VMK Marketing Check-up

[lovethattink]

It's been a little over a year since the vmk magic started. How successful has the marketing of vmk been in your life?

VMK persuaded me to do these:
I know we have stayed on property more than six different stays. Made countless day and/or few hour trips to MK to ride Buzz and buy pictures for wanted posters. I can't tell you how many boxes of Gobstoppers, cotton candy, or Goofy's Chewy Sprees we've purchased for penny presses. Not to mention how much $'s were spent to buy food, snacks, and souvenEARS. Last month we went to BB 3 times and TL twice because of looking at those pics of the parks in vmk. When we bought pins, we did it at the Frontierland pin shop instead of the other pin stations for the virtual pin.

VMK did not persuade me to do these:
We did not book a trip to DLR. Although the Stitch hat really made us think about the possibility. We did not buy a shirt at Sir Mickey's for a virtual shirt. If the vmk card had been offered at WOD we would have bought a shirt since we get the 10% off there with AP or Disney Visa.


What I'd like to see vmk offer:
1. Packs of VMK trading/code cards sold outside of Disney. (Like baseball cards.
2. (I've hinted to this before, I'll hint again.) VMK screen paint shirts at the screen painting shop in front of guest services at DTD at WDW.
3. Virtual prizes at other WDW parks. (The Safari quest was the closest to this.)
4. I like to see vmk central get a make over.
5. I'd like to see vmk merchandise sold at the parks. Maybe a shirt like we can buy for our character in vmk, a key chain, some other kind of vmk trinket.

Edited to add:
If it wasn't for vmk, we would not have gone to MK much at all. DS(12) thought he was too "old" for MK and was becoming bored with it. Thanks to vmk we have had many magical days in the MK!

 

[Fran98765]

I don't know that VMK has made us spend any extra money yet. We live away from Florida and visited during January. We would have gone with or without VMK. We did buy 3 hats but 2 were gifts and we were planning to buy them anyway, although we did go and get VMK cards for them (bought them at WoD). We didn't buy any ride photos or candy or pins or Tshirts at those specific stores. Buzz was also in rehab while we were there and we had issues with Splash baby swap so we missed seeing that photo. We are going again in Sept/Oct, inspired by free dining. We may buy another hat for DH, but VMK won't influence that purchase. I may, however, buy candy and a pin in FL to get those VMK cards. I will seriously consider the ride photo too, if they look pretty good. We usually buy at least one pin during a trip, so that won't make me spend extra money, but I will buy it at the VMK location. Because of VMK I may spend money on candy, which is something we never do. Then again, I just starting thinking, maybe no candy... we are going to MNSSHP and will have plenty of "free" candy.

So, all in all, no, VMK has not caused my family to spend extra money at WDW. We did get VMK cards for the quests on the Jan trip and plan to do so again on the next trip.

 

[ElectricLime]

I'm disappointed that I can't buy any VMK merchandise at the parks - like maybe a pin or a hat!

 

[Funniebunny]

If I lived closer I would definately visit more. One idea that I think would be great would to be able to build your own VMK character toy. Like build a bear you would have the basic boy/girl and then select the hair and clothes etc.

 

[aeryn]

If I lived closer I would definately visit more. One idea that I think would be great would to be able to build your own VMK character toy. Like build a bear you would have the basic boy/girl and then select the hair and clothes etc.

omg. Emma!!! That's perfect. I already have the Mr. Potato pieces you can get there... I would LOVE to build a little DisAeryn...

 

[Mcat]

I would love to make a little Mcat!My dad would probely think i was crazy lol

 

[Maleficent2]

If I lived closer I would definately visit more. One idea that I think would be great would to be able to build your own VMK character toy. Like build a bear you would have the basic boy/girl and then select the hair and clothes etc.

Great Thread Tink!

FB Love this idea of the BuildaVMKer how cool is that! Sign me up and with all the clothes and GREEN FLIPS!!!!!

WOOT I have to have this! Man the money making op DISNEY is missing the boat here.

Why not VMK merchanise like t-shirts, pins, hats, trading card packs and buildaVMKers!

Disney so needs to hire a few of us for marketing consultations!

