"Give a Day, now Go Away!"

[k5jm]

It seemed to me that GAD-GAD was going to be the 2010 marketing strategy for the Walt Disney resort business, but with the Give a Day,Get A Day campaign now winding down 1/4 of the way into the year, what is Disney going to the rest of the year for their Marketing push?

As Corey said earlier this week, WDW had 2.8 years of a Million Dreams, and now Miss Piggy and Beaker seem to be out of the "themed promo" job. It appears that they should name the rest of 2010 "the Year of a Million PIN codes." While Bob Iger did state that Disney Parks was going to scale back discounts, it appears that Disney Parks is ramping the discounts back up to full steam.

There is a ton of cross promotion now with Pixar characters, Muppets, and now live action with the introduction of the Tron-o-rails. Pixar is everywhere in the promo material for DCL (the new info DVDs) and Disney is also ramping up the Muppets. What is going to be the theme for the rest of 2010 to draw in the crowds? Or, does Disney Corp. just ride the wave for 2010 and wait to introduce their new plan, "What will Disney Celebrate?"

I'm a little verklempt! Talk amongst yourselves..I'll give you a topic: Space Mountain, it's not space, nor a mountain...discuss!

 

[ADP]

I agree Mike. It kind of seems funny with no promotion going. I know Disney is still encouraging people to volunteer; which is wonderful, but there really isn't much to grab on to right now. Disney has kind of got us used to having something going on when visiting their parks.

I guess you could make a case for Summer Nightastic, but that is only going to last 2 months. It's not really a promotion, per se.

 

[safetymom]

I guess I am one of the few that didn't expect this promotion to last the year. They are still asking you what you will celebrate when you come to WDW.

I don't have a problem with no official promotion since they are still providing discounts. Just my opinion.

 

[k5jm]

I don't have a problem with no official promotion since they are still providing discounts. Just my opinion.

I agree, Kathy. It just appeared to me that they hinged their 14 months marketing campaign around GAD and now that promo has run its course 9 months early. I have noticed that we are being bombarded with the Toy Story Cross-Promo for the Parks on TV. I expect Tron cross-promos closer to Christmas.

 

[safetymom]

I didn't get from their promos that it would be a year long. Maybe I missed something. I did think it would take longer to get to a million.

 

[Kimberle]

Personally, I wish they'd stop the promotions all together. Have one once in a while when it's MEANINGFUL. (Like the 25th anniversary of a park, etc.). The promo's just blend to each other, people "expect" to recieve something during their vacation. They need various marketing plans, yes, but they don't need to be as extensive as the past few years....

 

[k5jm]

I agree, Kathy. It just appeared to me that they hinged their 14 months marketing campaign around GAD and now that promo has run its course 9 months early. I have noticed that we are being bombarded with the Toy Story Cross-Promo for the Parks on TV. I expect Tron cross-promos closer to Christmas.

That makes me wonder a couple of things:

1. Is there a Tron attraction in the works? This movie is going to appeal to boys 7 to 20 (really boys up to 50), and this is a market that Disney is really trying to bring back in (Marvel). This type of futuristic environment would be something that Disney Imagineering could really run with.

2. Do you think that there are going to be more Muppets type attractions as they try and promote a new Muppets Movie?

Which then leads my "stream of consciousness" thought to this, Where does Disney start putting all of the potential "park draw" characters that do not "fit in" at the current parks. You either have to reinvent the current parks OR 5th Gate. Hmmm......

 

[k5jm]

I didn't get from their promos that it would be a year long. Maybe I missed something. I did think it would take longer to get to a million.

This was from the Disney Parks blog in September of 2009:

Give a Day of Volunteer Service in 2010, Get a Day of Disney Theme Park Fun – Free

I think that was maybe a bit misleading.

 

[tinkerbell198530]

That makes me wonder a couple of things:

1. Is there a Tron attraction in the works? This movie is going to appeal to boys 7 to 20 (really boys up to 50), and this is a market that Disney is really trying to bring back in (Marvel). This type of futuristic environment would be something that Disney Imagineering could really run with.

2. Do you think that there are going to be more Muppets type attractions as they try and promote a new Muppets Movie?

Which then leads my "stream of consciousness" thought to this, Where does Disney start putting all of the potential "park draw" characters that do not "fit in" at the current parks. You either have to reinvent the current parks OR 5th Gate. Hmmm......

Am misreading something or is there going to be a new muppet movie if so what is the name of it. I am a major muppet fan

 

[k5jm]

Am misreading something or is there going to be a new muppet movie if so what is the name of it. I am a major muppet fan

wocka wocka wocka! A new Muppet Movie

 

[UrsulasShadow]

Whacka-Whacka-Whacka! A new Muppet Movie

Do you not mean "wocka wocka wocka"?

