All Things WOM

Presentation:
Disney: Lessons Learned Using Social Media

Presenter said:
Duncan Wardle, Vice President, Global Public Relation at Disney, stressed the importance of marketing WITH consumers and not AT consumers. He explained how in today’s wired world the old thinking of impressions doesn’t compare with the new thinking of engagement. Duncan said, marketing departments of future should cease to be called marketing departments and instead, be called “Engagement Departments.”

Duncan didn’t stop there, he went further by declaring, “Brands who do not change from marketing to engaging will soon become nostalgia brands.”

To prove his points, Duncan walked attendees through two case studies: Disney Dream Job and Walt Disney World’s Moms Panel.

The Disney Dream Job program asked people to upload a video audition for their dream job at a Disney theme park. The response was overwhelming with Disney sifting through thousands of videos to post the five finalists online where millions of people voted for the winner. Duncan talked about how this program not only promoted the adoration people have for Disney, it also served as a highly successful employee recruitment campaign.

The Disney World Mom’s Panel was a program seeking to find Moms to share their knowledge and passion for Disney World family vacations with other Moms. The response was again overwhelming, with over 40,000 applicants for a 12-person panel.

Because the response was so overwhelming, Disney created an off-shoot panel, Mickey Moms Club, to capture even more advice from a customer perspective on how Disney can better engage with current and new customers.

By using social media to engage with customers, Disney has access to a focus group of its most important customer base, the decision-maker in the family … Mom.

Audience tweeted:
The engagement angle resonated with @mvellandi who tweeted, “Collaboration, co-creation, dialogue, *Partnership*.” @leslieforde continued the sentiment but linked it to results, “Biggest learning from Dream Job campaign, brought Disney vacation into consideration set via engagement.”

Both @spikejones and @jbell99 were impressed with how Disney gave up control of their brand to better engage with their fans. Spike wrote, “Hardest thing for Disney to do is to give up control. But Disney Mom’s Panel is not censored.” John tweeted, “I love that Disney allowed the moms in the Mickey Moms club to choose their name and logo – that is really a big move for the brand.”

@leslieforde chimed in with a comment about Disney using online engagement to foster offline engagement, “Invited 1k moms to host parties at home, number of moms, parties & attendees far exceeded plan.”

WOMMA says:
Disney understands new customers are going to look like and behave like current customers. So the more you know about your current customers and the more you engage with them, the more a brand will be able to appeal to new customers.