Have you shown your Disney Side? Did you visit Walt Disney World at all during the Year of a Million Dreams? Or perhaps you were there for the Millennium Celebration?
From the late 1990s on, Disney has instituted a series of marketing promotions geared towards enticing certain kinds of guests to visit their theme parks. You might be wondering what exactly I mean by certain kinds of guests – after all Walt Disney World is a business, wouldn’t the target audience for this kind of product simply be anyone who wants to go on vacation? It’s actually a little bit more complicated than that.
Strange beginnings
Image: Disney
When Walt Disney World opened in 1971, much of the marketing for the resort was based off descriptions of a grander, larger version of Disneyland—which is what the company expected Florida to become before and in the years immediately following the park’s opening.
The earliest known advertisement for Walt Disney World that guests can easily find and look back on today is a television commercial sponsored by the now defunct Eastern Airlines. The ad, which quite frankly can come across as a bit terrifying to modern audiences shows a young girl running through a forest where encounters many Disney characters who prove to be completely useless, and in some instances downright rude during her search for the Magic Kingdom. Eventually, she finds the Magic Kingdom, as explained by an ominous narrator who explains that you can get to the Magic Kingdom via Eastern Airlines.
While the entire concept of this commercial might seem downright strange to viewers today, at its core this ad is simply suggesting that the Magic Kingdom is a place you should go to, presumably either because you have children or because you are looking to escape the “real world,” both themes which have always been present in the marketing for Disneyland.
Throughout the 1970s, Walt Disney World grew in popularity, and the company’s marketing plans for the resort continued to focus on getting the whole family together for a vacation. “The Vacation Kingdom of the World,” as Walt Disney World became known through some marketing tactics, was also exemplified as the best destination for families, in advertisements that pushed a Disney vacation into American living rooms as a sort of rite of passage.
Grown-ups are part of the family too
Image: Disney
As the 1980s rolled around, Disney’s marketing techniques began to narrow down more of a somewhat unexpected target audience: adults. Since the opening of Disneyland, Disney theme parks had been primarily marketed to guests using two specific kinds of guest who would likely end up visiting the park: One of these was parents who wanted to make their children happy. This group is evidenced by the Disney commercials and print advertisements you’ve probably seen that focus very heavily on a child meeting Mickey, or have used specific words or phrases as if the narrator is speaking to the parents about taking their children to the park. The other typical Disney demographic is the family unit, which although has really taken over as the target audience in recent years has always been a huge part of promoting the theme parks.
By the 1980s however, adults were being targeted regardless of whether or not they had children, and even in some cases because they had no children (or at least they would not be bringing the kids with them on vacation). After all, “Adults are just grown up kids anyway,” as Walt once said, right?
Image: DisneyInterestingly enough however, marketing promotions during this time period did not focus on Walt’s idea of everyone being able to act like a kid while visiting his park. Instead, the 1980s were heavily focused on promoting Disney’s bars and nightlife, resort recreation, spas, and fine dining experiences… all things adults would enjoy doing without their kids.
In fact, a number of promotions distributed in the 1980s actually focused on surprising the viewer in terms of how many non-Magic Kingdom things there were to do in Walt Disney World. Rather than following the traditional route and discussing how great it would be to get the whole family together in the Magic Kingdom, and make sure the kids meet Mickey Mouse, these promotions focused heavily on adults getting away from it all, including the kids, and potentially even including the Magic Kingdom.
Image: Disney
In 1982 EPCOT Center brought a wealth of new adult-forward activities to the park that was generally known for being a place to take children. With World Showcase, that topped anywhere else at the resort in terms of dining (and drinking) and Future World with many of the attractions simply going over young childrens’ heads, EPCOT Center was the perfect addition to the resort for adults. Of course, one would imagine that Disney would have preferred EPCOT Center to have been just as much of a hit with the kids as with the adults, but having EPCOT Center open certainly did help push forward all of the adult centric marketing we now remember as part of the 1980s.
