Will Disney manage to surpass the glory of its '07 promotion? Stay tuned.
Dream on.
Faced with an uncertain, possibly stagnating economy and a one-year-marketing campaign that provided more buzz than expected, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts are bringing the "Year of a Million Dreams" promotion back for at least one sequel year.
"We've had a really good year," said Ken Potrock senior vice president of global-alliance marketing for Disney Destinations Marketing. "The Year of a Million Dreams concept, which really takes us through calendar year 2007 for the most part, had a lot of success associated with it. The guests were happy. Our cast was happy. It drove attendance, which was a great thing."
Among the new prizes to be awarded as "dreams" to Walt Disney World visitors in 2008: a private tropical-island visit; a hot-air balloon ride over Epcot; a VIP invitation to the world premiere of the High School Musical 3 theatrical movie; a chance to throw the first pitch in a Major League Baseball spring-training game; a behind-the-scenes tour of the Walt Disney Imagineering design studios; and breakfast with dozens of costumed Walt Disney characters.
Dozens of smaller prizes -- such as free meals and special "FastPass" tickets -- will be awarded to hundreds or thousands of people during the coming year. Disney says it is spending more money overall on prizes in 2008, and there will be 70 to 80 unique prizes given away , significantly more than in 2007, said Faron Kelley, Disney's Global/Walt Disney World Project development director.
Peter Yesawich, chairman of Ypartnerhip, a Central Florida travel research-and-marketing company, called Disney's ability to create and offer such exclusive experiences "masterful."
"We do a lot of this. . . . When we do things that are not easily accessible to the majority of people, we find it clearly spikes interest," Yesawich said. "I think that's what's smart about what they have done."
Disney parks have done well during the past year, reporting rising attendance, revenue and operating profit in each of the first three quarters of the 2007 fiscal year, though the company has not revealed many details.
"2007 is looking like a very good year -- not completely over, but it is possible that we'll end up with record attendance at our domestic parks, which is no easy task given the strength of our 2006," Walt Disney Co. President and Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger told an investors conference at Goldman Sachs two weeks ago.
While Iger and others have praised the effect of the "Year" campaign, they also have attributed the strong year to Disney's multiple-day ticket discounts; the "Magical Express" transportation program at Orlando International Airport; and new attractions such as Finding Nemo: The Musical show, which opened last winter.
Yesawich is confident Disney's "Year of a Million Dreams" promotion helped fuel the attendance increases. But even if it didn't, the campaign has strengthened the brand's image, drawing lots of positive publicity, he said.
Not all analysts are certain the promotion was all that important to Disney's' bottom line. The company always seems to have one big, celebratory marketing promotion or another, they note, and such campaigns often last more than a year. In this decade alone, there's been the millennial 2000 Celebration, Walt Disney's 100 Years of Magic birthday celebration, Mickey Mouse's 75th anniversary, and Disneyland's Happiest Celebration on Earth 50th anniversary.
Harold Vogel, a veteran Wall Street analyst and CEO of Vogel Capital Management, said outside factors such as gasoline prices and consumer confidence also played major roles in the successes at Disney World and Southern California's Disneyland.
"I think the campaign may be a relatively small part of it," Vogel said.
As Disney extends "Years," the big question, as for any sequel, Vogel suggested, is the one Iger alluded to when he compared 2007 with 2006 at the Goldman Sachs conference. "How do you top this year?" Vogel asked.
Potrock and Kelley think it can be done.
They said they actually underestimated the potential of "Year of a Million Dreams" when it was announced last year. The program actually was rolled out as a sub-campaign; the main campaign, "Place Where Dreams Come True," featured celebrities such as Beyonce being photographed as famous characters from Disney movies, like Alice from Alice in Wonderland.
But that main campaign was nearly swamped by the "Year of a Million Dreams." The "Year" portion of it wasn't even put out in 2006 in time for the many annual guide books and other publications, which are locked up each year in the fall. This year it was.
"Understand, when we really were launching the brand advertising, the "Place Where Dreams Come True" campaign and we put the emphasis on the ad campaign. And we didn't get out loud enough, or big enough, through the sales channels as we could have done," Potrock said. "So we said, number one, could we do it again? And knowing what we know now, could we build on it?"
Kelley said that, to build on the first year, Disney has to recapture the imaginations of its patrons.
No "dream" prize captured people's imagination more than the nightly overnight stays in Cinderella Castle, inside Disney World's Magic Kingdom theme park. In fact, the version offered at Disneyland has not drawn nearly as much interest because the suite there is outside the park and in a hotel. No matter how fancy the room, it is still just a hotel room.
"There's something special about being able to stay inside the park," Kelley said.
So Disney is building a room inside Disneyland to compare with the bed chambers inside Disney World's Cinderella Castle. The "Disneyland Dream Suite" will become available in late January.
Not just any "exclusive" Disney experience will be turned into a dream, though.
The new "Dream Suite" is being built in the same building as the legendary "Club 33" -- the posh, ultra-exclusive, almost-secret, private dinner club that has been the hospitality spot for decades for movie stars, high-powered politicans, industrialists and other dignitaries visiting Disneyland.
Club 33 is also the only place within Disneyland that serves alcoholic beverages. The club's food might be made available to Dream Suite guests -- but not actual admittance to the club, nor the drinks.
