The second general session of Day 2 featured Duncan Wardle, Vice President, Global PR Integration & WDW PR, Disney Destinations talking about some recent campaigns that Disney has conducted.
Duncan started his presentation with a quick review of the changing media landscape and how the digitization of content is driving consumer choice. Mobile is another huge force, along with media snacking and social networking. All these things point to more power for consumers.
Balance all of these changes with authenticity, that is what consumers want/expect from brands. Since October this has come to the front with the recent financial crisis. People don't trust brands.
Brands talk about engagement, but what is it really? Duncan believes that the brands that will succeed will be those that work with their consumers to build products and services together. It's the standard role of talking with not talking to.
Duncan then moved into a few case studies from the past few years. First up was the Disney Dream Jobs program. Disney partnered with CareerBuilder.com to allow consumers to upload a video to apply for a 'dream' job.
For Disney it was a totally new arena. They had no idea how many videos they would receive and what the videos would could contain. The big step was of course letting go.
Disney was overwhelmed with the number of video applications they received. Duncan and the team watched all of them, eventually narrowing it down to five finalists. The finalists were posted online and consumers were allowed to vote, resulting in millions of votes. The finalists built their own marketing campaigns, driving even more traffic to the campaign. A side benefit was the number of regular job applications that Disney received. Because of this, it was the most successful recruitment effort to date.
The next project was the Walt Disney World Mom's Panel. They launched a search for some of the most passionate Disney moms. Once again the response overwhelming. They received 10,000 applications over the weekend, but turned away over 30,000 applicants. That was the one major mistake they made.
As the program evolved, the internal issue was once again giving up control of the marketing messaging. But the moms are an amazing resource. They currently can't handle the volume of questions they receive, but that's a good problem to have.
The mom's panel has helped them overcome the two largest barriers they've faced, affordability and age. That is, what is the appropriate age for a child to first visit the theme parks. The honest, open advice of the mom's helped break down this barrier.
The women that did not make the Mom's Panel became part of the Mickey Moms Club. One major step was allowing the club to select their own logo. Once again, for Disney to allow somebody outside the brand to do design and select a logo was a huge leap of faith. But, it worked.
Their work with the moms made them look at how they consume media. To help promote the new What Will You Celebrate? campaign they created a viral video campaign. The program allows consumers to create a uniquely branded video to 'celebrate' an event such as a birthday or an anniversary. These videos can then be sent to friends and relatives. This builds the standard pass-along/viral effect, spreading the video even more.
The videos has had an 85% click-thru rate and paid for itself in just over 18 hours from launch and has gone on to blow past all expectations for views and revenue.
What are Duncan's take-away questions:
Reach: How will you reach new consumers?
Control: How do you balance letting go?
Advocates: How will you leverage your biggest asset?
Content: How will content be shared?
Measurement: Is it impressions or engagement?
Success: What will success look like?
(Note: Disney is a client)