 

[milkabum]

I would love to see dolls, like Build-a-bears be sold

 

[VMK_KrazyLuke]

As I live in Ohio and do not get to go to Disney much something else that would be cool is getting VMK Items from just the Disney Stores all around. We have a Disney Store at a mall near us and it's always cool to go in there, and it'd be even better to have merchandise there for VMK things. (Also help advertise)

 

[tinkattitude!]

make a mini SnowSally, maybe we could use those instead of flats then LOL

 

[4fosterkids]

Love the thread Tink! Woot
Well lets start off that I would not have typed Woot if it were not for VMK......but thats a whole other story. One that my kids think is really funny!

I have always wanted VMK card packs (like sports cards) with special edition insert cards or something! Can you imagine opening a card pack and getting a cool inferno code or green flip card! That would be awesome. The Disney stores have charactor/park card packs in their stores right now, I saw them a few weeks ago, so that should not be a foreign concept to Disney. VMK pins or other souvie's would be fun too. I'm thinking they have to take some time to be sure VMK was a hit, which of course in our minds it is, and hopefully we will see more new wishes coming true.

We have purchased golden ears and hats, pins, lollipops and stupid magic tricks in order to get cards. Hats and pins we would have bought regardless, so we just made sure we bought them at the right store to get the cards.

The quests have taken us all over the parks looking for fun things. Even though the answers are posted, it was always a fun family event the first time. You see things you normally would not even pay attention to. We go to the parks all the time anyway, but I definitely made extra trips to meet up with other vmker's and friends....usually requiring a drink, meal or popcorn here or there, so they get a little extra money out of me every time.

 

[Someybody]

What I'd like to see vmk offer:
1. Packs of VMK trading/code cards sold outside of Disney. (Like baseball cards.
2. (I've hinted to this before, I'll hint again.) VMK screen paint shirts at the screen painting shop in front of guest services at DTD at WDW.
3. Virtual prizes at other WDW parks. (The Safari quest was the closest to this.)
4. I like to see vmk central get a make over.
5. I'd like to see vmk merchandise sold at the parks. Maybe a shirt like we can buy for our character in vmk, a key chain, some other kind of vmk trinket.

For #1, I can agree
#2, You can already get a shirt Here
#3, I can also agree on
#4 The DLR one does need one, I don't think the WDW one needs it.
You can already but stuff for #5. DLR has 5 things (check players guide. Mal needs to update. No longer selling gold ears) I don't know about WDW

 

[LisaInNc]

I normally go to Disney any time I can so VMK has not changed that. I have bought a ride photo just to get the wanted poster and we always only buy candy at the shop in Frontierland.

I would like to see more in park cards for purchases.

I would LOVE trading card packs for VMK. I was so into them when I was a kid anyone remember Wacky Packs, well I found some at the Party Store the other day. I went nuts!

The only other thing that it VMK influenced was a trip to DLR (we had to cancel as I sold and bought a house when I would have benn in DLR) I booked it through the trave site when I would have just done everything myself.

I agree that Disney is missing a marketing opportunity, they could have even MORE of my money if they just tried

 

[Maleficent2]

For #1, I can agree
#2, You can already get a shirt Here
#3, I can also agree on
#4 The DLR one does need one, I don't think the WDW one needs it.
You can already but stuff for #5. DLR has 5 things (check players guide. Mal needs to update. No longer selling gold ears) I don't know about WDW

Mal does not lol

WDW still giving ears card and if DLR isn't right now they should be as soon as new cards received.

 

[silvrstrfx]

Well VMK's marketing has worked on me... I had neither interest nor desire in Disney or going back to a Disney park until I started playing VMK! I'm going on my first trip since I was SIX at the end of this month Without VMK I probably wouldn't have gone again until I had my own kids. And I booked my package through Disney in order to get the Stitch promotion (even though I would have saved a lot more money doing it myself separately!) I'm also dragging two of my friends with me (one who likes Disney but isn't crazy about it, and one who isn't into Disney at all but I'm making him go ) But see, us crazy players don't go alone! We make our Disney-hating friends come, too, and spend money there!