The Nifty 90s
The 1990s were an interesting time for the Walt Disney World Resort. With Disney-MGM Studios making its debut, so much of the resort’s advertising featured characters and stories that could be found in this park. While there were still no set in stone advertising campaigns like we have today, it was during the ’90s that we would begin to see some serious trends and rebranding throughout the resort as a whole in addition to its marketing techniques.
Image: Brittany DiCologero
However, the most important shift here was the turn back to families as the target audience for Walt Disney World. View any ad put out by Disney for the theme parks in the 90s, and you’ll likely come across a quick story featuring a family going to the parks together, with the parents ecstatic seeing how happy the children are, and more than likely with at least the kids if not the whole family meeting Mickey Mouse. The Disney Renaissance, or the sort of rebirth that the company’s animated film division experienced in the ’90s, definitely helped lay the groundwork for the types of guests who would be looking into visiting the parks during this time. To put it lightly, kids who grew up in the 90s would grow up with Disney in a whole new and exciting way, and the marketing department was very keenly aware of this.
However, beginning at the turn of the millenium, Disney began offering a number of specific marketing campaigns that you might remember by name…
The Millennium Celebration
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The Millennium Celebration, which began in 1999 obviously focused on the upcoming Millennium, and followed the usual 90s style of all members of the family enjoying the parks together. The events for the celebration were culminated in Epcot, and many of the ads for the years 1999 to 2000 feature children reveling in World Showcase. Whether or not kids actually enjoyed this part of the park as much as the ads made them out to is of course up for debate, however it is definitely worth noting the shift in the target audience here. (And in case you’re unaware, that eyesore —I mean, wand and Mickey hand that topped Spaceship Earth were actually added during this celebration and were originally meant to be temporary…)
The Millennium Celebration marked the first time that new entertainment offerings were added to existing areas of the park to promote specific events. During this time, a space in Epcot known as the Millennium Village, now World Showcase and only used for special events, was open to guests visiting different expos, and the evening Tapestry of Nations parade could be seen from all around World Showcase, Of course, there was that wand that was added to Spaceship Earth as well, but we don’t need to talk about that…
Image: DisneyWith the early 2000s around the corner, it would be some time before guests would see another specific promotion active within the theme park world. While we may never know for sure why the Millennium Celebration came and went without being followed by another event for the next six years, we can speculate a couple of reasons: One potential reason for this is that the company was simply testing out the yearly promotion idea, and nothing was set in stone yet. While the Millennium Celebration was the first real promotional event at the parks, there had been celebrations in the past for park anniversaries and birthdays that were just not on the same scale.
Another, likely more plausible reason in my opinion, has to do with the decline of the tourism industry in general in the early 2000s. The economic downturn that followed 9/11 had a great impact on the travel and tourism industry across the country, and it should come as no surprise that Walt Disney World’s attendance was also impacted by this. During the early 2000s, park hours were cut, budget cuts were made all around the resort, and Disney even halted construction on a new resort near Pop Century, that would much later become the Art of Animation Resort. Though we may never know for certain what exactly accounted for the lull in Disney’s yearly promotion, the post 9/11 state of the tourism industry is likely our best guess.
Year of a Million Dreams
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The next official marketing promotion within the parks was years later in 2006: the Year of a Million Dreams. The Year of a Million Dreams was, and probably will always be one of the most fascinating periods in Disney theme park history. During this promotion, special events and entertainment were of course added to the parks, but the true highlight for guests was the possibility of being selected by a group of cast members known as the Dream Squad to fulfill a “dream,” which could range from a pair of promotion-specific Mickey ears, Dream Fastpasses, cruises, all expense paid vacations, a stay in the Cinderella Castle suite, pins and lanyards, Disney Vacation Club memberships and more.