 

[tinkerbell198530]

Whacka-Whacka-Whacka! A new Muppet Movie

txs for the info

 

[k5jm]

Do you not mean "wocka wocka wocka"?

What Mindy Said!

 

[drakethib]

With all of the promo packages that are being floated around, I am surprised they are not discounting the actual park tickets. 10% off for Senior Citizens or what have you.

I know the more you stay the less you pay blah blah blah.

I guess with the packages they are trying to land lock everyone to stay on site.

 

[dizneedoll]

I didn't get from their promos that it would be a year long. Maybe I missed something. I did think it would take longer to get to a million.

I think since the previous promos have been a year (or longer in the case of the year of a million dreams) that a lot of people, myself included, just figured it would be a year. It wasn't until more info started to come out around mid-February that I learned the cut off was at a million people. I tried 3 times to volunteer and no one ever responed to my initial email. I was disappointed but now I'm think a lot of these non profits that participated were just so slammed especially those located near either WDW or DL. I live about an hour from DL so these places probably weren't equipped to deal with the demand here. Disney is still running the commercials though, I saw one last night on Disney channel. They should at least stop running the commercials.

 

[kbelle8995]

I miss the anniverseries of specific theme parks. It was enjoyable to me.

Give a day seemed so brief. I'm glad I did it early otherwise I would be out of luck

 

[doconeill]

I think a LOT of people thought it would run the year, like the Birthday promotion last year - but they were two very different promotions.

I personally thought it would last a little longer...there would be a burst at the beginning, and then things would die down to a relative trickle for a while. But I still didn't expect it to last the entire year as there had to be time for the redemptions as well, which were always pegged to end on December 15th.

Note that Give A Day is in fact still going on. It is by no means over, but they have stopped taking new registrations. Volunteer opportunities that people signed up for are still taking place, and will be for about a month and half still. And then everyone who receives a voucher still has until December 15th to use them - Disney still has to absorb that impact of it.

They could have increased the numbers if they wanted to, but the suits probably looked at it and decided they didn't want to further absorb the "cost" of another million vouchers. And there are costs, if not necessarily monetary...

I've been thinking about the numbers a bit.

Last year's Birthday promotion ran all year. It was somewhat self-limiting - only 1/365.25th of people are born on any given day (I assume there is a fairly even distribution of births ). Let's say that some percentage of potential guests schedule their trips to take advantage of it, so lets make it a round 1/350th of guests took advantage of it on any given day.

I don't have great numbers, but quick google search says that in 2007 across all 4 parks WDW had 46.9 million guests. That's 134,000 guests that took advantage of the program - 367 on any particular day.

Now this time, they are talking about one million guests. Probably based on the impact (or lack thereof) of the Birthday program, they felt they could absorb that many without significant issues. But we need to account for DLR in the numbers now, since part of that one million will go there and not WDW.

In 2007, DLR had 20.5 million guests. Assume the same percentage this year, and assume that there is equal use of GAD. Roughly 70% of the guests go to WDW. That means that 700,000 guests could take advantage of the GAD vouchers, or more than 5 TIMES that of the Birthday promotion - as many as 2,000 a day.

Of course, there will be some percentage of breakage - people who register and don't follow through, those who fail to redeem, etc. Disney has not said how they account for that stuff. They may have computed in some breakage, and donating the tickets is an option that may be implied if you complete you work and fail to redeem it yourself. So it seems that there is still a big number they have to account for.

I know we've said that things like how the Fastpass Exchange Cards don't cost money - but they do have a potential impact on the lines. That could be 1000 people getting on to Soarin' before you who otherwise wouldn't get the chance, etc.

Correction: Another thread reminded me of this...as a GAD voucher could be worth up to six FPXCs (or even more), that could be 6000 guests getting on Soarin' before you! And since they could use it three times in a row if they wanted, try 18000 riders!!! That's roughly 180 ride cycles that could be taken by GAD Fastpasses alone!

 

[jeanigor]

I miss the anniverseries of specific theme parks. It was enjoyable to me.:thumbsup:

Except for the Pepto Bismal castle.

I don't plan on redeeming my voucher for admission or fastpass. I plan on the AP pin thing. Yeah, its a knick-nack, but I like chochkies.

 

[MickeysFans]

Doconeill laid it out well. Disney is getting ripped for giving away 1,000,000 tickets? I agree, tix went fast but I will not use mine until June. They really should take off commercials, I saw two tonight on TV.
It was a GREAT idea. We plan to follow up with our organization and volunteer there again. It opened great conversations with our kids. The promo got us moving and to a different place than we have worked with in the past.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

I think Disney will ride the coattails of Harry Potter...a lot of people will come to Universal Orlando for the new rides, and many of them will also visit WDW in the process. Why spend money to attrack people that will be coming anyway?