I'd like to see some more away-from-park promotions, even though I know the main goal of VMK is to make you go to the parks. But seriously, we can't all afford to go several times a year or even every year. There's still money to be made off of us I'd buy vmk cards from the Disney store for sure. Having codes in dvds is a great idea that they've already used. While I chuckle at the thought of having my own Build-a-VMK-character, I kind of question whether I should be going that far lol (my friends are going to kill me for bringing flats on our Disney trip as is)

 

[Maleficent2]

Like to expand on FunnyBunny idea...and make that Build-a-VMKer a Pal VMKer that interacts with the Rides and VMK quests like a Pal Mickey only you get codes if you use it that no one else gets


Oh this would be so cool, Yavn???? hope you all have already thought of this and are working on it as we type

Mal

 

[WDWfan36]

that would be totally neat!

 

[lovethattink]

These ideas are great! I'd so love to see some vmk merchandise in WDW soon!

 

[VirtuallyMe]

So many great ideas... and a good post too- sure hope our resident VMK staffers (those who post and those that we all know lurk here) are reading these and taking notes...

My marketing check...
I have made one trip this year and will be going again at the end of September. My dh has made three trips to the park this year. Money was spent each time and quests were done as well. We purchased candy several times on our trip always at the Frontierland Candy shop- and spent time chatting with one of the most VMK-knowledgable CM's at the pin shop- where we also made purchases. Purchased 20 sets of mickey ears- yes you read right- and we got a card for each hat- of course we were using the ears for a party but the purchase decision as tilted by the fact that we'd be getting code cards too. Got ride photos for the wanted posters on more than one occasion.

So yes I would say that Disney has made money off of our family- in addition to the things purchased for quests, we had resort stays, tickets for each trip (not an AP holder), food, snacks, and souveniers on each trip...

And I have made more than one post about missed opportunities for expanding the benefits of VMK-

1. seems the video market was seriously lacking- they could put a different code in almost every dvd they release- and I bet sales of these items would go up.
2. and what about music CD's of disney songs, soundtracks from movies, and videogames holding codes... And for that matter- what about other Disney merchandise- different toys/games- etc Disney is everywhere- add some codes to something they'd like to sell more of
3. Trading cards in packs is a given- I have mentioned before that they could even put codes for currently buyable items in there as "filler" cards and have garunteed rare item in each and have some special in the pack cards only to collect that are much rarer and only available in card packages. I would also not include any other park quest cards in these packages- no since in diluting those out- but I could see some Beta items re-released as the special rare cards in these packages.
4. VMK related merchandise- I know they have the horrible shirts available on the one website- but the everest stuff featured there and "cute or boot" isn't all that appealing- having different characters doing inferno, a line of people doing the Mickey Dance, pirates, haunted mansion, jungle cruise and fireworks- would all appeal to different players. Pins -characters, items, or representing the mini games would be nice. I like the doll idea- and I've heard of the plastic dolls that you can pick a face, hair, skin tone etc and have them put together rapidly- that would all be neat.
5. Cards in more locations- frankly any place a ride photo is sold could easily support different cards- and get us all park hopping and buying loads more photos. And how about putting some in different stores in the different parks- they could do a "theme" in each park with cards that had to be obtained by purchasing something- and how about "food" cards with table service meals- Quests available from other parks- they could do the "stamp" thing like they did at animal kingdom and the thrill seeker quest or even have a place to turn in quests at other parks- maybe in another gift shop- where only those quests could be collected. How about cards given for participating in different tours or classes- those could almost be like a full quest- and hey- they'd have to get us paying to take the tours- I know many would pay to do those tours if they got some good cards out of it all.

Ok- I don't really think I've come up with original ideas here but did spend some time expanding on my previous ideas and the ideas of others...

I do hope someone is listening...

 

[aeryn]

LOL How could Disney NOT be listening? We are giving them all sorts of ways for us to throw our money at them

Has VMK affected my Disney visits? Well, yes and no I mean, now that I live less than an hour from my Mouse, I go all the time. However, I spend WAY more time at the MK than I did and wonder of all wonders, in addition to Everest, it has gotten me to go back to Animal Kingdom, which is a great park, but too hot for 8 months out of the year. Now, I do spend more than I would have since I need to buy all the "stuff" to get the cards. I also pop up a little more frequently than I would have.

Like others have mentioned, I would *LOVE* to find VMK merchandise at the park. Shirts for adults (and ones that us bigger kids could wear ), trading cards, lanyards for the *cough*PINS*cough* that we should be seeing... I just hope we'll be seeing quality stuff soon. Don't rush any junk to the market.