As you might expect, the Year of a Million Dreams really set the bar high in terms of what guests would expect in the future in terms of celebratory promotions in the parks. The promotion that immediately followed the Year of a Million Dreams was known as “What Would You Celebrate?” which as the name suggests focused on asking families what kind of celebration they would have by taking a Walt Disney World vacation. The reaction from guests to this celebration was very mixed. There were guests who were simply indifferent because whatever the promotion was at the time had little to no impact on their actual vacation so they did not dwell on it, but there were also guests who either loved it or hated it.
Image: DisneyGuests who really had something special to celebrate, like engagements and family reunions, really enjoyed the concept, while some guests saw it as too obvious of a marketing ploy in a way that the Year of a Million Dreams was more discreet. The latter guests understood the Year of a Million Dreams event as an opportunity for them to gain something extra by visiting the parks, but they sometimes viewed the “What Would You Celebrate?” campaign as a quick cash grab to get people into the parks.
#ShowyourLimitedTimeMagicalMemoriesDisneySide
Image: Disney
Social media changed the landscape of Disney park promotions from about 2011 on. The first social media inspired promotion was “Let the Memories Begin!” which lasted from 2011 to 2012. The highight of this promotion was a new castle projection show, The Magic, the Memories, and You which featured hundreds of photos of guests taken in the park that day. Where the last promotion seemed to focus on getting people to visit the parks in the first place, the focus of “Let the Memories Begin” was more about enhancing the guest experience for those who were already in the park. Overall, it was a hit with guests, leading to the slightly more controversial campaign known as “Limited Time Magic.”
“Limited Time Magic,” has a ring to it that is slightly reminiscent of that feeling when your favorite Starbucks drink is only available for a limited time, but you miss the chance to try it due to your crazy work schedule. The basic concept of “Limited Time Magic” was that a different event would take place each week at the park, for that week only, hence the name. Though this promotion had good intentions it actually turned out to be quite the recipient of backlash from guests. Each time an event for an upcoming week was announced, the internet was abuzz with negative responses from guests who would not be in the parks to experience each event. While I understand the idea behind this promotion from Disney’s perspective, and I’m thankful that I got to experience one of the special events this year (the Dapper Dans singing boy band songs—it was amazing!) I can totally understand why guests would be disappointed in knowing that they’re missing some cool events that would likely never happen again.
Image: DisneyFollowing “Limited Time Magic,” was the ever popular (and still used although unofficially) #disneyside promotion. Disney Side allowed guests to tag their Disney experiences on social media showing off their Disney Side, aka the side of them that comes out while visiting a Disney park. The Disney Side promotion came fully stocked with some of the best Disney commercials in years, with ads that perfectly tied together a number of different families all experiencing the parks in their own unique ways. Some critics were still weary of Disney Side simply because they saw it as a major corporation using their customers to market their product… but isn’t that what we would all prefer? To me, I really enjoyed the Disney Side promotion because it was really cool to see the different ways people go about their Disney vacations, and having the parks be marketed through the eyes of guests was so much more authentic than seeing what a marketing committee wants you to see.
Unforgettable Happens Here
Image: DisneyThe current Walt Disney World promotion, “Unforgettable Happens Here,” may seem a bit underwhelming compared to Disney Side or the Year of a Million Dreams, however it has brought along some heartfelt advertising for the parks, and seems to be doing just fine among the fan community. Though this year’s current promotion may not be particularly memorable, it might be one of the most successful campaigns in getting across Walt Disney’s vision about the parks.
Walt Disney was motivated to create Disneyland because he wanted there to be a place where he could take his daughters and enjoy spending time with them, a place where parents and kids would be able to have fun together. Disneyland, and eventually Walt Disney World, are those places, and the “Unforgettable Happens Here,” promotion exemplifies this message to the fullest. Gone are the days of focusing in on adults golfing and sipping champagne, or kids kissing characters on the nose to signal the end of the commercial. In place of these predictable marketing aspects, we currently have a promotion that tugs at one’s heartstrings, while showing that the parks are a place for adults and kids to be together, while creating unforgettable memories that really do happen at Walt Disney World.
