Walt Disney World: More than just a castle

[Walt Disney1955]

Another thing to think about. My dad went to Disney with his parents in 1973 and a buddy of his. He was 28. My grandparents were in their 60s. My dad's buddy was probably 30. Their trip to Florida wasn't solely about Disney but they did spend a day in the Magic Kingdom. They loved it. My grandparents loved it. It made such an impact on my dad that when he had his own children he took us there the first chance he got in 1991 and that spilled over to me loving the place. Now, somehow, someway Disney lured a retired couple with two grown male adults to their park. How did they do it? Well here was a Disney ad in 1971. Any different than today when it comes to who they are marketing it towards? I mean, how does this ad look like anything but a fairytale?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wTcH49N-8A

 

[cslafferty]

No one has mentioned the fact that the castle icon goes back to Walt himself. The castle with the fireworks, shooting star, and Tinkerbell were all part of what he himself created - Disneyland and The Wonderful World of Disney TV show. I think the castle icon is as much of a symbol of Disney as the Mickey sillouette. I do agree, though, that they could use more footage from all of the parks in their advertising.

 

[invader]

I don't know about anyone else, but this just sets me off. They advertise Disney World, but show Disneyland's Mad Tea Party....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x03u2gOT08

 

[TP2000]

I don't know about anyone else, but this just sets me off. They advertise Disney World, but show Disneyland's Mad Tea Party....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x03u2gOT08

The entire theme park segment of that WDW commercial is filmed at Disneyland. Even the CM's are wearing Disneyland-specific uniforms in the commercial.

It's Disneyland's outdoor Mad Tea Party ride they are shown riding.

The waitress serving the family lunch is wearing a Blue Bayou waitress uniform from New Orleans Square.

And the commercial family are being served their lunch on the small patio near the Casey Jr. Circus Train ride, between the Dumbo ride and the Carousel in Disneyland's Fantasyland. Except the background has been computer altered to remove the view of the Matterhorn you would see from that patio, and the Matterhorn has been replaced with WDW's Cinderella Castle.

The WDW commercial lunch was filmed up on the terrace with the blue patio umbrellas in this Disneyland picture, looking between Dumbo and the Carousel towards Matterhorn.

In this case, the WDW Castle edited in nicely over the Matterhorn and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride show building that would have otherwise been seen in the background of this commercial during the patio lunch. This is the view that would have been behind the patio lunch view without computer editing.

Obviously, the "One Disney" marketing team is filming these commercials solely at Disneyland, and then swapping in CGI versions of WDW's Castle to make it a WDW commercial. Probably a smart cost saving move, since only complete Disney freaks like me would be able to pick up on it. :lol:

 

[lazyboy97o]

No one has mentioned the fact that the castle icon goes back to Walt himself. The castle with the fireworks, shooting star, and Tinkerbell were all part of what he himself created - Disneyland and The Wonderful World of Disney TV show. I think the castle icon is as much of a symbol of Disney as the Mickey sillouette. I do agree, though, that they could use more footage from all of the parks in their advertising.

Walt's focus in regards to Disney World was not the Magic Kingdom.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Anyway… thoughts?

My main thought is that I couldn't agree more.

Disney, or WDW, is so much more than a castle and princesses. In particular, as concerns WDW, why is the flagship park, indeed, the heart of everything Disney set out to do in Florida, not promoted more: EPCOT?

Perhaps it is little wonder that guests surveys show that what guests want is 'celeb characters celeb characters celeb characters all of time'. This is what they have been led to believe they;ll find, this is what they expect, and this is what they came to see.
Make EPCOT Center the focus of promotion and guests will answer they want to see 'unique, inspirational family experiences about forces that shape our world'.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

See that arc that forms around the castle? It is almost to scale to SSE. So why not let that pixie-dust take on the shape of SSE's triangles? It would be such a nice logo, would make the Disney brand so much more encompassing. More mature, more orientated towards all of the family, and slightly more 'sophisticated'.

 

[yensid67]

I think that most folks coming to WDW for the very first time, want to see the Castle first. I've a friend that has never been. She's 50 and says, if she ever gets to come, the first thing she wants to see is the castle and ride Dumbo. It's all those things they've seen on tv or heard about that their so anxious to experience. Someone who's never been might not even know what the Tree of Life is or Spaceship Earth.

