy them all up and make Disney more money. You do know they would only be celebrating this so they can sell those Mugs, Hats and Polos right?

I'm sure 90% of guests go for MK. The rest of the parks are just extra. If there were only one park, MK would me my pick. Sure I'd be sad to see the rest go, but they aren't why I go. I bet 30%+ of guests don't even care if they go to Epcot or not.

They will sell the stuff. They will promote it once you get on site. Besides that, why do more?

They don't kill themselves to promote the xmas or halloween parties, but they bumped up the number of dates for each by 50% this year. They also started each 2 weeks earlier. They actually make money off those too. They don't get the big event promtion for a year either. Why should Epcot 25?

In closing, keep yelling at eachother. See you Monday. I'm going to play with my kids at the park.

11 more days! See you then WDW!

 

[JimboJones123]

PS, Damn you Nemo for having AP previews 5 days after I leave. Damn you to Hell. May you be eaten on a plate at Coral Reef.

 

[Wilt Dasney]

Boy, I hate that it took 16 pages before this thread got GOOD! Keep going everybody!

I just can't belive Merf tried to start a hate for WDW because they were doing stuff to be nice to guests? It's like Bizzaro WDW fans in this thread. "Please don't give me extra perks!"

Whatever happens, WDW will be sure to make plenty of Mugs, Hats and Polos that have the golf ball and a chicken scratch 25 written across. Don't worry. And all you Epcot 25 supercrushers and buy them all up and make Disney more money. You do know they would only be celebrating this so they can sell those Mugs, Hats and Polos right?

I'm sure 90% of guests go for MK. The rest of the parks are just extra. If there were only one park, MK would me my pick. Sure I'd be sad to see the rest go, but they aren't why I go. I bet 30%+ of guests don't even care if they go to Epcot or not.

They will sell the stuff. They will promote it once you get on site. Besides that, why do more?

They don't kill themselves to promote the xmas or halloween parties, but they bumped up the number of dates for each by 50% this year. They also started each 2 weeks earlier. They actually make money off those too. They don't get the big event promtion for a year either. Why should Epcot 25?

In closing, keep yelling at eachother. See you Monday. I'm going to play with my kids at the park.

11 more days! See you then WDW!

I don't have anything to add other than to agree with pretty much everything you said and say that this post is hilarious. :lol:

 

[Astronaut Jones]

Am I alone in thinking this whole thing is not a big deal at all. How has this thread lasted 18 pages?