OK Here is my take on the situation...
Have you thought that Disney wants to target the young ones with Magic Kingdom sights and sounds since they are so young and as they grow they can graduate to the other parks. Epcot would not be a good park for a 4 year old, they would not understand what the park was all about. So going to Epcot when they are older is the best option. The same goes for AK and DHS.
But I DO agree that the other parks should be shown some love in marketing!

 

[Walt Disney1955]

See that arc that forms around the castle? It is almost to scale to SSE. So why not let that pixie-dust take on the shape of SSE's triangles? It would be such a nice logo, would make the Disney brand so much more encompassing. More mature, more orientated towards all of the family, and slightly more 'sophisticated'.

How much more sophisticated do you want that symbol to be? I think it's beautiful personally. Look, WDW is huge. If Disney was going to promote everything in their park the commercials would last 5 minutes. You have a 30 second window to garner excitement. Magic Kingdom does that just fine. All they need to do is get adult guests to the place and they'll love it. They'll love Epcot, Animal Kingdom, etc. But the castle is familiar to them, just like Mickey. This is brilliant marketing, I think its safe to say it works.

And I wouldn't worry about Epcot, what is it the 4th or 5th most visited park in the world behind MK, Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland? Considering Epcot dwarfs the attendance of Universal I think it does pretty good.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I'm on the fence about this... The castle and Dumbo obviously target their key demographic audience: kids. But I will say that as a 29 year old female with zero children, I still visit Disney multiple times a year. I have been going since I was 6 months old. I can't even count how many friends I have that say when I tell them I'm going to Disney "Isn't that for kids?" They've never been before and all they see in the commercials are kids running up and hugging Mickey Mouse, or flying elephants or ballons and Cinderella Castle. I can see why people who have never been see these commercials and think it's just for kids. I also have a co-worker of mine who just recently went to Florida. I asked her what she was going to do when she was down there and she said "We're going to spend one day at Disney" I asked her which park and she said "Disney World" she thought the Magic Kingdom was Disney World and all the other parks were just named differently. She didn't understand that all the parks were Disney World, together.

I'd love to see some different shots of the parks showcased in their commercials. they're leaving out so much great stuff. How are you going to convince a foodie that there is some great dining to be had in the world by showing Snow White skipping with a small girl? There's an easy answer... Youre not. I think they are doing it pretty much right by targeting to children but to expand it just that much more, they couldspotlight other things to bring in the potential visitor who might never have given a second though to a "kids place" Just IMHO...

 

[Communicore]

I have sort off an off topic, did that EPCOT Center ad with Mickey on top of SSE air nationwide or just here? That was an awesome ad!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I have sort off an off topic, did that EPCOT Center ad with Mickey on top of SSE air nationwide or just here? That was an awesome ad!

I LOVED that ad!!

 

[MKCP 1985]

In the early years of the resort there was only the Magic Kingdom and the center of that was the castle.

. . . and the marketing design at the parking lot entrance was a big "D" and mouse ears around a globe - no castle! :lol:

Sort of like what you see in this picture, only without the 4 or Mickey Mouse:

(in other words, lazyboy97o 's avatar! :lol: )

 

[mr_braver23]

In all the posts so far no one has mentioned the precise reason, as far as I am concerned, that Disney does this. It is simple to me. Yeah those commercials emphasize the Castle and a bunch of young kids who are being told the news they are going to WDW (which is me by the way at 31 years old and a WDW veteran). But here's the thing, I have been mocked in a way by non-believers that have never been there. Why? Because they are too cool to go there and too cool to admit they are even curious about the place. The mocking is a defense mechanism.

So what happens when these haters have kids? They figure they can take a family of 4 or 5 to Disney World "for the kids". The thing they don't realize is once they are there the place is huge and you never want to leave, even as an adult. The kids lured them there and the adults probably like it even more. You see Disney knows this, they know that if they can persuade the kids to go they will tell their parents about it and the parents will begrudgingly take them. But once they are there the parents will fall in love with it. Then those kids will grow up loving the parks and take THEIR kids. It is a fool proof system and Disney is brilliant by marketing it to children. That way the parks will be heavily attended for................56 years and counting now?

A woman I work with is going to WDW with her girls and husband and she's never been. Her reasoning is "the girls will like it". I just chuckled and figured "another one bites the dust." And I'm sure Disney does too.

Very good point!!

By the way.......I was that "the kids would love it" person. Hooked ever since!!